Wednesday heralded the return of our Hands on Heritage Volunteer group!… And about time too! I think we were all glad to feel the weight of an axe in our hands, the smell of freshly cut oak in our nostrils and woodsmoke stinging our retinas.

There were new faces and grizzled veterans back on the scene, all keen to get working. Our task this week was to assemble some trestle table-type work benches (coined the ‘Work Donkey’) as an aid to our mission, alongside wedging up the tree nails in our lovely hand-crafted door, now that it has had some time to settle.

Andrew patiently carves a big pile of wedges to strengthen our doors

Preparing the pole lathe…

Rupert and new-blood James get stuck in to constructing the ‘work-donkey’.

Young Richard takes charge of the doors

Dr. Richard doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere quickly…

Bodger Richard was on hand to give Jack a lesson in turning.

After a day by the roundhouse, we left our volunteers behind to shoot off to Burtle Village Hall and start an epic campaign of finds washing, the likes of which has never been seen (at least in Burtle anyway…)! What is usually a tedious task, washing each sherd of pottery, fragment of bone and scrap of stone with a toothbrush,  turned into an event not to be missed!

There were cakes a plenty and our two star finds on prominent display, the bar even opened to fuel the work which went on late into the night.

Three weeks of excavated material, which should of taken us a whole miserable Winter to clean, was done in a night. Proper job!