Full speed ahead

Now there are 5 of us working and 2 more due soon we are really able to get things moving. Today Mark & Michelle were tasked with clearing around the drainage pit that I found last week. They soon uncovered the full scale of the pit as well as a little gulley that must have allowed water to pour into the pit. Its purpose was clearly a drainage system to get rid of any standing water in that area. Inside the stones and just interlocked without any mortar. This would have allowed water to seep into the pit and then slowly drain away. Mark then got inside the pit to clear the mud and debris from the bottom. 

As this pit has not been exposed to fresh air for about 250 years the smell down there was, to say the least, not pleasant! After a couple of hours he had cleared most of it out. It seems the bottom of the pit is about at the level of the water table as the water would seep back up when we removed it. Our plan is to point the stones with water proof cement and then make a cement base in the bottom of the pit and then cover this base with stones. Hopefully that will stop the water coming back in and make a nice feature of it. 

Whilst Mark was down in his pit Eduardo and Klaus set about removing the old floor that we had started lifting yesterday. The large jack hammer that we have rented made quick work of it and soon we had a massive pile of rubble. We will keep this rubble for using as hardcore. I set to work carefully removing the tiles that covered the old stone slabs that we had uncovered yesterday. Eventually the surviving part of a five to six hundred

year old floor saw the light of day for the first time is 250 years! I stood on that floor in front of the equally ancient fireplace imagining centuries ago some unknown guy standing in exactly the same spot warming his backside! Amazing. We also found something else very ineresting inside the chateau but more of that tomorrow as we have to investigate more.