First, David from North Wiltshire YAC shares his experience and some photos…

I had an amazing time at Greenfield Heritage Park and I found it a fun and interesting day all in all. We did some trowelling in a trench by a group of 2 houses. We found bits of pottery and in the last hour we found 3 or 4 post holes. We also did some finds washing and learnt lots of facts and techniques about finds washing. All in all it was an excellent experience and I would recommend it to everyone I know. Thanks to the Greenfield Heritage Park team and Heneb as well as YAC for enabling me to have this amazing experience.

Next, Liliwen from Ludlow YAC tells us…

I was delighted and very excited when we received the email to say that I had won the YAC competition.  Thank you YAC for picking me!  I was even more excited when I received the archaeology kit through the post, as it meant that my archaeology experience was getting nearer. In the canvas bag was a trowel, a pencil case, a paintbrush, a little note book and some archaeology magazines.  

It wasn’t very nice weather when we started our journey to Holywell, North Wales, but it became sunny when we arrived. The site where we were digging was a known mediaeval site but the Archaeologists had already uncovered Roman artefacts. 

When we arrived at the site, myself and the other YAC winner were greeted by three very nice ladies who gave us a tour of the site and the various trenches.  Then we met the Archaeologist who was to look after us for the day. Her name was Bethan. She was very nice and encouraging, explaining everything so clearly.  

We were taken to the trench that we would be working in, where they were in the process of uncovering a Roman road. It was so exciting!  It was explained to us how to carefully move around the trench and then I was shown how to use the trowel in the trench. Bethan thought that I used the trowel really well, which was encouraging as this was the first time I had been involved in a dig. I found some pieces of copper and shell, which along with previous finds indicated earlier occupation than the Romans. We were then shown some artefacts that had been found earlier in the same trench that we were digging in.  

We spent some time looking in the other trenches where a large posthole had just been found. The pottery and glass finds were really cool!  After this we visited the finds washing station. We were taught how to observe what the finds were made from.This guided us to sort the objects and wash them appropriately. I could have spent longer doing this as I really enjoyed it. We returned to the original trench where I helped Bethan because she thought she had found a series of postholes that needed further excavation.   

The whole day was a wonderful experience and I did not want it to end. It has motivated me even more to be an Archaeologist and I hope to be able to have the opportunity to do future digs.