Throughout the dig, which is in partnership with Cheshire West and Chester Council, our students posted updates from our History and Archaeology Department's Twitter and Instagram accounts. Here's a few highlights!
First day on site!
Ben and Elsa: Today marks the first day of the excavation in Grosvenor Park. We were focused on cleaning up the area from previous excavations to prepare for following weeks. Nevertheless, we had many finds including bones, teeth, ceramics, clay pipes and even a musket ball! #GRP2021
Finds from the civil war
Jules and Grace: Day three of our training excavation and the finds keep coming from the civil war destruction layers. Today we unearthed a beautiful C16th/17th glass fragment, an animal jaw, a metal ring, several musket balls &more! #GRP2021
Unearthing treasures
Ben & Amy: Week one of #GRP2021 ends with another hot day. Excavation continues with the highlight being a C17th coin! Cleaning of finds is also well under way, including a beautiful late medieval bone button @cwacmuseums @uochester #findsfriday #Archaeology #chester pic.twitter.com/dvSXuwzCNN
— Hist&ArchChester (@HistArchChester) April 23, 2021
Ben and Amy: Week one of #GRP2021 ends with another hot day. Excavation continues with the highlight being a C17th coin! Cleaning of finds is also well under way, including a beautiful late medieval bone button.
Roman pottery
Sophia: Day nine of #GRP2021 and still digging! interesting finds from today include: copper alloy needle, 14th-century floor tile and a section of Roman amphora!
Decorated Norman stone
Jacob and Nick: Half way through week three... We've been cracking on with the demolition layer in the eastern part of the trench with more decorated floor tile, animal bone and pottery being unearthed. Over on the western section we have found a decorated piece of Norman stone... which is definitely the find of the day!
Last week!
Team B: The beginning of the end as we start the last week of our excavation #GRP2021 at Grosvenor park. Hopefully there will be plenty of sunshine ahead for us and for you to come and visit the final result. On Tuesday we identified a linear feature running right through the centre of trench that the team has been working hard on.
After the dig, we caught up with Elsa, an Archaeology student who said that "The Grosvenor park archaeological excavation has been an amazing experience not only in gaining practical skills, but also in discovering the park's history. With evidence of Roman, Medieval, Civil War and Modern occupation we have been able to recreate a more detailed image of the park and connect to past lives through the amazing artefacts we have uncovered. I am grateful for our amazing team of students, professors and archaeologists who made it all possible, as well as the public who showed such curiosity and passion for local archaeology."
If you want to find out more about what happened during the dig, head over to our History and Archaeology Department's Twitter and Instagram accounts or find out more about our History and Archaeology degrees.
