SCHOOLCHILDREN from Milton Abbot Primary School dug a big hole in the village green recently.
The five-day dig was supervised by local archaeologist Robert Waterhouse, fresh from his dig at Morwellham. Members of Milton Abbot Discoverers also assisted and pupils from Lamerton School helped on the Thursday.
It had been hoped that the exploratory trench, six by two metres and one-and-a-half metres deep, would discover a Saxon bank and the foundations of ancient alms houses. The latter aim was successful, but the bank was not uncovered as to try to do so would have involved digging in part of the churchyard and under the road.
Chairman of MAD, Chris Burchell, said the official report by the archaeologist was not out yet, but said that they had found pottery shards from medieval times to the 1930s, when the alms houses on the site had been knocked down under a slum clearance plan.
Other items found included a pot hook ratchet, parts of stoves, glassware, toes and heels of Victorian boots, bottle tops and marbles.
?It was a very exciting dig,? Mr Burchell said.
Remains of floors to the houses were discovered going back to 1610-1670. A votive offering of a silver plated spoon from around 1730 was also found, which used to be buried as a sign of good luck.
Mr Burchell said the dig had also proved the archaeologist?s hypothesis about D-shaped enclosures around ecclesiastical buildings.
The schoolchildren helped clean the artefacts and drew and sketched the site.
The dig, which cost £1,000, was funded by the PTA, MAD and a lottery grant. A follow-up exhibition was held in the village hall the following weekend ? the trench has since been filled in and the ground restored.