RGS Pupils Make Remarkable Discovery at Archaeological Dig
Four pupils from The RGS Worcester Family of Schools, took part in a week-long archaeological dig at Hartlebury Castle over the summer. RGS Worcester Year Seven pupils, Violet and Dylan Smith were there for the entirety of the archaeological dig and Ottilie Smith in Year Six and Cecily Smith in Year Three at RGS Dodderhill took part in one day of digging.
The dig was organised to try to find a bastion on a hill next to the Castle. On the day that all four of the pupils were onsite, there was a significant discovery as they unearthed a silver James I Penny, cut in half.
The Smith family’s grandfather, Douglas Smith, shared with us the story of how the archaeological dig came about saying “In 2022, I wrote a book called ‘Most Poorly and Cowardly’ which tells the story of Hartlebury Castle and North Worcestershire in the war of the Three Kingdoms (also known as the British Civil Wars). I met an archaeologist called Tim Cornah and we started a Go Fund Me page and a Facebook page ‘Dig Hartlebury’ and collected about £2,500 in donations. The dig took place from 24 July to 30 July 2023. On the first day we had a digger taking off the top layer of soil. There was only about 60cm of depth to bedrock sandstone. Then, in the first hour it revealed a straight cut in the sandstone. We had found our bastion! Work continued for the whole week with the coin being the main find but also, we found an unused pistol ball, as well as numerous handmade nails”.
Present at the dig was a cameraman from ‘Digging for Britain’ and the Smith family hopes that they will be on the next series of the programme. The pupils’ grandfather was also interviewed for a podcast called ‘Cavalier Cast’ which should be released in early September.
The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their experience at the dig and provided us with the following comments about their experience:
Cecily said “I enjoyed rummaging through the soil and finding artefacts such as handmade nails and being involved in finding the coin”.
Dylan added “Hartlebury was really interesting and fun. It was good to learn about local history and finding artefacts, including a James I coin with my metal detector! I would like to thank Doug and Tim for starting it all, and James for his help and advice on metal detecting”.
Violet and Ottilie said “We were searching through the spoil heap that had been thrown up by the dig. James had a really good metal detector and his machine bleeped. We had been turning up lots of nails but James said that it wasn’t iron and that it was quite a way down. We began to dig with our trowels and found an object. As we dug it out it slipped off the trowel deeper into the hole and so we had to dig it out again. When it was revealed, we could see that it was a small, shining coin cut in half. James later said that it was a silver penny minted in the Tower of London between 1619-1623 during the reign of James I. On the one side was a rose and on the other a thistle”.
The RGS Family of Schools would like to thank Douglas Smith for telling us about the exciting activities of these pupils. We very much hope that we get to see our pupils make a TV appearance on ‘Digging for Britain’ and wish them all the best in their future archaeological endeavours.