Another great day's digging in Forty Hall today, uncovering more palace features, albeit mostly confined to trench 2. The demolition rubble in trench 2 has mostly been removed now, revealing a stony surface to the wall's west side, as well as an offset course of bricks (typical in the foundation of a wall).

The other side of the wall was probably the most interesting feature we uncovered today though - demolition rubble together with large pieces of lime mortar was removed this afternoon to eventually reveal the beginnings of an area of bricks, laid edge-on to form a hard-wearing floor. (Too early for pics yet - stay tuned tomorrow!)

This almost certainly confirms our suspicion that the wall is not the end of our building, but more likely an interior partition wall. Late this afternoon we laid out an extension to trench 2 which will eventually reveal more of this brick surface and hopefully either the end wall of our building or yet another partition wall.

Further extensions to trench 2 to see more of the brick floor are looking likely.

Meanwhile, our strategy in trench 1 has changed slightly - we've opened a long, thinner trench next to trench 1 crossing what we know to be the wall line - hopefully once we've got deep enough this will reveal the wall.

Trench 3 made slow progress - the most significant feature being the line of rubble we recorded yesterday. This afternoon, the rubble was carefully removed leaving what looks like a 'robber trench' - all that remains of a thoughroughly demolished wall.

Tomorrow we should be able to see much more of the new brick floor, and hopefully get a better idea as to its function. Current hypotheses include courtyard surfaces, corridors or working floors (such as kitchens).

At any rate we should have a nice exposure of the surface and some nice structural features for the public to see at the weekend - be sure to come and say hello!