Over the last weekend a few members of the Allen Archaeology Team (including the eponymous Mr. Allen himself) volunteered their services to excavate at the nearby National Trust Property of Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, as part of Calke Abbey Live Archaeology weekend 2016. The dig was organised by the National Trust and headed up by their archaeologist, Rachael Hall (check her out on Twitter she’s great!), along with a host of eager volunteers from the property and from the Calke Abbey Family Archaeologist group.

Saturday began with “the professionals” setting out and de-turfing the areas for investigation, Trench 1 which was located to the front of the house in the lawn, and Trench 2 which was located to the northeast of the house and was targeted on some fragments of masonry that had been revealed during earlier groundworks in the area. It became obvious fairly quickly that it was not going to be easy digging in Trench 1; but Trench 2 looked promising, with more fragments of brick already popping up and a small gaggle of Young Archaeologists (and Big archaeologists!) excited to see what was going to happen.

The sun was shining and there was archaeology to uncover!

A slow start in Trench 1; There was no escaping the sunshine and the ground was so concreted that even the most enthusiastic and energetic volunteers were struggling to break ground!

It became clear almost immediately that Trench 2 contained some interesting archaeological remains, and very quickly the fragments of bricks that had prompted our investigations turned into a wall with a very awkward angle.

Promising beginnings in Trench 2!

By the end of the first day the trench was beginning to take shape, with hints of a possible octagonal building beginning to emerge, although quite what it was that we were revealing was still a bit of a mystery and everyone seemed to have different ideas as to what this structure was. We had suggestions ranging from a folly to a possible gravity fed water tank for the ornamental fountains in the garden below and even suggestions of aliens! But it was safe to say that all of the volunteers left site excited to see what tomorrow would bring.

The volunteers busily exposing the building on day 2.

The second day began in a similar way to the first, the sun was shining, Trench 1 had been abandoned due to unforgiving digging conditions (apparently there was still another meter to dig through before they reached the archaeology!) and all our efforts were concentrated on the exciting remains which were appearing in Trench 2.

By the end of the day the foundations of most of a large octagonal building had emerged (the full extent of it was of course hidden underneath our spoil heap!) and the Young archaeologists had revealed not only an outer wall, which appeared to be the remains of a garden wall with fancy stone plinths, but also the remains of a slightly more substantial inner wall which looked suspiciously like the foundations for a building.

Armed with this new information and looking specifically for an octagonal structure in the area to the northeast of the house, a quick scan of early Ordnance Survey (OS) maps of the area (check out www.old-maps.co.uk) revealed an indication of this building, as well as the extent of pathways leading up to and around the structure. One of the volunteers, Colin, also managed to locate a sketch from the 1840’s showing a summer house!

The top of the wall and a possible plinth.

After two days hard work, and a lot of exciting revelations the site has been put to bed again. But never fear, and Calke Abbey Live will be returning and planning has already begun for next year’s investigations.