Dig Diary Archive

In the last Dig Diary of 2020, we review a challenging but successful year, and look ahead to the future of Waterloo Uncovered ...
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In this special fundraising edition of Waterloo Uncovered's Dig Diary, we bring you news of a brave skydiving challenge, our plans for a word record ...
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In this month's dig diary, we look at the effect coronavirus has had on archaeology, update you on an upcoming miniature model of Waterloo, and ...
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Read on to find out what Waterloo Uncovered have been up to in July, including our nomination for a Charity Times Award, test pitting in ...
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Catch up on the latest Waterloo Uncovered news including a new comic, a look back at #WaterlooWeek and an update on our Summer School programme ...
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Catch up on the latest Waterloo Uncovered news, including your chance to get involved in creating a large scale diorama of Waterloo; an update on ...
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Welcome to the April edition of Waterloo Uncovered's Dig Diary! Read on to find out what the WU family have been up to, including an ...
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WU's Spring Update - find out about what we've been up to in 2020... from being published to winning awards, it's all go! ...
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This Winter, we've been busy! Catch up with all the Waterloo Uncovered news today ...
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A Cornucopia of Cornfield Finds Where have we been? A large cornfield near Mont-Saint-Jean farm. What did we find?  A large amount of musket balls, a 6-inch unexploded howitzer ...
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An Explosive Discovery In a field in the vicinity of Mont-Saint-Jean farm, an earth-shaking find was discovered yesterday afternoon. Serving Coldstream Guardsman Oliver Horncastle, whom ...
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A Possible Amputation Pit? In the orchard of Mont-Saint-Jean, Waterloo Uncovered’s metal detectorists picked up a signal that indicated the presence of a large metal ...
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Military Medicine at Mont-Saint-Jean This morning, retired consultant, curator of the Royal College of Surgeons and curator of the Military Surgical Museum at Ferme de ...
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It’s the first day of our second week here at Waterloo Uncovered! After a weekend of recovering from their exhausting hard week last week, the ...
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#WaterlooWeekend Open Day The working week may be over, but a group of veterans, archaeologists and students donned their hi-vis jackets regardless yesterday morning. Their ...
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Redcoats Return As the first week of Waterloo Uncovered 2019 draws to a close, the sites of Hougoumont and Mont-Saint-Jean have once more been been ...
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As the first fantastic week of Waterloo Uncovered 2019 nears its end, we’re taking you behind the scenes of the dig and shining a light ...
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Reading to Remember 2019 When Private John Peter Leonhard first laid eyes on Hougoumont farm, he recounted the utter hopelessness the sight instilled in him; ...
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Evidence of Evacuation? In our freshly dug trenches along the east edge of the Mont-Saint-Jean orchard, an exciting discovery is in progress. The farm of ...
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Battlefield Beginnings On Sunday 7th of July, the Waterloo Uncovered team gathered at the main museum on the Waterloo battlefield, Memorial 1815, to officially kick ...
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It has been wonderful to be on site and to be part of this amazing community. Who knew that such a diverse group of strangers ...
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Julian and Ben Parker, a father and son duo on site have a very tangible link to the battle of Waterloo. Julian, an ex army ...
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At Waterloo Uncovered, we often get visitors whose ancestors fought in the battle. Last Friday, we were visited by a group who toured the battlefield ...
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Day 8 has been an exciting day with two new trenches dug in promising places! At the end of the Dig Diary, we will give ...
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Sam Wilson, explaining the lifecycle of a trench to participants Sam Alexander Wilson (30) is a professional archaeologist from Basingstoke. He’s been part of the Waterloo ...
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We’re getting a much clearer sense of the physical features of the battle landscape. In today’s dig diary we’re going to look at work on ...
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It’s Monday. The week has started again, and we are excited to be back digging. Today, there’s more evidence for how archaeology creates as many ...
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Waterloo Uncovered Archaeology Weekend An important part of our work is to tell people about what we do. This year, for the first time, we ...
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Sebastiaan Loche, featured in front of Château d’Hougoumont WU People: Sebastiaan Loche Sebastiaan Loche (43) from Zwolle in the Netherlands, is a veteran serving in ...
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It’s Friday Finds Day! Check our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts to see the highlights of this week. We’ve had success at the Garden Wall excavations – ...
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Hans Droppert, hard at work cleaning a musket ball Hans Droppert (63) is a veteran of the Dutch Royal Navy Reserve from Heinkenszand (NL). He ...
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We are starting to understand what happened inside the Northern Gate. Unfortunately, sometimes we are getting a better picture of what happened in that place ...
