So I'm back from my two days off, and I completely missed the kiln building and firing! But fortunately someone took some photos. Here's a photo of the course participants laying the grate at the bottom of the kiln:

And Jo and potter Jon Cane supervising the job!

And after the brick structure is built, the clay being prepared to cover the kiln:

And here's the kiln this morning waiting to be opened! It was still warm, and smelt lovely. Jon tried to produce a reduced environment for the pots (so as to get the lovely dark Nene Valley pottery colour) but they've all come out white - albino coloured! Still a good firing otherwise. We're going to sell some of these at our open day - those not made by participants at the Medieval and Roman Pottery Making training courses.

As for the dig, it's going well! The recording of the old areas 1, 2 and 3 has taken longer than expected, as we keep finding more features! However, we're getting to the point where we need to draw a line under it and make sure everything we have dug is properly recorded. Accordingly it's been a busy day of section and plan drawing. The newer diggers have been ploughing on with excavating the new areas, including some Saxon and Iron Age features, and we've even found a bit of residual Roman pottery. Generally the pattern seems to be: Saxon at the top of the field, Saxon and Medieval in the middle, and Medieval and modern at the bottom. Phil and Rog in the new Area 2 have kept digging down into their ditch, which gets ever deeper! We're now wondering whether it's a defensive or boundary ditch, though frustratingly we've found a modern field drain in it which confuses our stratigraphy no end. Hoping it all comes out in the wash tomorrow - our last digging day on site!