All this week, students from the Archaeological Department of the University of Southampton have been putting the skills they have learnt into practice and surveying the historic estate here at Chawton House Library.
The Jane Austen-inspired teams have worked tirelessly and enthusiastically, even baking a Chawton House Library-shaped cake complete with total station surveyor & resistivity surveyor (curtesy of Lego)! Here is the penultimate blog from ‘Team Wickham’, we can’t wait to hear about their final conclusions!
Chawton House Library cake (baked by Alice Parker) with total station surveyor & resistivity surveyor (curtesy of Lego).
So we are up to day four of our Easter survey at Chawton House Library, and the grounds. Today team ‘Wickham’ (the team who were outside on day one) were divided into two sub-teams. Sub-Team ‘Lydia’ (my team) were situated in the entrance hall, office and great hall today, whilst the other half of team ‘Wickham’ were down in the cellars. In the morning we surveyed the ceiling, the floor and a part of the entrance, to create a 3D plan of the first floor of the house. The ceiling was of particular interest, as there were wooden beams as supports in the ceiling. We took measurements from all corners we could get the red laser into, and the total station ‘talked’ to the computer and recording our measurements as we took them.
We completed the entrance hall survey just before lunch and once this was done moved into the office. In this room we once again took readings of the floor, for a floor plan and the ceiling, but we also surveyed in the fireplace, two cupboards (which were either side of the fireplace) and the two windows which face the South Lawn and Lime Avenue, and the window to the west which looks out down the long driveway, leading up to the front of the house. The reason for taking these points (especially the cupboards) is that the office may hold more secrets than was previously thought.
Jefferiss Mathews surveying the Great Hall at Chawton House Library
In the last couple of hours we managed to get a floor plan of the great hall and tomorrow we have to survey the ceiling and the large fireplace that is situated on the eastern wall. The other half of team Wickham were working down in the dark basements of the house. Although, the basements are cold, they hold many interesting features, all of which have an impact on the rooms above, that we were surveying today.
So tomorrow is our last day on this archaeological survey and this is our second to last post; we hope that you will enjoy reading our conclusions!
By Alice Parker and Jefferiss Mathews.