Terry explained that the new site will be unavailable to dig until June, when the silage has been taken off. In the meantime Sue (me) asked Andy Sadler of the Limes Farm Shop if he had a bit of land we could dig, just so everyone knows what we’re doing and how to go about it in the proper way. Andy has given us a choice, the horses field which is the southern side of the farm shop sloping down to the brook, or the opposite field. He and his wife Nicky are happy for us to dig, they’re both interested in finds. We can use a loo there and although they’ve said we could park 2 or 3 cars, I think it might be better if we park at the church car park and either walk or ferry people to the farm shop.
Terry will be taking the first session next Saturday, (23rd March) to field walk both fields and hopefully Tony will come along with his metal detector. The aim is to see what is lying around and make a judgement on the best place to open the first trench. No equipment needed for the first Saturday, meet in the church car park at 10.30am, wear warm clothes, stout footwear and a flask, a bite to eat and a folding chair/stool for a tea break. Hopefully Terry will be able to mark out a dig site ready for the following week.

Saturday 30th March Terry is unavailable so I’ll start the digging off.
Equipment needed, each person bring: A small trowel, a bucket, a small shovel, a seed tray, gloves to protect the hands and a kneeling mat. You will get muddy! We will also need a couple of people to bring spades to dig the edges of the trench. As Finds Officer I’ll have bags for all the finds. Also as before, flask, food and stool.

Terry explained we’ll need to raise funds for purchasing some basic equipment, we’re a new group and have very little. I had with me yesterday the York Supply catalogue which is who the Colchester archaeology group use. In the first instance we need a ranging pole (red and white steel measuring pole) and red and white tape to go round the canes we’ll put up around the site to keep people away. These things are cheap but it brought Terry round to the question of money and funds, he asked the members present if they would be happy to pay a monthly sub or yearly, and he proposed a sub of £10 per person per year. If that’s agreeable to everyone can they bring their £10 cash to our new treasurer, Sue Holmes on site who will look after the money, record names, and dole it out for equipment.
Terry said the next meeting at the museum falls on Good Friday, he thinks it would be better not to meet at the museum while we’re digging at a site, there’s no point, he is carrying on with his social history meetings there, however.
The digging will continue every Saturday, 10.30am to around 1.30pm weather permitting, not everyone will be able to make it, that’s fine, come when you can. We don’t know what we’ll find at the Limes but we can hopefully dig a professional trench with observation and recording of finds and strata. I’m not around next Saturday but after that I’ll be there every week.

For those of you that don’t know Burnham the postcode of St. Mary’s Church is CM0 8DA and the Limes is CM0 8QB (Southminster Road).

Any enquiries email me or phone Terry (772882).

Sue Spiers