We made a good start today on the first day of our annual two-week exploration of Henry VIII's Elsyng Palace. as previously explained we're opening two trenches on the interior of the palace's inner gatehouse, in order to better understand its interior layout and footprint.

Trench 1, a large square trench, has been laid out behind the line of a long thin wall we first saw in 2023, which has integral octagonal columns and we think may be the front of an open colonnade or loggia like structure. We hope that this trench will reveal evidence of the building's internal rooms and perhaps locate its back edge.

Trench 2 has been laid out very nearby to get as close as tree roots will allow us to a number of wall lines seen in previous trenches, particularly a complex junction of multiple walls seen in 2024 (see linked diagram above).

We're still in the topsoil removal phase at the moment so there's nothing much to report yet, although we are already coming on to the ubiquitous layer of post-palace deomolition rubble in both trenches. It is perhaps notable that the rubble is very coarse and in some places may possibly form a rough alignnment, but whether this is coincidence or a sign of intact structure below, time will tell.