On Saturday 21st July, Project Florence gave local residents the chance to explore archaeology at an open day on the Barrow Clump site.

Visitors were given tours of the trenches by the Op Nightingale soldiers and volunteers, and got to witness the excavation of an interesting Saxon burial containing a range of grave goods. Young guests crafted their own Saxon pottery, chatted to a Saxon warrior and dove enthusiastically into the sandpit digs!

There was also a display by Devizes Museum of replica Saxon artefacts to compare to our finds from the excavation, and flint knapping demonstrations by Phil Harding.

The day was a huge success with over 200 visitors to the site, who gave some excellent feedback: 

Brilliant. The amount of times we have walked here and never known what’s below us until now!

Excellent! Such an interesting day, well organised and informative. Well done!

It was good to hear from the soldiers how effective and beneficial this project has been.

To find out how you can get involved in Project Florence visit www.florence.opnightingale.co.uk/volunteer

To return to the main Project Florence blog, www.florence.opnightingale.co.uk/blog, click here.