After a break for the summer holidays, MAYA was straight back into excavation again for our September session!  We dug four test pits at Longaller Mill to try and find out more information about the old mill cottages (demolished and completely rebuild it the late 1980’s) and old buildings next to the mill which no longer exist.  Two of the test pits were dug in the hope of retrieving artefacts to try and find out how long the old mill cottages were occupied.  Another was situated on a slight mound near the mill stream to try and find out what this was.  The fourth pit was located on the site of an old building opposite the mill shown on the 1910 OS map.

A variety of finds were uncovered, particularly in the test pit located next to one of the current mill cottages, including building rubble, pottery, glass, clinker and rusty nails.  Similar artefacts were discovered in a test pit at the bottom of the garden, suggesting a rubbish dump or midden.  The test pit on the mound was less productive, suggesting this was geological rather than archaeological.  Some of the more unusual finds included a Victorian glass stopper from an HP sauce bottle, a donkey shoe, and an unusual short chain of metal loops and a buckle, possibly from horse trappings.

The test pit opposite the mill uncovered a beautiful example of a worked chert core in the top soil, but not much else until around 0.3m down they uncovered an intense black layer of cinders, clinker and slag.  This could possibly have been the floor of some kind of metal working workshop, and the building on the 1910 map was perhaps a small smithy for repairing mill machinery.

All four test pits were meticulously recorded by the MAYANS using paperwork designed by Carenza Lewis from the “Time Team”.  The finds will be washed and sorted at one of our sessions later in the year, and a report will be written and submitted to the HER.  It was a day of great enthusiasm and discovery, and introduced the MAYANS to the importance of archaeological recording and post-excavation as well as the excitement of digging!