Archaeology students to embark on survey at Chawton House

On Saturday 28^th February, two members of staff and six students attended an event held at Chawton, ‘Experiencing the Georgian Garden - Study Day’ (http://www.chawtonhouse.org/?conferences_seminars=study-day-experiencing-the-georgian-garden), where several were interviewed for a podcast to be posted on the website (http://www.chawtonhouse.org/?p=59744). The students were also able to explore the house and grounds, and discuss what they would be surveying during the field week.

 On the field trip, from the 23^rd to the 27^th of March (inclusive), students will be surveying the interior of the house using total stations, to find evidence of an older framework of doorways and walls in the cellars. Survey of the grounds to the south-west side of the main house will be conducted, to explore the possibility of another wing of the house. This theory has come from the asymmetrical layout of the building, which does not match up with the architecture of houses of a similar time period. In addition to surveys of the building and grounds, an electrical resistance survey will be carried out in small, targeted, areas of the walled garden and the main garden, which may provide evidence of subsurface archaeological features. The students have been practicing on the Avenue campus with the various technologies that will be used for the survey, over the last few weeks.

The students will be supervised by members of the archaeology department, including: Timothy Sly, Dominic Barker, Penny Copeland and Catriona Cooper. Both the students and staff hope the week is successful, and will be a chance to put into practice techniques the students have studied over the first two-thirds of the semester.

By Iona Skyring and Timothy Sly.