JUST spent two days kneeling in the mud, picking at stones and soil with a trowel.
No, I haven’t suddenly developed a liking for gardening. Anyone who knows me well knows my fingers couldn’t be green if I smeared sprouts all over them... no, I’ve been taking part in the community archaeological dig at Leasowe Lighthouse.

Organised by the Field Archaeology Unit of National Museums Liverpool, the dig has been going on for four weeks and has given dozens of local people the chance to pretend they’re in Time Team.
Many of the volunteers were complete beginners, but the friendly museums team soon had them digging away like they were Phil Harding.
I myself have some (amateur) experience, having once been part of a small but dedicated band of amateur archaeologists from Wirral, and having put in many Sundays over a two-year period excavating on a farm in North Wales. But that was a couple of years ago now, so it was nice to get my trusty trowel out again.
The dig at Leasowe finishes at the end of this week, so if you want to see what they’ve uncovered you’ll have to get along pretty sharpish.
Standing between the Dee and the Mersey, Leasowe Lighthouse was built in 1763, originally as part of a pair. The second lighthouse, a quarter of a mile out to sea, was washed away during a storm in 1769 and was replaced by a new light on Bidston Hill.
The purpose of the dig was to see what remained of the lighthouse’s outbuildings, which included a washhouse and toilet, pigsty, stable block and coach house. Remarkably, quite substantial structures have been discovered, including walls and brick and concrete floors, one of which clearly shows chicken or turkey footprints. Finds have included mounds of glass, pottery and bone, plus the odd coin.
All good stuff, and it just shows you what can be achieved by co-operation. Hey, they even got my good friends from West Kirby Metal Detecting Club in to help (for those of you who don’t know, there’s a longstanding division between archaeologists and metal detectorists, so to see them working hand in hand, so to speak, is great).
Did I dig it? I sure did!

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