Day 2 of our summer dig saw more progress in Trench 1 in our hunt for trenches cut in the area in the 1960s. We've identified two distinct deposits in Trench 1 - one is made up mainly of rubble and mortar fragments and is concentrated at the west end of the trench, and the other is a more brown and brickearth rich deposit at the east end of the trench.

Although at first both deposits had appeared to contain a lot of modern material, the twentieth century finds have dried up in the rubble at the west end of the trench, apparently only being in the deposit's upper horizon, but the brown deposit at the east end continued all day to produce all manner of late 19th and early 20th century rubbish, including odds and ends of scrap iron and even a Victorian halfpenny.

Determining the boundary between layers can be very difficult in this arid weather, as everything rapidly dries to a grey powder, so it wasn't clear whether there was an edge between the two layers, perhaps suggesting an ex-trench edge, or as we had begun to suspect, if the brown deposit was overlaying the rubble.

To clarify we therefore cut a small sondage (i.e. a trench within a trench), which confirmed that the rubble layer does indeed lie beneath the brown and may therefore extend to the whole length of the trench.

This shows that the rubble is of an earlier date and the brown layer has been dumped on top, although exactly when we cannot prove yet. It is very likely that the Victorian and later rubbish was imported to the site in the 20th century, either at the end of the 1960s digs or during the subsequent works on the nearby gas main, perhaps to level up uneven ground for heavy machinery to drive on.

The problem this leaves us with is telling whether or not the rubble layer is of similar age, or if it is in fact undisturbed rubble from the demolition of the palace in the 17th century.

We'll probably need to get down a bit deeper to find out, but if it isn't the backfill of an old archaeological trench, we may have to look elsewhere.

Meanwhile we opened Trench 2 on our southern secondary target see diagram which eventually will reveal more of a possible floor surface made of brick fragments in the nearby gatehouse. We've only got as far as topsoil removal here so far.

We got off to a good start today, on the first day of our two week summer dig on the site of Elsyng Palace in the woods of Forty Hall.

As explained in yesterday's post The main objective of this year's dig is to re-locate the exact locations of the complex of trenches dug by the EAS in the early 1960s.

Thus, after setting up the site fencing early this morning, we laid out Trench 1 in the approximate location where we believe the north end of the 60s work took place, with the aim of identifying the 60s trench and hopefully to uncover some of the then-shallowly buried walls that the 60s dig encountered.

It is very early days, and work is fairly slow in the hot weather, not least because the ground has been baked absolutely solid by several weeks of record-breaking temperatures, but we did quickly come down onto deposits that were rich in modern small finds, including late 19th and early 20th century pottery, modern brick fragments and lots of modern glass.

This amount of modern material is slightly surprising, as it must clearly have been imported onto the site to be dumped, and that is not really what we would expect in the backfill of an archaeological trench. It is maybe more likely that this kind of dumping may have come about during the chaotic work to install the nearby gas main in 1967.

The east end of Trench 1 contains much less rubble and if we do have the backfill to a 60s trench we may also in time be able to identify a trench edge.

The most tantalising find of the day, amongst the milk bottle and porcelain fragments, was a small sherd of a South Herts Greyware vessel, likely dating to the second half of the 13th century - a rare clue that the site of Elsyng Palace was occupied probably at least two centuries before Henry VIII was even born!

The site has been cleared, tools stored and the stage is set for our two week summer dig on the site of Elsyng Tudor palace, in the woods of Forty Hall, starting tomorrow.

Having spent the last few years homing in on and eventually locating and studying elements of the inner gatehouse of the palace, our attention has partially turned to a long-outstanding research objective - the re-location of trenches dug by the EAS in the early 1960s.

The first ever archaeological trenches dug in Forty Hall were opened by the EAS, directed by Ivy Drayton, in 1963 and between 1963 and 1965 uncovered a series of substantial palace remains including a staircase turret, various drains and cess pits, fireplaces and some immaculate brickwork foundations extending in some places for a depth of more than two metres.

The main part of the dig took place to the west of the lime tree avenue, although a series of test pits were also excavated within and to the east of the lime tree avenue, which failed to find any significant palace remains.

Unfortunately, most of the written record of those digs has been lost, and although we do have the official photographic record and the site diaries written by Ivy Drayton and her deputy John Adams, neither contains more than a broad indication of precisely where the work was carried out.

Using a handful of blurry slides, the diaries' written descriptions of how the trenches were laid out, and one or two other ephemeral clues, we've narrowed down, give or take a few metres, the most likely position of the trenches to an area just to the west of our newly discovered inner gatehouse.

It is now important to our understanding of the gatehouse, and of the wider palace complex, to pin down precisely where those 60s features are - an important question to answer is whether or not they are part of or separate to the gatehouse.

Thus the first trench of 2026 will be laid out in an area where we suspect the northern end of the 60s trenches lay - this end contained walls that were at the time only a few inches below ground level and so should be quick to identify if they are there. This area also corresponds to some hollows in the ground that could possibly be attributed to settling of backfill over the last several decades.

Depending on the results of the first trench we may lay out one or two further trenches with a similar aim.

Secondary targets will be two trenches enlarging on work we did on the gatehouse last year (lime green in the above diagram). The first will enlarge on a substantial wall we discovered part of in the last couple of days of last year's dig, to determine its full width and to find out if it is a T junction or a corner of a structure. The second will aim to expose more of a feature that we again saw only a glimpse of at the end of last year's dig, which looked as if it might have been the edge of a deliberate surface made of brick fragments.

How far we get with our objectives this year will depend on the whims of this year's hot weather.

Freshly mown grass and the heady scent of lime blossom can only mean one thing: Less than two weeks to go till our summer dig on the site of Elsyng Tudor Palace in the grounds of Forty Hall!

We're also pleased to announce the opening of "Elsyng Palace: Revealing Enfield's Hidden Royal Past" - a free exhibition based at the Museum of Enfield's temporary exhibition space in the Dugdale Arts Centre in Enfield Town and continuing in the house at Forty Hall.

A joint venture between the Museum of Enfield and the EAS, the exhibition chronicles the story of the Palace from early 15th century country house, via Sir Thomas Lovell's courtier's palace of the early 15th century, to the royal palace used by Henry VIII and his children from 1539.

It also tells the story of the rediscovery of the site by the EAS in 1963 until its scheduling 4 years later, and the resumption of fieldwork from 2004.

Information panels are complemented by a selection of finds from the 1960s up until as recently as last year (including some as seen on TV!).

Also be sure to come and visit our open day in the woods at the bottom of the lime avenue on July 18th to see the finds hot out of the trenches, plus hopefully some splendid Tudor masonry.

The second edition of our book Elsyng: Enfield's Lost Palace Revealed will also be available to buy at all three venues.

The exhibition will run until May 8th 2027.

Come and see a Tudor Palace being revealed in the grounds of Forty Hall, Enfield

• View the excavations
• Children's sand pit digs
• Handle Roman and Tudor pottery
• Academic and popular books to buy
• Poster displays
• Museum of Enfield activities

Follow the banners down the Lime tree avenue leading from the lake in front of Forty Hall to find us

Museum of Enfield exhibition on the history of the palace and finds from the excavations at the Dugdale Arts Centre in Enfield Town and Forty Hall from the 27th June 2026 to 8th May 2027

See https://www.fortyhallestate.co.uk/plan-your-visit/getting-here for directions to the Hall