April 27 – Day One

The day got off to an early start with the writer getting to the BBC Radio Solent for an interview at 0725, followed by an hour of traffic jams to return to Winchester. Somewhat vital as I had the Organisation and Sign on tent in the back of the car. However, this was mantled in time for the opening ceremony and to receive the first set of enthusiastic volunteers

The opening:

Some memories of the first day:

Interview with Dr John Crook talking about some of the finds of the day:

End of Day One Interview with Techer Jones: How did it all go?

The opening ceremony ably performed by a duet formed of the mayor, Cllr Jane Rutter, and the Managing Director of one of our sponsors, Belgarum estate agents, John Leeson. John’s opening speech was brief but to the point, and Jane Rutter, our hard working mayor, and fervent supporter of Hyde900, added some words before beginning her stint on the sieves.

The morning chaos (not to put too fine a point on it) was added to by the arrival of the film crew from the Southampton Video Camera Club, followed swiftly by the Editor (and one man – or rather –  woman) film unit of That’s Solent TV

Solent TV Clip

There was tremendous support from experienced amateur archaeologists from the Winchester Archaeological Rescue group, who were providing the supervisory expertise and equipment. The exact status of these was unclear, until after 8 hours I was happy to confirm to Techer Jones his position as Lead Archaeologist for trench – or to be more accurate – test pit – supervision. This will no doubt cost the writer an additional pint at the Saturday 6.30 celebrations at the nearby – appropriately named – King Alfred pub.

Life calmed down after lunch – not that many had time to stop for lunch – and the afternoon settled down to the routine work of removing topsoil. This in itself was not without incident, and the star find of the day was the discovery of a Victorian Christmas Pudding doll – dated to between 1850 and 1900. It is interesting to note that the date of build of the houses whose gardens we are working in is around 1900. (image courtesy of Janet Backhouse, ace finds processor)