Tollgate Farm 2010

Interim review by John Winch, 15.11.2010. Updated 27.11.2010

Early this year we continued to excavate what we had been calling a pit, but which we now (due to its depth and the clay lining) believe to be a well.

We continued to find lots of leather. Much of it was in the form of shoes, or parts of shoes. Here is one trayful. The shoes have now been treated at the York Archaeological Trust's Conservation Laboratory, and many of them are now on display in the Archaeology Gallery of the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

Read more about the shoes and see pictures of many of them, post-conservation, here. You can see a picture of our museum display here.

Much of the leather was found in and around a large pot, which Maureen, our then-Chairman is holding in this picture.

We also found a large, folded, piece of leather. In this picture you can see us unfolding it under water to avoid cracking it.