Archive for the ‘Excavations’ Category

Tutankhamun was not born in Swaffham!

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Swaffham Cemetery

Cemetery Swaffham

This may seem an odd post title, but during my visit to London last weekend, whilst on route to the V & A Museum in South Kensington, I noticed a sign in the tube network which gave dates of various luminaries from the past and their birth places. There was the name of Howard Carter [1874-1939] the Egyptologist, famous for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun on the 26th of November 1922. His birthplace was stated as Swaffham, and having visited the place recently, I was unaware of this fact. [This link is to an earlier post about a visit to Swaffham] This reminded me of my own mini discovery a couple of years ago whilst cutting the grass, my foot slipped down a rabbit hole and I grated my ankle on a hard object which turned out to be the remains of a brick wall.

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Local Archaeologist Gets Involved

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Wall Painting Fragment of Lime Plaster
I was recently introduced to a local archaeologist who lives in Aberford and we have since discussed some of my findings at Parlington, on Sunday this last weekend I showed her some pieces of the fragments of hand painted lime plaster discovered in the demolition rubble. They ares quite possibly seventeenth or early eighteenth century. I had already shown the fragments to the curator at Lotherton Hall and there is an article on the Parlington history site here. However she was so impressed that we got stuck in and dug out some more, luckily the weather was excellent throughout most of the day, so we were able to find not only quite a number of additional pieces, but also some large chunks of plaster coving the same pattern as found in that location earlier and detailed here on the history site.

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Spent Cartridges

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Recent excavations in the area of the Dining Room at the old Hall have uncovered some spent 303 calibre cartridge cases. Thus far two have been unearthed, one in much better condition than the other, the picture below is of the two cartridges.

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Stained Glass

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

The Gascoigne sisters were known for their interest in stained glass and the nearby Almshouses built in the early 1840’s at the behest of the two heiresses is a monument to both the skills of local stonemasons and the artistic talent of glaziers of the day. It is thought that the stained glass however is not the work of the sisters, but believed to have been commissioned by them. However traces of stained glass have been unearthed at Parlington, which could be described as “craft work”, rather than the more formal pieces found in the Almshouses. During excavations in the early autumn of 2007 fragments of glass, only 2mm thick were discovered in the area once adjacent to the Drawing Room and rear of the conservatory.Fragments of Stained GlassThe Rose  is particularly interesting, it seems similar stained glass has been identified at Castle Oliver in Ireland.

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