Huge progress made on the Malting Site in 2025

Despite the obvious interest in the car park trench and all the finds/exciting discoveries being made there, the malting site trench was never disserted. Some weeks we even managed to have more volunteers than we expected, going to show that archaeology is not all about finds. With a good core set of regular volunteers each week, keen to work on the amazing features we made huge progress and have increased yet again our understanding of the site.

This blog will summarise the work on the malting trench, although much was covered by our daily Facebook blogs.

The focus of this year was on kilns 4 and 5 themselves, however with the increase in volunteers were also able to investigate other features and wider areas.

Week 1 BERTs

Week 1

At the bottom of the hill the work started on removing the remaining quadrants from kiln 4. This was to provide us with the overall shape of the kiln and allow for final recording. Like previous years the types of daub discovered changed as the volunteers dug into the quadrants. The top layer was clay rich, this was followed by smaller pieces of daub, and then the huge blocks of daub were revealed.  At times, after rain we broke up the work on the surrounding areas of malt house 3 and 4, removing the clay of malthouse 3, looking for potential post-holes.

At the top of the hill work started on removing another quadrant of kiln 5, the problem however being where were the walls. So further work was done on the previous quadrant, to overcut the feature and look at its relation to the kiln. By the end of the week, we were still confused as to where the walls of the kiln are.

The BERTs were digging two sondages in the area of malt house 1. This area has been fully excavated and recorded now, so a decision was made by the team to start the process of digging a sondage to confirm the geological layers and determine whether we need to be concerned about earlier Roman or Iron Age archaeology on the site. We had several special finds from this area, including a tiny piece of Samian Ware and a lovely bone pin. They also found an E-W ditch dating before malthouse 1.

BERT with a small find

Excavating kiln 5

Kiln 4

Week 2

We had fewer people this week, not surprising given the burial on the car park trench. But the work continued on kilns 4 and 5 with our dedicated volunteers.

The walls of kiln 5 were continuing to be elusive, so we continued overcutting sections. This revealed that there was a burnt soil layer, but no clay lining and given the rest of the sections and the shape of the kiln we began to propose that perhaps this kiln never was clay lined. This would make it a similar construction to kiln 1.

Kiln 4 the removal of large pieces of daub started, and regularly those digging would stop to record and take photos of what they had. The volunteers noticed that the wall was particularly broken in one area of the kiln, and several theories were shared, such as structural beams collapsing on the kiln. As the quadrants were being taken down at similar rates, volunteers would work on other nearby features, and this week a new post hole was discovered, and excavated. A slot was taken from kiln 4 to the North, a deposit of daub collapse, and under this was uncovered the remains of a clay surface, at this stage we felt this was the only remains left after the rest had been taken and perhaps reused.

At the end of the week the work on kiln 4 revealed a deeper deposit of daub, underneath where we would expect the clay floor of the kiln. None of this made any sense, and given it was the end of the day, and end of the week we decided we would have to come back to it next week.

Kiln 4 and floor

Kiln 4

Kiln 5

Week 3

This week had both the festival, but was so very wet, that progress felt slow. The first few days on kiln 4 the emphasis was on cleaning the kiln and recording it with a 1:20 scale drawing, and photography including by drone. Between this and the rain it gave the team to discuss possibilities for the kiln. The drone footage suggested there may be two, possibly three, phases of activity and at least two phases of kiln. The first had rectangular corners, whereas the other placed on top had a more typical kiln shape.

At the top of the hill the team continued to work on the kiln and nearby ditch. Further sections through the kiln confirmed that there was no firm daub/clay walls.

The BERTs joined us at the top of the hill, and we decided to extend the partial sondage of the E-W ditch in the kiln 5 area to determine whether more ditches were present and what the relationship was with the clay layer to the North. We had our second small finds of the season while excavating this, with a BERT finding a possible iron key. The BERTs identified two features the E-W ditch seen before but also another possible feature to the North.

Finding ditches

Recording kiln 4

Debating kiln 4

Week 4

This week the aim was to continue to remove daub from kiln 4, to reveal the different phases within the kiln. But first started with a quick group clean, a request of Em’s to remove the daub scatter to the North of the Kiln 4. I agreed as it had been recorded, and I wanted to see whether any more of the floor was present under the rubble. However, this resulted in a complete change in aim for the week. The floor that we thought only under the rubble, descended underneath what we thought was the sub-soil, albeit a bit more disturbed, and as this was removed to the North more of the floor was revealed. So, our team of volunteers did the amazing job of quickly, but carefully removing the soil from the floor in the 3-4 days we had left before we had to start recording. Even the supervisors got stuck in, and we asked for a couple more volunteers from the other trench, to ensure it was done in time. The result is a clay floor of similar size to ones seen in the other malt houses, and better yet there seemed to be gaps for post holes, and two phases (white vs yellow clay). The volunteers involved were amazed to be able to see the floor, not seen for over 1000 years, slowly being revealed.

At the top of the hill the team continued to take even more sections out of the kiln. This seems to be the only way we can record this kiln, as once the daub is removed there is very little to provide a definite edge.

Finding things in the layer above the floor

Focus on the floor

Yes occasionally I do get to dig, or in this case clear up the loose

Next year, and into the future

The work on kiln 4, and the clay floor will be a major focus of next season, and the discovery of several phases means that we will need to do targeted sections to understand the relationships between the phases. Once that is done, we may start the process of removing sections from other parts of the kiln to look at construction methods. A search for post-holes around the malt house 4 floor will also be carried out, and samples and sections removed to test the theory that there are two separate floors, for each phase.

It is hoped that next year we will complete the work on kiln 5. Being poorly preserved and with little below ground superstructure, we will be recording as much as possible as we remove slices. Next year will be the final year to understand the ditches and features on the same surface level as kiln 5. As the following year we will likely dig down to the yellow clay and potentially the first kiln and malt house on the site.

The sondages need to go deeper, and perhaps combined so that we can explore the archaeology under the Middle Saxon subsoil.

However, the progress so far means that the malting site is probably in its final years, which means that we can start to look towards the publication of the site.