Part of me's sad this placement's nearly over. Only one more day to go. I couldn't have asked for a nicer boss...

Today I worked on my mapping guidelines documents again. I think I've pretty much finished it. He'll have to take them the rest of the way. They seem to work, though. It's important that all the different 'monuments', 'activities' and 'consultations' are mapped consistently, you see.

I also put a few more reports on the system. There was a Desk-based Assessment for the old Leicester City stadium in Filbert Street. It's been demolished now. The archaeologists concluded that there wasn't likely to be any surviving archaeology (because of the depth of foundations), but the South Stand was a fine piece of 1930's architecture that ought to be recorded. I wonder if it was?

One was an Evaluation of a site on the other side of the road from the Jewry Wall. I can see it from my window. It's the Guru Nanak somethingorother temple. They were building a car park. Didn't find any archaeology, though. It might have been deeper than they went. Who knows. The other Evaluation was a site in Aylestone, where they were building some houses. Didn't find anything there, either. Can't remember what road it was. Ah well.

We went on a site visit, too. To the site of the Merlin Works. It was a dye factory of some sort. The archaeologists were complaining about the asbestos and barrels of chemicals that were lying around. They're having to wear white suits because of the health risks. Maybe the suits reflected the heat a bit. It was hot today. Too hot for me...

The reason for digging at the Works is that the site used to be right next to the river, on the alignment of the town's western wall. If there was actually a wall there. With the river it wasn't really necessary to build a wall. I suppose that's one of the questions they're hoping to answer. So far they've found a paleo channel (old river channel), a bit of a wall, and in another trench they've got some ditches. The other features are a bit vague. I'm sure they'll be explained eventually. ;)

I'd met one of the archaeologists before. He asked me whether I was at school. I said I was doing the MA, and he apologised for totally misreading my age. He said he recognised me, when I mentioned that I sometimes hang out with Matt when he's smoking. But it was too late.

People on forums say I'm old, people IRL think I'm younger than I am! Weird.

I think that's everything.

I did take a whole bunch of pictures today, though. They're all in my Yahoo Photolibrary. In the "Leicester Walking Home" album. There are some of the Jewry Wall, and a view of the office I've been working in taken through the arches of the Wall. There's St Nicholas church, the Saxon predecessor of which probably incorporated the Jewry Wall (which is why it's still there). A few views of the Baths in general. Views west, north and east from on top of the footbridge. A photo of the Norman Undercroft I keep going on about.

From the Castle area there's St Mary de Castro (a nice bit of Norman architecture), Castle House (lovely timber framing), the Great Hall (which is a medieval timber framed building underneath the facade) and the Castle Gateway. Then there's Leicester Prison (yes, it looks more like a castle than the castle does) and a few views of the aqueduct. One of which has the new football stadium in the background.

That's it. I don't think I've missed anything out.

;)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 9:57 PM