Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project - SHARP

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Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project - SHARP

A long-term, independently-run archaeological project investigating the parish of Sedgeford, Norfolk

Currently one of the largest archaeological projects in Britain, our ongoing work encompasses multiple sites and a wide range of historical and archaeological techniques, from large-scale open area excavation and exploratory test pitting to map regression and standing building survey. The Project is run by a team of directors, supervisors and committee members. Our archaeological fieldwork is concentrated in a six week summer season, when we can have up to seventy people on site, but additional activities such as field walking take place at other times of the year.

07/08/2026

Directors blog, last day of the last week, and boy did it go fast.

At the start of the day we had doubts we would finish all the drawings in time. But with the help of the BERTs we really did manage to get all the sections and 1:50 drawings complete.

On trench 24 the paperwork and checking of drawings also went well. We mostly just have some cross referencing to do now which we hope to finish during close down. We even discovered and excavated two new post holes along the edge of the yellow clay, one cut the clay so is most likely for malthouse 5 and the other for malthouse 6. In the last session of the day we all worked together to cover the site once more, ready for the next year.

On trench 26 the last section drawings were complete, and the written records compiled.

Elsewhere on site preparation took place to put to bed the archive, daub project and other activities. The finds hut has been busy recording locations for the displays so they can be safely be put away out of season, and then put out again next year. Nothing will be kept there out of season. A CCTV camera will be put up near the entrance of the site to keep the solar panels and field extra safe.

Tonight was the end of season party, with lots of music, some party games and a bit of dance. A fitting end to a great summers season. Thanks everyone that has been following us, hopefully it has been interesting to read about the project. Thanks to all those that have visited us be they general public, part of tour groups or volunteers.

06/08/2026

Directors blog day 5 of week 4.

Nearing the end and everyone has been busy recording on the trenches.

On trench 24 we have had 1:50s in progress and so many, many section drawings have been done. While i have been busy doing more of the paperwork, and making frantic notes. The volunteers working on kiln 6 completed their daub by daub 1:20 drawing, so will get a bit of time to dig some post holes.

On trench 26 they have also been busy recording. Richard started a 1:20 of the flint and chalk surface, while others completed sections and paperwork.

We had the site tours of both trenches with several members of the public join us for these. There was the usual rivalry over trenches, with the two 1:20s being compared.

Tonight a group went out bird watching. While others choose music for tomorrow night. Steve worked his way through the drawings checking the details were all present and correct. While I have been busy, and am doing a late night sorting all the type 1 and 2 context sheets for the more complex archaeology so that I can be more available to answer questions on the remaining drawings.

05/08/2026

Directors blog day 4 of week 4 and we are getting into the recording mood now. We even had a bit of rain.

Trench 24 was a hive of activity with areas being cleaned ready for photos, photos being taken, section drawings and planning including a 1:20 of the new kiln and daub scatter and several 1:50s.

The BERTs have been finishing off their slots, recording and photographing these, they had a session on Harris Matrix with Owen. But they are also putting into practice their leveling skills.

The volunteers on the trench have been completing their areas. The clean of the kiln and daub scatter at the top of the hill resulted in some amazing photos. The slot through the E-W ditch to the North has been completed, and we have started to record that.

On kiln 4 the volunteer has now reached the level of the pit, and the daub continues under the wall. We will have to wait till next year to see how big the pit is but for this year we have answered the question about whether it predates the kiln, which it does.

On the car park trench work has started on recording the flint surface, given the post hole there is a possibility that it's a structure, but more work and post holes are needed next year to confirm that.

Tonight several people went off to visit the barn to see the owl, others played games while team worked on paperwork and the photos. There is still much paperwork to do but it's coming along now.

04/08/2026

Directors blog day 3 of week 4.

It's been a busy day for me as we had a group from the North West Norfolk Historical Society visit for a tour of the new visitor centre and the excavations. They have kindly sponsored and paid for the 30 years of SHARP book for which we are incredibly grateful. So after a visit to the centre we went to the car park trench, Dan introduced the site and talked about the discoveries this and last year. We discussed future excavation plans.

After this we headed to the malting trench where I discussed the latest discoveries since their last visit in week 2 of last year. Its amazing what has changed since then. Multiple phases of kiln 4, new floor for kiln 4, new kiln 6 and perhaps an understanding of malt house 5, and the discovery of slumping of the yellow clay.

In the afternoon we had a visit from Carly from Current Archaeology who will be working on an article about our 30th anniversary.

