Today’s the second of November, which is an important day because it’s the start of the hand excavation. So for the first time we’ve brought on site a team of archaeologists and students who are beginning the process of peeling back the layers, particularly the 20th century layers of asphalt and car park that overlie what we hope will be remains from the three generations of gardens that were here on the western side of the building.
When we first came on site, there was tarmac everywhere which has been removed by machine. Also removed by machine has been the road base, which was compacted under that tarmac. Removing that has revealed that in fact there were fairly substantial earthworks undertaken in the mid- to late-20th century, prior to the road base and tarmac being added. That means that the remains of the garden around us here have been more significantly disturbed.
So what’s been happening today in two areas of the site is firstly some peeling back of a circular path that was part of the post-1890 garden, and some work in the very centre of the garden, the roundel, the site of the former German Kiosk where there is a little bit of deposit and some features coming up that are likely to be either column bases from the kiosk itself, or more likely, some bases for iron fencing that was there in the late 19th century.