Diary of an Excavation at Pilling 1970

by Bill Dickinson

30 June

Mr. Sherdley and myself went to investigate a reported site at Beech Farm, Duck Street, Pilling. The weather was very wet. We excavated one "grave" in which we found several pieces of pot. This pot appeared to be medieval; returned puzzled. The graves were not filled in with the soil taken out but with a dark grey almost black substance. pot. 

1 July

Went again to the site and excavated two more. Met Mr. Ben Edwards but there was nothing found.
There was much speculation.

2 July

Still no sign of any real evidence, the weather cold and windy. 

3 July
Still no sign of evidence and the weather still cold and windy,

5 July

The weather warm and sunny. Found traces of a "body?" which appeared to be buried in a crouched position. Ben took photographs of this. I think they are still in his possession. Traces of iron found in this grave.

6 July

Went in the afternoon to meet Mr. Batty, Miss Dalton's agent at Cockersands. Talked about making the Chapter House weather proof and filling in the windows to keep out vandals until such times as the Ministry take over. In the evening we went back to the site and I took out another grave using a different method. I dug down at each end of the grave to ascertain the depth of them and on this grave one end was 2 ft deeper than the other. Carefully digging the top off in 1 in flakes we found considerable evidence of iron which pointed to chain mail. Further down seemed to be evidence of a spear head approximately 4 in long and a rivet (maybe wishful thinking). This put thoughts in our head of Viking raids or maybe the Battle of Brunanburh. (I have made a rough sketch of this spear.)

7 July

Still no real hard evidence. Hugh, Nancy and Dick commenced to excavate what appears to have been a collection of timber posts. Could they be the remains of a bridge over what was a natural stream through the site?

8 July

Ben came and took photographs but being his natural cautious self made little comment. Nothing further to report except a few tiny pieces of pot (medieval?).

9 July

Samples of soil sent. No. 1 from the bottom no. 3 also from the bottom, no. 2 from 2 ft above the bottom, no. 3 is a darker colour and rougher texture. I carried on in the grave I have been working on since Monday and have almost convinced myself there are more than one in a grave. "Heads are relatively easy to define being of a different texture and roughly head shaped, but the bodies are not so easy and cannot be clearly outlined. It is impossible to make a definite statement due to lack of evidence. (Looking at it logically when in a more sober frame of mind could not these "Heads" be lumps of decomposed turf?) Headlie and Dick took a trench through the "timber" and the post holes appear to taper as they go deeper. No further evidence.

10 July

Still no evidence, took out another small piece of pot and a small triangular stone (could it be a stone arrowhead?) A "peculiarity" seems to be small white sea-washed quartz pebbles in each one.

11 July

Started to excavate one facing north. Found the usual white pebble, also a small cube of very light sandstone with straight edges, this had not been sea-washed.
13 July Carried on with Headlie. Found a regular shaped pattern which gave the appearance of the metal work on a scabbard and decided to leave it for inspection. (I also have a small sketch of this.)

14 July

Started another and 2 inches down came across 3 rusty looking impressions which could be nails or pins.

15 July

Carried on with a new technique on the advice of Mr. John M. Dodgson, digging about 6 in wider than the grave and finding out how these people were buried. It appears that some of them were lined by driving thin stakes down the sides and weaving something in between but not all by any means were like this.

16 July

Still in the same one making a chart of everything, even pebbles. These charts are drawn to scale which when finished will give us a sort of three dimensional picture of the inside by using a new sheet and a fresh outline every few inches down. We are still calling them graves though there is no proof of this and they may be something totally different. (Fish traps.)

17 July

Today we started to chart the graves, taking a compass bearing and using a grid system dividing the whole excavation into forty foot squares, then we find all the graves in a square and mark them down on our plan exactly where each one is. This is hard, tedious and exacting work which will take a considerable time, but must be done in case the M.O.W. or the County take over and then we can show exactly where all the graves are and what has been done.

18 July

Still working and getting our plan shipshape. One interesting thing has turned up-some of them seem to have been capped with clay making a sort of hummock on top.

19 July

Still planning.

21 July

Ministry of Works came to inspect and muttered something about pagan Saxon and that we were doing an expert job. Still taking out grave S.1. W.1.

22 July

Still planning.

23 July

Still planning.

27 July

Still planning.

28 July

Finished S.1., W.1. Nothing turned up.

29 July

Still planning.

11 August

Still planning.

12 August

Took out another grave rather quickly, but nothing further turned up.

9 September

Hugh rang me up at school and said he had found another grave in his front field, also when they were digging the foundations for St. John's Avenue about six of these graves were found but nothing was done about them.
Note
A potter friend of mine took a sample of soil from the inside and one from the outside, heated them to a temperature of about 1300 centigrade and both samples turned out exactly alike.
Could the traces of iron be the crystalized roots of vegetation?