Work continued on the trenches despite my absence. We are getting closer to finishing excavation work so we can start the process of planning features, and finish off paperwork.

Of trench we had more work done by the daub project, the archiving team were also beavering away and there was also lots of find cleaning outside the visitor centre.

The crafters have also been busy with the main focus on Mesolithic basket weaving and card weaving, some great items were produced by the volunteers.

Tonight we had the final of our lectures, a great summary of antiquarian research and art of churches in Norwich.

At the end are some drone photos from the site.

03/08/2026

Directors blog day 2 of week 4.

Another day and another post hole. In the morning Steve came to grab me to show me a post hole that had shown up that morning where the BERTs were working. This makes another probable post hole for malt house 5.

The BERTs have been busy finishing off digging on their sondages, after they had finished off their session with Ann in finds. Several have started the process of recording them which will continue tomorrow.

The volunteers clearing the dark brown deposit over the daub have been finding animal bones, possibly the last remains of the plough soil. They are slowly revealing the extent of the daub splodge, which continues to dip down further along with the yellow clay.

At the bottom of the hill work continued on the pit and wall of kiln 4. It's still dark behind the wall, and we are nearly at the level of the daub collapsed material.. Elsewhere we have finished recording the slot through the clay surface, taking samples of soil with burnt grain under the floor (associated with kiln 4B). We also finished excavating a possible posthole on the edge of the clay surface associated with kiln 4a.

It was also busy on the car park trench as they work on several features, hoping to reveal more before we have to start recording.

On camp there was a flurry of activity in archives, finds cleaning and also the daub project. The experimental lot have also been busy making things. And yesterday Tom found some Ipswich ware pottery in one of the samples.

We also received more copies of the 30 years of SHARP book.

Tonight lots of SHARPies went up to the pub for the quiz, we had varied results from bottom to 3rd place.. Well done to the SHARP team that got 3rd place.

A reminder that the lecture tomorrow night will be in the village hall due to bees. Doors open at approx 19.35 so please don't arrive much before then as we need time to get chairs out etc. The lecture will start between 19.45 and 19.50.

02/08/2026

Directors blog day 1 of week 4.

Start of a new week and we did the usual site tours. Then the volunteers split into two groups, one stayed on the malting site while the others beaded down the hill. We had a good number of volunteers this week, some are doing part excavation and part post-ex or experimental.

On the car park trench the group finished off the recording from the week before. Section drawings were finished and written records of the ditch was carried out. Volunteers extended the slot of the flint track surface to the North. The baulk was also reduced a bit. The group then started the 1:50 of the site.

Work on the malting trench persists. At the bottom of the trench work continued on the section through the wall of kiln 4. We got out a chisel to take the wall out because it was so tough.

At the top of the hill we continued to investigate the E-W ditch, with several of the BERTs taking on the slots started by the dig for the days. Not only did we see the ditch but there was also a possible post hole for malt house 5.

Two volunteers worked on revealing more of the daub splodge over the yellow clay. There are two possible post holes that have cut through the splodge, again possibly for malt house 5. One of last weeks BERTs worked on the ramp clay and the E-W ditch remaining to the W of the yellow clay. There is the suggestion that this perhaps curves, or is wider than we originally thought. The ramp clay also seems to have slumped into the E-W ditch.

The rest of the BERTs have been busy working on sondages, some exploring new areas to the North and South. They also had plenty of fun with the wheelbarrow with the bell being used to warn people they were coming. In the afternoon they went on their village tour.

The day course on Anglo Saxon life went well with the participants learning about a variety of different aspects of life. In the experimental area the volunteers made some Ipswich ware pot replicas.

We finished off with a quiz on site. Terry kept up his tradition of awful starting questions, with paranormal tv shows dates and presenters 😵‍💫. Along with his stamps round from a few years back I think it will be a long time before he is asked again 🤣. But lots of us had fun anyway.

31/07/2026

Directors blog day six and the end of week 3. We started the day with an announcement of safety training for wheelbarrow use, with the new instructor given his jacket and wheelbarrow.

The BERTs continued with their slots and sections through some more exciting archaeology. A group worked on the section of kiln 3, revealing more of the wattle. At the top of the hill the BERTs were investigating the East West ditch near the ramp, this revealed that what we thought was a ditch fill is the ramp clay depending as it goes North with an ashy layer above. There is likely a daub filled ditch below this, so a second slot was taken down to see this in section. The final group of BERTs continued the work on kiln 5.