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Sylvain Robert-Malbete, learning about Hougoumont Sylvain Robert-Malbete (23) is a Coldstream Guardsman from London. He is learning more about metal detecting and Napoleonic history while ...
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Max Marwick with his new trowel Max Marwick (22) is a student of history at Sussex University, Brighton. After the summer, he’ll start the second ...
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Today, we have been working hard to make it back home in time for the match (in case you ask: England are playing Croatia in ...
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Keanie Trick Keanie Trick (23) is an aircraft technician from Devon, UK. This year’s her second time on the dig. Keanie (named after actor Keanu ...
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Whereas we felt so welcomed by the sun two days ago, today was a different story: the skies are grey and the temperature has dropped ...
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The day starts off with a short debriefing. We are warned of the massive-but-noiseless cows that may suddenly appear and are easily startled. After some ...
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It feels as if the Belgian sun could not wait to see us return, either. On the one hand this is great: we could not ...
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It was a weird feeling coming on site this morning. The team was ready to get back to work, but at the same time, we ...
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The project is starting to come to a close. After a week and a half of digging and excavation, the teams are now in the ...
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The Weird-Wobbly-Wednesday-Dip has kicked in full force. People were tired, and when we arrived on site it was hot and muggy, which did not help ...
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Water and sun cream was our main priority today. After a dreary Monday, Tuesday was sunny and hot. While the sun was much appreciated, many ...
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After a well-deserved weekend in which we either explored what Belgium had to offer or the poolside of the hotel, the group was ready to ...
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With the prospect of a relaxing weekend, everyone was eager to start digging today. The digging continued in all of the trenches, as well as ...
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Morning brief in the sun. After the rain we had yesterday, today was incredibly sunny. Luckily, the tents provide some shade, but Cornelius’ “don’t forget ...
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Today’s dig started off rainy and overcast. This, however, did not dampen morale, and everyone was excited to get digging. Tents were set up over ...
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Fritz, a Dutch veteran hard at work in the formal gardens. Yesterday on our first day of digging, the first trenches to be opened were ...
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Phil Harding whipping his team into shape! The Day 1 Dig Diary stated that the 2017 field season is a year of firsts, and not ...
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Sunday was the first official day of Waterloo Uncovered 2017! After a long journey for many of our team members (many arriving en masse by ...
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After two fantastic weeks of digging and discoveries, our excavation has come to an end. The team has been doing some great work and as ...
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Today the final trenches were opened. They were in the east end of the killing zone and ran from the base of the garden wall ...
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Phil’s team has been working very hard trying to find the original front wall of the building that stood against the north wall of the ...
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Stu and his crew have been very busy creating a data base. They collected all the data provided by the survey team and put it ...
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Today, Waterloo Uncovered visited the site of the battle of the Somme and remembered those who fought and died on those fields 100 years ago ...
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We’re now at the half way mark and our teams have done exceptionally well. Everyone’s put in a lot of work and all of the ...
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Today we had a surprise visit from the Duke of Wellington! He first visited to Hougoumont was with his grandfather 58 years ago, and ever ...
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David Ulke, an ex-RAF nursing officer, is one of the team excavating trench 45 in the courtyard under the supervision of Phil Harding. The survival ...
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We’re on day 3 of our two week dig and things are going great! Everybody’s working hard on the unravelling of the battle and our ...
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“Yesterday, I felt a bit like Napoleon,” said Tony Pollard with a smile. The reason was because the battle in 1815 didn’t start off until ...
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So here we are! The Waterloo Uncovered team of 2016 has found its way back to Belgium. We’ve got people from all over the place, ...
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Just a (very) short post today. More results to follow next week as we process our finds, thoughts and theories. After a log day backfilling trenches, we’re ...
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We’re moving towards the end of our second week at Hougoumont Farm and the time just seems to fly by. Before we know it, it ...
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The finds coming out of Hougoumont Farm tell many different stories, some of battles, some of home life and some of modern life. It makes ...
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Phil Harding, President of Defence Archaeology Group There are positives to digging in the rain… no really there are! Firstly, the rain changes the look ...
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We’re back for another week of excavating after a much needed rest over the weekend but before we launch into new discoveries and points for ...
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Day 4 of our two week dig and we’ve turned our attention to an area that is referred to as the sunken way, a ditch ...
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Things are really taking shape here at Hougoumont as we reach day 3 although sharing a field full of Belgium Blues certainly creates a few ...
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French musket ball with brick dust Whilst we continue to explore our trenches in the walled garden a lot of our attention has been on ...
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The countdown is over, we’re finally here at Hougoumont Farm and it feels so good to back. What was instantly noticeable since our visit in ...
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