Another fine and productive day in the woods of Forty Hall today as we reached the end of the first week of our two-week dig on the site of Elsyng Palace, with its usual compliment of answers and new head-scratchers.

This afternoon we finished removing all of the rubble context from Trench 4, with no sign at all of the deep cellar that we had expected.

Although we still think the wall that crosses the trench is the back edge of the gatehouse, we now think that the gatehouse interior may have been subdivided, with the cellar occupying only perhaps the front half of the building.

If this is the case then there ought to be a subdividing wall (paralell with the main wall in Trench 4), which formed one side of the cellar, potentially connecting to the octagonal pillar base we found part of last year.

To test this new hypothesis, late in the afternoon we opened an extension to Trench 4 which will take us back very close to the location of the pillar, just next to it where a wall line might run. If nothing else this should hopefully trace an edge to the deep loosely packed rubble context that orginated the cellar interpretation in the first place.

Since this extension was opened quite late in the day we haven't got any further than topsoil removal and removal of some of the upper demolition rubble layer that covers the whole site.

Meanwhile in Trench 2, yesterday's trench extension was completed which has revealed the complete footprint of the new gatehouse turret.

The turret outline is essentially octagonal but with one square corner. As we expected, the wall on that corner continues to run west and most probably forms the south side of the gatehouse building. Interestingly, there is also a wedge shaped reinforcement in that corner, making the wall very thick at that point, perhsps not surprising if the gatehouse was, as 16th century records state, four storeys tall.

Meanwhile at the other end of Trench 2, yesterday afternoon we had found a peculiar section of mortared-together roof tiles in the section of the trench next to the corner of last year's free-standing turret.

Today we laid out a small extension in the corner of the trench to reveal this feature and try to get an idea of what it is.

The extension revealed the stack of tiles (about 6 tiles deep), running for about half a metre and possibly turning a corner (under the left baulk in the picture). The extension is not fully excavated yet and the purpose of the feature is still not clear, but it may be associated with the construction phase of the polygonal tower.

Over in Trench 3 the extended facade wall line had still not emerged by the end of the afternoon, nor, puzzlingly, had any further signs of its truncation which we saw last year. Late in the day, a hint of rubble in one corner of the trench might suggest that the wall may have done an unexpected dog-leg, but this is a theory that will have to be tested next week.

Monday is a day off for paperwork and finds processing, but we'll be back on Tuesday to continue unravelling the mysteries Elsyng relentlessly throws at us!

A very successful and well attended open day today on day 7 of our two-week dig in Forty Hall today, as nearly 200 people came to enjoy the displays and activities and see the newly discovered remains of Elsyng Palace's inner gatehouse.

We were pleased to see a steady flow of visitors all day, who were suitably impressed by the splendid Tudor brickwork on show in Trench 2 and even managed to sell all our on-hand copies of our book Elsyng: Enfield's Lost Palace Revealed (order yours here!) and several of our others.

Late this morning we laid out the anticipated extension to Trench 2 and began removing the first rubble layer. The extension essientially widens the trench by a metre at the end with the newly disovered angular turret and gatehouse facade wall.

Hopefully this will reveal the currently obscured corner of the turret and possibly also the south side of the gatehouse, which we have yet to see. There is also a thin and very damaged stub (presumably internal) wall at the far end of Trench 2 which this extension should reveal more of, and give us a better idea of its function.

Another head-scratcher emerged in Trench 2 later in the afternoon, in the form of a stack of mortared-together roof tiles in the section of the trench very close to the corner of the free-standing turret we found last year.

We currently have no idea what this could be, and the only way to find out will be to extend the trench to reveal the complete feature, which will likely begin to happen tomorrow.

The wall in Trench 4 meanwhile did not conform to expectation. We thought yesterday that it was the boundary of the back (western) edge of the gatehouse building and so should have contained the cellar fill we found last year only a few metres away, but digging today showed that it has at most only 4 surviving courses and so is not our circa 2m deep cellar wall.

As we peeled back the rubble deposit on its inside edge this too proved to be relatively shallow and not the significant cellar fill we expected. We have not yet fully excavated the rubble deposit and so may yet find the cellar in Trench 4, but if so we would also expect to find another wall, i.e. the boundary of the cellar itself.

If this is the case, one possibility is that the column base we found in the cellar fill last year was located at the cellar's edge rather than the middle as we had supposed, perhaps acting to reinforce this hypothetical wall.

One final surprise late this afternoon in Trench 4 was the emergence of a relatively thin looking wall joining the main wall at 90 degrees on the north side of the trench. Although this is broadly where you might expect the north side of the gatehouse to be, the wall itself looks rather too thin to be an external wall, so more work needs to be done to reveal and interpret it.

We're only at the halfway point of an already very productive dig, so the coming days promise to be packed with many more puzzles, and hopefully one or two answers!

Another day of fine weather in the woods of Forty Hall today allowed work to continue at a reasonable pace as we approach the halfway point of our two week exploration of the gatehouse of Elsyng Palace.

Most of the day in Trench 2 was spent finishing off defining the outline of the walls of the newly discovered turret and connected facade wall which we think is the face of the inner gatehouse, ready for our visitors tommorow on our public open day.

The interior of the new turret has not been fully excavated yet so we still don't know if it has a brick floor like its sibling but it does seem that the outline is more irregular than it first appeared - it now seems to be octagonal except for one corner which makes a right angle (so technically an irregular heptagon!).

