Voyages to the House of Diversion 
Seventeenth-Century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Science

 April 2016 - Down in the Valley Below
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 After a very busy few weeks at Farnborough April saw a return to Hanwell with a little more back-filling (yes there's still more to be done) and a general tidy up. We also began a determined campaign to get to grips with survey work further down the valley. A major impetus for this was accessing the latest data set for the LIDAR scan of the lower parts of the valley. After a bit of enhancement this is an amazing image which will repay a lot of study, look at how the water parterre shows up. Of immediate relevance to this month's work are the boundary bank and ridge and furrow in the paddock to the south, profiles of both of these were recorded. The very odd looking ditch which curves across the same paddock and appears to cut the ridge and furrow is particularly intriguing.  The location of a new sluice which is under investigation seems to mark the end of a narrow ditch that cuts across the valley bottom. Also marked on is the approximate location of a section of stream bed which appears to be boarded, a little like the bases of some of the sluices at Farnborough, very puzzling. All of this new round of investigative work has gone hand in hand with Peter's systematic survey of the lower part of the valley with metal detector. No particularly stunning finds, much of what came up seems to relate not surprisingly to nineteenth-century agricultural activity.
April





April      April
Still going strong, the finds tent after a little repair and a tidy up.                                                     Peter and Luke plotting the ups and downs of the ridge and furrow.






April
Profiles of earthworks drawn up.






April
Peter in action with detector and spade.





April
A typical product of his efforts a length of chain plus hook after cleaning and treatment with preservative.

 




April
Hard to see I know but there are boards at the bottom of that there stream.




April     April
We had been aware of these few stones poking out above the bank but a couple of days of excavation revealed quite an elaborate structure...




April
which we are currently interpreting as a sluice.





As the work continued this quite small feature became increasingly complex. Peter working on the western section of wall showed that there was a return half way along the wall narrowing it as it approached the gap whilst at the other end, just beyond the end of the wall was a layer of thin ironstone slabs, remains of paving or a capping for the bank perhaps. Plenty more to do here.



April     April
Views looking west, the built up corner of the return shows just behind Peter's trowel and at the other end stone slabs start to appear.




April
General view looking north east as some of the clay filling from the gaps starts to come out.




As the month progressed this small corner of the park became increasingly complex. the two stubs of walls showed a number of peculiar structural features, the clay 'blocking turned into a clay backing for the wall and a rubble bank appeared behind the east end of the wall and finds amounted to zero. Lying behind this we have the possible line of ditch as hinted at in the LIDAR (see above) and a deep deposit of darker loamy soil. One day it will all make sense.




April    April
North face of the west end of the wall with clay backing.   Similar view as we revel more of clay bank behind the walling and Peter completes the elevation drawing.



   April
General view looking west: slabs and rubble bank in the foreground, centre line of possible ditch marked by yellow string.