Help to uncover the secrets ofBrede Woods

The Woodland Trust says it can take more volunteers for the dig, which started this Tuesday and continues until April 26.

The project, which is part of a £50,000 funding package from the Heritage Lottery Fund, is looking for participants to take part in field work including archaeological excavation and surveying, washing and marking finds, as well as a host of support activities including archive research, photography and recording.

All of the activity will help the Trust learn more about the history of the woods, which goes back hundreds of years.

Volunteers will be able to revisit a previously excavated Roman ironworking site to carry out a much larger excavation.

Test trenches showed extensive evidence of ironworking, with iron slag waste, roasted ore and fragments that had come from one or more furnaces, with a recent find of a late Roman coin just upstream of the site appearing to confirm its Roman date.

It is hoped the larger area of excavation will find remains of furnaces and other features associated with ironworking such as ore-roasting and smithing hearths, pottery and other artefacts.

David Bonsall, site manager for the Woodland Trust said: “We’ve already uncovered some interesting finds which are helping us learn more about the complex history of Brede and we hope that the Big Dig will unearth further forgotten relics.

“People do not need any experience as the digs are led by professional archaeologists, just plenty of enthusiasm!”

To register visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/brede and click on ‘The Big Dig’, email [email protected] or call 01323 811785.