It was another day of slow but steady progress today, but we were rewarded with our first glimpse of in-situ structure.

Work began today on removing the mortar-rich rubble deposit that covers the trench. As the day wore on it became apparent that this deposit is quite substantial; so far we've removed about 20cm or more from most of the 4.5m square trench and there is no sign yet of its base.

This deposit is very reminiscent of the fill of the nearby cellar, and if we have found a similar feature, it could continue down to a considerable depth. The rubble continues to produce quite a variety of shaped bricks that would have formed architectural details such as string courses, corbels and decorative offsets, and there have also been quite a number of fragments and one almost complete glazed floor tiles in green and brown glaze, possibly dating to the early Tudor phase of the palace when it belonged to Sir Thomas Lovell.

Meanwhile Trench 2 produced a big morale boost late in the morning in the form of a substantial in-situ brick wall right in its south western corner. The wall appears to survive only to two courses and is laid on a mortar foundation in a fairly substantial foundation cut.

It may be on the same alignment as a very thin wall we found on the inside edge of the nearby D shaped turret (see schematic diagram), but is obviously much more substantial. We will in time want to see more of this wall to understand it better, and will also want to know whether it has spurs that run into Trench 1, but we have a fair bit more work to do to answer these and more questions.

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