Elsewhere on the malting trench the volunteers continued investigating the deposit on the yellow clay which is deeper and wider than originally thought. Ift still looks like daub rubble perhaps from kiln 6 to the South but the levels and slumping is still odd.

To the North the work on kiln 4 really does suggest that the back part of the kiln had no wattle frame (at least where it is in the pit. No wattle marks were found behind the clay. The slot through the kiln floor shows that it is thicker where we have kiln 4B, perhaps they added a layer when the rebuilt it. The section through the wall of kiln 4B is slow going, buy does suggest the daub pit feature continues through to the other side.

On the car park trench the team has been busy uncovering and recording the track, and removing the back fill from the old trench. A nice piece of decorated pottery was found

The landscape participants had a go at more fieldwalking finding some pottery.

Tonight we had Ryan performing for us. It was a evening of good music, and lots of dance.

30/07/2026

Directors blog day 5 of week 3.

The weather was much kinder to us today, with cooler temperatures and a nice breeze. The sun did make taking photos more tricky at times but overall a great digging day.

On the carpark trench the volunteers continued to work hard investigating two different trackways that cross the site, and a ditch. It's been a busy week removing the layers above to reveal these features.

On the malting trench the BERTs finished their sondages so they have been assigned more substantial features to finish and record in their final day. They did environmental with Tom in the morning.

At the bottom of the hill the volunteers working on kiln 4 started the sections through the kiln walls. Removing the clay from kiln 4b has begun so we will see whether there is daub behind this. At the top of the hill the burnt daub layer above the yellow clay continues to go down, but we also have some white clay as well, making it even more confusing.

It's been pretty busy down on site with work on the daub project and archiving taking place. Whereas the Human Remains team and volunteers had a busy day, with a lot of hedgehog toys turning up. Ann has been busy cleaning the comb find from yesterday. The landscape course participants had a fieldtrip to King's Lynn today.

Tonight a small group went to the funfair, others went to the bird sanctuary and the rest had a laugh on camp.

29/07/2026

Directors blog day 4 of week 3.

It's been hot, and most of the volunteers were melting by mid day, work on the malting trench slowed to a standstill. In the morning BERTs and volunteers continued taking photos and working on drawings. But after lunch we suggested that they do some daub cleaning instead, the BERTs did some theory on the Harris Matrix.

The car park trench also slowed down but their volunteers and team wanted to continue, or perhaps were not keen to clean finds.

But other groups stayed busy with volunteers busy working on the daub project or with the archive.

In the afternoon we had the Friends of SHARP tea and tour. We started in the new visitor centre showing off the displays and digital interactive system, we also sold a few more copies of the 30 years book. After our cake we braved the heat to see the trenches were I explained the latest discoveries since the last visit.

The landscape course attendees had a great day too. They were doing a bit of fieldwalking (as a demonstration) and discovered a composite comb. What an amazing find. They then headed off to explore Bawsey.

This evening has been relatively quite, some people went looking for owls, others to the arcades but most just tried to cool off after a hot day.

28/07/2026

Directors blog day 3 of week 3.

It's been a warm day, but it's also been busy on and off trench.

On the malting trench the volunteers and BERTs were busy recording features left right and centre. We even raided the car park trench for drawing boards.

At the top of the hill the deposit above the yellow clay just gets deeper, and more daub and charcoal rich. It still doesn't look like another kiln, but instead seems similar to other debris seen around kilns. It even had visible grain. As such I think we can now say we have kiln 6, which we believe is the earliest in the sequence.

The BERTs have found post holes in their sondages. One most likely relates to earlier phases of the malt house 1. The other had plastic in the fill so it is likely a post hole we saw and excavated previously.

At tye bottom of the hill the slit through the floor revealed an orange burnt clay under the white. There was also possible grain between the two. This really suggests there are two floors on top of each other.

The slot through the kiln wall has confirmed no wattle was seen, perhaps confirming Petes observations about the daub from kiln 4a is a bit different. The slot through the floor and pit has also shown that the burnt grain under the daub is part of the pit. The lack of burnt soil underneath suggests that the burnt grain and daub went in cold.

On the car park trench it's been busy too as our young person BERT course has been on site. Everyone worked together to reveal features.

Across the site and teams there was a strange pointing competition, started by Anj in the archive. But it soon spread to trenches and even HR in Docking.

This evening we had one of our usual talks in the village hall, which was well attended by SHARPies and locals.

Address

Sedgeford

Website

http://www.sharp.org.uk/

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