Deeper than the dig

Field Note No. 14

Date: 25 August 2026

Status: Unearthed

Just beyond the edge of the estate, a field has been quietly revealing itself. For three weeks each August, the Caistor Roman Project brings a community of over a hundred volunteers to excavate Venta Icenorum — one of only three Roman regional capitals in Britain never built over by what came after. We knew it was significant. We had been looking forward to learning more. You can read about the project in full here.

What we hadn't anticipated was Andy.

Andy has been coming to the dig for five years. Before that, he served for over thirty years — first in the army, then in the police, the last years on armed response in Norfolk. He describes his career simply, without drama. The things he saw found him again later, quietly, when he wasn't expecting them. He was diagnosed with complex combat PTSD.

He wanted to be mentioned by name. He was clear about that.

Joining the Caistor Roman Project, he says, has been life-changing. There is something about the pace of the work — the focus it asks of you, the way the rest of the world drops away when you are looking for something small and important in the soil — that has given him what a lot of other things couldn't. A community where nobody judges. Where someone will always help. Where the noise, for a while, stops.

He is not alone. The project works actively with veterans and would welcome more.

We came to the dig to learn about Roman Norfolk. We left thinking about what it means to build a place where people can slow down, pay attention, and come away changed.

It turns out that has been happening here for a while. Just in a field, rather than a building.