West Yeo Farm - Page 5

Page 1 - April 2009 - Society visit to West Yeo Farm - link
Page 2 - June 2009 - Geophysical survey, Pond Meadow and garden feature - link
Page 3 - July 2009 - Fieldwalk of New Close - link
Page 4 - October 2009 - Fieldwalk at Long Park - link
Page 5 - March 2010 - Earthwork Survey and Planning, Causeway - April 2010 - Geophysics survey Pond Meadow: barn, cottage site, feature opposite quarry
Page 6 – Spring/Summer 2010 – Excavation, gradiometry training and Fieldwalking Long Park - link
Page 7 - Spring/Summer 2011 - Excavatons - link

RECENT ACTIVITIES AT WEST YEO

Causeway Planning 15/16 March: we began this period of work spending 2 days planning the causeway down to the river Little Dart. In good weather 6 intrepid members measured and plotted a profile and a plan of the causeway (79m in length). Thanks to Terry Green for his supervision and Brian Fox for spending time showing members how to use the dumpy level for finding levels. We now have a good plan and profile drawing to include in the archaeological record.

Crossed river to look for continuation of track on other side, some evidence of track on far bank leading towards village. Flint pebble (worked) found on river gravels (ref. need to source flints found in field)

Probing of the “road” surface: evidence of stone layer, i.e. metalled road. NB: Need to uncover an area of stones to view (farmer wants to expose and clean off an area to prove metalling)

Fieldwalking New Close from 17 March : Continuation of field started last year. 21 people joined us over a period of 8 days, in pretty awful weather: 4 members from TAG, 1 from the ALF history project, 3 new NDAS members joined us for the first time. Age range: 9 yrs to 70+! We also had enquiries from some students at Exeter University, and it is hoped they may join us for the summer dig in July.

Finds: Once again, we have a collection of flint pieces, some Mesolithic blades, and very little pottery. Also several cores and a large flake of greensand chert (possibly from Blackdown Hills?). Flintwork ongoing – to be recorded in detail.

16 grids plus 2 offsets were surveyed. Very heavy rain prevented more gridwork. Finds were washed in the barn for initial recording. Not much pottery found, possibly 1 piece of medieval. Very thick orange clay in field, overlying pale blue-grey clay.Burning evidence on top of orange clay layer. Burned flints. Query: gradiometry survey of field in future? We also need to return to New Close to finish the final third of the field.

Thanks to Bob for being there every day and for his meticulous grid measuring, and to members for turning up in wet weather, a really good effort.

April Geophys:
A good 5 days (in glorious sunshine) was spent on geophys survey in Pond Meadow behind the farmhouse. We used the earth resistance equipment to survey the area of the old barn and looked for the row of cottages shown on the Victorian map. The barn area showed high resistance as expected, but the cottages were not in evidence. It may be that that they are slightly further back behind the modern fence. More surveys to follow!

The "drain" feature identified last year was surveyed using 0.5m interval readings hoping to show it in more detail but the reverse seems to be the case. The picture was better with readings spaced at 1m. A little excavation here would be useful to determine what the feature is.

We also surveyed a new area - a slight platform opposite the quarry- and have some good readings of what looks like a rectangular feature – (an old building?) . Readings in this area were very high, possibly also indicating the presence of a wall cutting across the earlier feature.

We were very glad to be able to use the laptop purchased for the Society with the grant from the CBA for surveying purposes. We put up the newly acquired tent on the lawn, plugged into the electric supply in the farmhouse, and lo! and behold, were able to download data from the survey straight onto the laptop and view the results within a few minutes. We are grateful to the CBA for their help with our survey equipment.

Derry Bryant