Students dig up exciting Acle finds
Fingerprints, farthing coins and pottery dating back hundreds of years were among the items found when Norfolk students excavated part of a beer garden at an Acle pub.
Students from years nine to 11 dug up part of the Kings Head Inn garden with the help of TV archaeologist Carenza Lewis.
Despite only being 20cm into their 1 metre dig the team unearthed pottery which was as much as 350 years old. Among the relics was part of a Victorian pot with an indent of a fingerprint.
Ms Lewis said: “We don’t normally find things with manufacturing flaws. Someone has made it and picked it up.
“What is amazing about a pot like this is it’s mass produced. To find a fingerprint in it is quite unusual.
“The dig is going well and is producing a lot of stuff. You can’t predict at all how much stuff is going to turn up.”
The students also recovered an iron handle which would have been used on machinery or large furniture.
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Ms Lewis said: “We have discovered pub life through the ages. The students have found clay smoking pipes, bottle tops and glass.
“I have done quite a few of these in pub gardens and this is just brilliant.
“It is a great way to study history. We are hoping children will be able to do this as part of their history GCSE.
“One of the most important things for them to learn is to question the evidence – how did it get there, who put it there and why did they do it?”
Alexander Fearon, 13, from Stalham, said: “I want to be an archaeologist. This is a great opportunity for me to experience it first hand.”
Hayley Speck, 15, from Caister, said: “We didn’t expect to find as much as we have done. I am doing this because I thought I would try something new. It fits well with history which I am studying.”