We're planning to extend Trench 2 to reveal the remainder of the turret and also to see how the rest of it is attached to our potential gatehouse building. We've so far identified the building's east and possibly west sides and this might also reveal its south side. We'll probably get started on that tomorrow.

We opened a small extension to Trench 3 this afternoon to better align with the extended wall line of the facade wall in Trench 2 (ie the one that connects the building to the new turret). We've removed most of the overburden but are not deep enough yet to tell whether the wall is present or truncated as it was when we saw part of it last year.

Meanwhile Trench 4 delivered the goods in the form of a long, fairly slender wall apparently crossing the whole trench exactly in the position predicted by the mortar line that was visible on day 3.

This is ostensibly parallel to the facade wall on the front of the gatehouse and so probably represents its back (west) edge. Interestingly, if this is the back edge of the building it would place the octagonal pillar in the cellar that we found last year more or less in the centre.

Work continues in this trench removing the mortar and rubble deposit on its interior side, which we think is the cellar fill. The wall is very damaged in places and it is not clear to what depth it survives, but if it is a cellar wall, it could go down quite a way.

Day 5 of our two-week exploration of the gatehouse of Elsyng palace continued with fair weather and fantastic archaeology today.

We picked up where we left off yesterday, having discovered a second, larger polygonal turret close to the one we found last year, and after excavating and recording the upper deposits, began removing the rest of the rubble covering the new turret.

The outline of the turret turned out much as we expected, essentially a larger version of its nearby twin, a kind of truncated octagon with four facets facing outwards towards what would have been the outer courtyard, but squared off flat along its back edge.

The most notable feature of this turret, however, is that it has a substantial wall attached to its front face - in fact the same truncated wall we found yesterday and have been looking for a continuation of in Trench 3.

This proves that the new turret was not in fact free-standing as we had suspected yesterday but appears to form one corner of the building containing the deep cellar that we found last year, and is now a favourite contender for the gatehouse building proper, which it would seem had not only polygonal towers on its corners but on last year's evidence also had smaller free-standing turrets likely flanking it as well as an ornamental screen wall with integrated octagonal columns. No doubt quite an impressivn impressivet as it was approached across the moat we dug in May!

We have not yet fully excavated the interior of the new turret so we don't know if it has a brick floor as was the case in the smaller one.

Meanwhile nearby in Trench 3, on the extended line of the truncated wall (ie the same wall that connects to the new turret), we found that the wall is still absent at this point (ie robbed out) but we did also find a small brick drain running up to it.

Following the extended line of this wall is now quite important to potentially find the other side of the gatehouse (and possibly another corner turret), so we will likely extend trench 3 or open a new one to try and do this, in the hope that the truncation is only fairly localised and we will find in situ brickwork resuming further along.

Similarly, it looks inevitable that we will extend Trench 2 to more fully expose the new turret and also to see more of the new gatehouse building. Late this afternoon as we finished revealing the wall that connects to the front face of the turret, we found a stub of wall projecting into the building, in very poor condition, and seeing more of it may also help to understand it better.

The forecast looking ahead seems fairly optimistic so hopefully tomorrow will be an equally pleasantly surprising day!

Day four brought fine weather and even finer archaeology as we finally began to reveal the Tudor brickwork we've been anticipating.

At the south end of trench 2, on day 1 we had already exposed the corner of the previously excavated brick turret that we found last year.

Today we were finally able to reveal the remaining two sides of the turret that we were unable to get at last year due to the now removed undergrowth, and at the same time we found a new wall springing from the side of the turret and running broadly in the direction of the segment of partly truncated wall that we also found nearby last year (see annotated pic from day 2).

Over the course of the afternoon we removed the overlying demolition rubble to reveal more of this wall, and after a distance of only a little over 2 metres, we found another change in direction which turned out to be yet another polygonal brick turret.

This new turret is broadly the same shape - a kind of truncated octagon - but slightly larger than the other. It isn't completely excavated yet and we don't yet know whether it has a brick floor in the center like its sibling.

The walls of the turret, in common with the other one and the wall connecting them, are quite substantial and top quality Tudor masonry.

Their function is still something of an open question - they both currently appear to be free-standing and not apparently attached directly to any building although this remains to be proved for this new tower - and it is also not yet clear if the connecting wall between them would have been a full-height wall or possibly a threshold of a gateway which the two towers would have flanked. Given the size of the foundations they would presumably have been more than one storey tall, and undoubtedly would have been an imposing and impressive sight as they were approached from the inner courtyard, so whilst this is probably not the gatehouse building itself, it could very well be an outlying structure immediately in front of it.

Meanwhile at the other end of the trench, at a slightly deeper level we finally picked up the line of the truncated wall that we found last year (again, see day 2's annotated pic), the inside of which contains the deep 'cellar' deposit that we are still hunting for in Trench 4.

Initally it seemed as though the line of this wall might correspond to the front edge of the new turret, but after both were properly revealed their alignments seem to be subtly different.

There is now an unexcavated patch between the new turret and this wall which will reveal their relationship hopefully fairly quickly tomorrow.

It was altogether a very good day's work and much needed morale boost after three days of washouts. Hopefully the weather will remain stable enough to keep making good progress but in any event we should have some excellent Tudor archaeology to show the public on Saturday.