A member of the SVHS made a visit to the
Dernford
Mill archaeological excavations being carried out by the
Hertford based firm, Archaeological Solutions, and was kindly shown
around some of the more interesting trenches by the Project Officer,
Becky Renell. In one there was a somewhat enigmatic run of two
gently curving narrow ditches which she thought might have formed
the base of a circular animal enclosure. In another trench a much
deeper ditch was uncovered but continuations of this were not seen
in neighbouring ditches.Perhaps this could have been part of a
defensive ditch round the settlement. There were archaeological
finds in 17 out of the 94 trenches which had been cut during
October, these being mainly cut animal bones, and Iron Age and Saxon
pottery fragments. The star find was a beautifully worked flint
knife with two very sharp blades. While probably of late Stone Age
origin this was definitely not the work of a savage!
