Archaeological Dig Open Day, Mile End

Saturday 25th September, 2021
10:30-15:00

Our ‘Buried Heritage’ team, led by Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service (WAAS), are carrying out a community dig in the woods at the back of Woodgate Sawmills, Forest of Dean.

Trained volunteers are completing the excavation, taking place over two weekends in September.

There is a Public Open Day taking place on Sat 25th Sept when our ‘Buried Heritage’ archaeology team will be providing guided tours throughout the day, at 10.30am, 11.30am, 1.00pm, 2.00pm & 3.00pm.

Senior Project Manager at Worcestershire Archaeology, Robin Jackson, says:

“This site provides a great opportunity for local people to uncover the secrets of their parish and learn more about archaeology both on their doorstep and in the Forest as a whole. At present it is a bit of a mystery when and why this enclosure was constructed but it is that unpredictability and sense of discovery that makes archaeology so fantastic to be involved in.”

Public Open day – essentials:

• We may need to limit group sizes, so if too many people arrive for one tour we might need to ask you to wait to join the next session.
• This is an exploratory dig, so we are not sure what will be found. It is exciting to be able to explore and reveal the past like this.
• Location: please view map below.
• Car parking:  we ask that you park very considerately in nearby roads as local venues in the area, such as schools and rugby club, are not able to provide overflow car parking. 

Background about the dig:

This is the third enclosure that the Buried Heritage project has investigated. The first, at Yorkley, turned out to be an ironworking site of medieval date (mid 12th to 14th century AD) and the second, at Ruardean Hill, was revealed to be a small settlement dating from the Roman period (1st to 4th century AD).  These two enclosures, like the one at Mile End, are defined by a bank and ditch still visible as an earthwork in the Forest.  At each site the bank is visible as a slight rise alongside a depression marking the partially filled in ditch.

The questions we’ll be asking at Mile End are: When was this enclosure constructed? What was it for? Will it be like the one at Ruardean or the one at Yorkley? Or, might it be something entirely different?

The first four days of investigation completed last weekend (18th and 19th Sep) saw five small trenches opened up across the site revealing the bank and ditch and parts of the interior. The ditch has so far turned out to be much shallower than the ditches excavated at Yorkley and Ruardean. To date we’ve had no finds that to help us to understand when this was constructed or what it might have been used for, so it is all a bit of a mystery.

This week the team hope to reveal more of the site and, with luck, some dateable finds.

Mile End dig map: