The Lodge Moor POW Camp Archaeological report is now available online!

Day 1

The camp reception station was up and running on Monday morning, ready to welcome our volunteer archaeologists to site. We brought lots of tools!

Our newly orientated archaeologists jumped right in without hesitation! Work began on clearing away vegetation and overgrowth across site.

Day 2

We began finding a series of exciting artefacts, including half of a German military identification ‘dog tag’  and a button which might be from a uniform shirt.

Day 3

Our intrepid volunteers continued with the dig, uncovering more of the camp hut structures.

We’re uncovering evidence of the living conditions on site – including the remains of these mysteriously small objects! They’re metal and the back one has a blue painted handle rivetted on. Hopefully our post-excavation team will shed some light on them soon!

Day 4

Despite a touch of rain, our volunteer archaeologists persevered and continued uncovering the camp hut bases and investigating the areas around the outside.

Day 5

Happily, the weather cheered up and our volunteer archaeologists were able to carry on! A third camp hut base began to be uncovered, as well as a shower block (complete with structures to support plumbing!).

We’ve heard and collected more stories, particularly about the Italian POW’s of the camp, and are starting to see more of the lived experiences of the prisoners in the archaeological record.

Days 6 and 7

A massive effort was made by our increasingly powerful crew of archaeologists to clean the camp hut bases in preparation for final photography. They were looking beautiful by the end of the weekend!

Cleaning continue on the ‘garden’ and pathway areas in between the hut entrances. Our team tidied up their trench edges and cleaned around the bricks – lots of good detail was emerging now.

And, finally, the finds kept on coming! We’ve had more domestic items, such as porcelain pottery and small nails, and are accumulating a large collection of rather interesting buttons!

Day 8

As we began to near the end of our excavation, the team focussed on recording the archaeology that had been uncovered the week before. In particular, we lay down our gridded drawing frame to make sure we drew all the lovely bricks accurately!

At the other two camp hut bases, work continued to uncover what, if any, brick features had been built in front of the huts and in their ‘gardens’ and pathways, and to clean the concrete structures off.

Lots of fun was still to be had!

Days 9 and 10

Recording was in full swing for the final two days as our daring volunteer archaeologists pushed ahead – measuring, drawing, photographing, and surveying all the archaeology that has been unearthed!

Conclusions

Over the course of 10 days, the team managed to clear, excavate, and record one shower block, four camp hut bases, and a series of associated outdoor areas such as ‘gardens’, drainage, and pathways. The report is being finalised, and a link to it on the ADS will be posted here once it’s live.