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 challenges. Even after we had put up a fence like a shark cave the cows curiosity won the day. Arriving on site in the morning it was evident a curious cow had ambled over our trenches. How did we know this? By the enormous cow pats that had been splattered on them! Day 3 was also where we welcomed Sam as a new site supervisor. First job for Sam was to clear said cow pats! Welcome to the team Sam!
Some interesting finds were coming out of the ground on Day 3. One in particular was a gin or brandy bottle in trench 11 which appears to have been a rubbish pit back in 1800’s. Surely allied troops weren’t getting drunk the night before. Who would have heard of such a thing! It must be said that it is only one bottle so the party couldn’t have gone on for very long to be fair.
Traces of the formal garden
While we are here, we’re keen to look at the area where the formal gardens used to be. The results of the LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging sensor) geo-mapping that was undertaken a while ago had picked up very faint traces of structures in the formal garden so we were keen to explore these and we do think we have definitely found traces of a brick pathway structure but it does look like most traces have been lost even though you can still make it out from the air with the LIDAR equipment sensor)
We continue to find decorative metal pieces on a daily basis and we will be asking for people’s opinion via social media once we have cleaned them. We can’t wait to hear what you all think.
So all in all a great day with lots of progress and a broader picture that is getting painted as each day passes.
