Day 4 - Saturday

A slightly different start today, as we assemble at the Boho Bakery first thing to meet with Pennie, the café owner, to discuss holding a public event to share our findings further down the line. Pennie is full of enthusiasm for the dig, and for the possibilities for events, and even perhaps school engagement in the future, and we all come away from the meeting with a spring in our step – whilst we’ve not found exactly what we might have been hoping for in the finds so far, the enthusiasm from Pennie on seeing our discoveries has given us all a boost and reminded us that we do have some really nice finds and that other people will enjoy seeing them too.

Back on site we extend the excavation to the 80m mark, uncovering more nodules and lumps of stone for splitting. Dean makes today’s star find – another exquisitely preserved fish. Later in the day we are joined by Steven Dey – an expert in imaging and 3 modelling. He photographs the Pachycormus found by Nev and Sally prior to this excavation in order to create a 3d scan of it from which models can be made, and uses a drone to record film and still photographs of the site from above – watching him work and seeing the site from the air is a good reminder of just how much we’ve accomplished in the last few days.

Fossil fish - Part & Counterpart (c) Dean Lomax

We begin packing up the finds and all the equipment from the site, and looking back through the finds catalogue I can see that I have recorded 147 items in total. Some of these will be used to make a display in the café, some will be retained for use with schools/children and some will be stabilised, prepared, researched and published before making their way into the museum’s collections. Whilst we didn’t find a whole ichthyosaur (or Adam’s T Rex!) we do have material with a lot of potential for expanding the stories the museum can tell of life in the Stroud District in the Jurassic era.

Finds catalogue

On a personal level I have also had the opportunity to learn a huge amount from real experts in their respective fields, and take part in a palaeontological excavation which is something I’ve never done before. It was a privilege to be invited to be a part of the team and whilst I’m tired enough to want to sleep for a week, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And, this was all really only the start of the journey. Now the finds have to be cleaned, prepared, written up and then some of them will come to the museum for display. Before that though, we’re planning a fossil fishing family fun day at the farm in October – meet the experts, have fossils you’ve found identified, and maybe even have a go at fossil hunting on this very special site. Keep an eye on our What’s On calendar for more information.

With thanks to the Geologists Association Curry Fund for financing part of the excavations, to Adam for giving us access to his land and being so accommodating, and to Pennie & Dave and their team at Boho Bakery for keeping us caffeinated and hydrated, and for their enthusiasm and interest in the whole process and its outcomes.

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer