Coronavirus Kent: Youngster finds Roman artefacts during garden search
Settling into home school and adopting new guidelines is just as much of an adjustment for children in Kent as it for their parents.
Year six pupil Ellie, 11, shares how she's found being at home, including a very interesting history lesson...
Being home schooled has been really fun for the past week because you can do whatever lesson when you want and how long you want to do it for.
You can also learn different practical skills like washing, cooking, baking and making your own food! The best thing of all though, has to be, wearing your own clothes every day!
I live in two houses; one with my mum and the other with my dad and his partner. This week I have been really busy making rainbows, doing my normal lessons, helping with the washing, making my own lunch and much more!
And, I’ve been digging up the entire garden!
I live just off the A2 in Newington with my dad and his partner in a new house. The garden is pretty much just clay and mud.
Before our house was built, the archaeologists found lots of amazing things including parts of a Roman temple, road, coins, Victorian clay pipes, clay ovens, Roman jewellery and much more.
Because I knew there was history on this site, I wanted to find some for myself and that’s what I did. Here is a list of what I found on what days:
- Wednesday: a 17 th century clay pipe, a Roman oyster shell, a Roman ring, a George III spade guinea and a few pieces of pot. When I found the coin, I was really excited because when I met with the archaeologists, they never said anything about the 18 th century whatsoever. They only said about the iron age, the romans and the Victorians.
- Thursday: the tip of a Roman Knife and some pot that might be Roman.
- Friday: two Roman buttons, a piece of metal that could be Roman but we’re not sure what it is, some pot, a piece of thin metal but we’re not sure what it is, some Roman glass and something that could be a Roman ring.
I have put all my finds into some plastic bags and labelled them. When I have finished in the garden, I will be sending a report and some photos to the archaeologists so that they can have a look at what I’ve found and they can value it for me.
In conclusion, I have been really busy but it has been really fun at the same time. I have learnt many practical skills including how to hang up the washing, turn on the oven, make my own lunch and use a metal detector to find artefacts.
I hope you reading this are well and staying indoors. Remember to only go out once a week for essentials, go out once a day for exercise and out to help those in the high risk category.
This is a special shoutout to the NHS for all the hard work that they are putting in to keep our country functioning as it should. Stay safe! BYE!
