A hurried exit on Friday, and a wet weekend and Monday saw Balcombe Mills flooded which included the lower part of the camp site. However the small tents were moved to the high ground by the finds unit and 2 bigger tents relocated to islands in the camp site.
The site tent took a battering with quite a lot of water getting through the now aged canvas. Most records survived unharmed, the few left on clip boards being rewritten and drawings on permatrace hung on a line to drip dry. Pity no-one noticed my field notebook which of course I had forgoten for the only time and left on the one table that got flooded. Still dried out it now looks like a 'genuine' field notebook though writing on crinkly pages is proving a little tiresome.
Monday was called off, it kept raining and the road from Barcombe was still well flooded on Tuesday morning with dryer access being from Clayhill.
Amazingly on Tuesday whilst the deeper excavations were full of water, despite being covered with plastic sheeting, the trench surface was dry and firm so that bailing and sponging allowed us to get back to work by late morning. Buckets on ropes and sponges tied to hoes were the popular option for the deeper pits before the final bailing required suitable footwear below shorts!
