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. Euan, a student from the University of Glasgow, organized the day and took his team mates to places he was researching – the exact spots where members of his university had been killed on the …
Day 6 UPDATE – Achievements so far
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 trenches have offered up interesting archaeology. Before we left site for the weekend we had a trench tour so that everyone got to see what all the other teams have been up to (the site is …
Day 5 UPDATE – special guests and excellent archeology!
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 since then he has been passionate about the battlefield his ancestor fought on. Our famous visitor was shown around the site, and even appeared in a live feed to a school in Kent, where Charlie …
Day 4 UPDATE – Uncovering trench 45
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 of the building remains in this trench is much better than expected considering that these were damaged and destroyed in the battle itself. By the end of the day a well-made drainage culvert, which ran …
Day 3 UPDATE – Reading to remember
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 work is paying off nicely. Phil’s team has been excavating the base of the walls in the courtyard and now have a lot of information on construction techniques used in the buildings destroyed during the …
Day 2 UPDATE – BRICK WALLS AND MUSKET BALLS
“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 later in the day, due to heavy rainfall the previous night. Napoleon had to wait for the mud to dry so he could manoeuvre his artillery. Yesterday Tony struggled with the same issue, unable to …
Day 1 UPDATE – Back at it again!
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, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, all with different backgrounds ranging from students to military veterans. For some, like Phil Harding and Professor Tony Pollard, it’s their second year and we are glad …
Final Day
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 packed up and on our way home early tomorrow morning. It’s been two weeks we wont forget. We’ve made new discoveries and new friends. Some have tried archaeology for the first time and others have given their …
Day 10 update – The great debate
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 will soon be time to head home, but before then there’s still a lot of archaeology to do. We’re enjoying some great debates on our Facebook page and thank you to everyone who has contributed. …
Day 9 update- A few finds
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 you appreciate how many people have worked, lived, fought and died in this small area of Belgium. We’ve pulled out a selection of finds to highlight these themes. We hope you enjoy them Mystery Object …