Urgent correction – not boys but boys and girl!
The sterling work carried out in Trench 2 has not been performed by just 'the boys'. So by way of apology, here are the names of all those who have worked to uncover the chancel foundations: Chris Horn, an archaeology student at Canterbury College and from the Canterbury Archaeology Trust: Richard Helm, Peter Seary AND Patricia Macri.
The search continues
The search for Greyfriars began in Trench 1. Since Saturday, the tile floor of the cloister – a covered walk – has emerged, and this was found to continue in Trench 3 to the north. In addition, the foundations of the cloister's arcade – a series of pillars holding up the roof – have also been unearthed. The tiles in Trench 1 will now be removed to investigate a white, chalky layer below – this might just indicate the existence of an even older floor.
Despite all this work, there is still no sign of the south nave wall. However, all this might change soon.
Trench 3 has been taken to the limit of the site – beyond the school fence at its northern end is an enormous spoil heap that would be impossible to move. However, just to the east of this is a suitable open space. According to Barney Sloane, the University of Reading archaeologist in charge of this part of the Greyfriars site, having to move sideways won't matter since we are looking for a wall running east-west – a north-south trench should hit it.
But will the new Trench 6 produce the goods? Well, if John Gater has anything to do with it, it will – and with bells on. The geophys team are fairly humming with excitement about a spectacularly clear radar trace over the area in which the trench will be dug. This shows two anomalies, 3 metres apart. Could these be the wall of the cloister and the wall of the nave?
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Radar anomalies.
Click for larger version
A human finger bone.
Finger slasher?
In Trench 5, Jenni Butterworth – although hampered by the water pipe for the now-long-gone Victorian greenhouse – has dug down to the base of the crosswalk pillar and so has found the putative floor level of the chancel. To everyone's great delight, surveying has shown that this is at the same level as the floor in Trench 3 (the cloister). This finding gives us a much better understanding of at least this stage in the friary's development.
Jenni has also found one half of a two-sided riveted bone knife handle and what is possibly another human finger bone.
Those who have been saying that there is a link between knives and finger bones are being dismissed as unduly pessimistic …
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Father Andrew Fraser
Order of Friars Minor Conventual
I am the Vocation Director of the English Province of Blessed Agnellus of Pisa and I the Guardian from the Franciscan International Study Centre. That is a medieval title and it means that I am the boss of the students here, there are 50 of them and they come from all over the world. I joined the Franciscan order after I left grammar school at the age of 17, in 1954, and was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers in Cheshire.
I moved to Canterbury in March this year and it is so wonderful to see all this work going on. I feel privileged to be here because this is the place of the first Franciscan Friary in Great Britain. Agnellus was personally commanded to come to England in 1224 by St Francis of Assisi. I would very much like to see the remains of our first Friary here, this is all very exciting. It really is a very happy life being a friar, you have job security for life and you do it for the love of our Mighty Lord. But I don't always dress like this, I've got my shorts on underneath this!
To contact Father Andrew for more details on the Franciscan Order please write to him at Cupertino Friary, F.I.S.C., Giles Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NA or email andrewofmconv@hotmail.com.
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Believers and doubters
As Time Team Live ends, Trench 6 continues to cause controversy. The northern end is now completely empty. However, Barney and Carenza believe strongly that in the end near the school fence are the very robbed-out foundations of the south nave wall, Barney pointing to pieces of flint at the bottom as proof of this. Carenza also says that the roof was probably tiled because medieval roof tiles have been coming out in the spoil, and the floor had tiles like those made at Tyler Hill (fragments were found in some of the upper layers).
However, Canterbury Archaeological Trust's Peter Clark is a cautious man and he has his doubts. 'I'd expect there to be more of the foundations there, even if it was robbed out,' he says. 'The flint? Well, it wasn't used in the chancel foundations, was it?'
The jury will remain out on this for a long, long time.
Cries and yelps
Time Team's Katie Hirst, CAT's Simon Pratt and their excavating colleagues have worked like Trojans (or Franciscans?) to get to the bottom of Trench 4.
Cries of despair when their hoped-for hearth became simply a pile of burned debris. Yelps of joy when pieces of 13th-century pottery were found in an 'occupation layer' – that is, a layer consisting of the detritus of everyday life. It is not possible to date when the pottery got into this layer. For instance, someone in the 17th century could have collected 400-year-old pottery – Simon knows of Minoan pottery being discovered in a 4th-century AD Roman site in Dover!
But the presence of the pottery is a good sign!
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'The youthful monk is bidden to wash his hands before his meals, to keep his knife sharp and clean and say his grace. He is not to seize upon the vegetables, not to use his own spoon in the common dish; not to lean upon the table; not to cut or dirty the table cloth … He is to wipe his knife before he cuts the common cheese, and not to taste first whether it be good enough for him. Finally, his meal ended, he is to clean his knife and cover it with his napkins.'
From the Babees Book for the instruction of novices at Barnwell.
According to the finds expert Ian Riddler, this carved piece could also be from a chess set.
A late 16th-century antler-horn knife handle carved with a horse's head. Found in Trench
2a at the Greyfriars site.
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