Washington, August 8 (ANI): Archaeologists, carrying out excavations at an historic landmark in Woking, Surrey, UK, have unearthed rare Valencian pottery, which date back to between 1450 and 1490.

According to a report in getsurrey, teams from Surrey County Council Heritage Enterprise have led the dig at Woking Palace along with Surrey Archaeological Society.

Also present were teams from the University of Surrey and University College London.

Armed with trowels, hand-shovels and buckets, people from the local community have also volunteered at the Carter's Lane site.

Abby Guinness, Surrey County Council's community archaeologist, directed the eight volunteers side by side along with more experienced diggers into a tight line to trowel back small sections of the soil.

As volunteers pulled back the dirt, stones and pieces of tile were uncovered.

They were asked to put the pieces of tile into a finds box while the pebbles and dirt were scooped up into a bucket and discarded.

Richard Savage, chairman of the Friends of Woking Palace, said that the archaeological excavations taking place this year were just the beginning of a scheduled three-year programme.

He said that the trench areas had been found using a magnetometry survey and a resistivity survey - geophysical methods used to look below the soil without digging.

"We have found tiles that have only been found in a few places in England. They were made in Valencia, Spain, and date back to between 1450 and 1490," he said.

"They have been found in Billericay in Essex, Woking Palace, St Peter's in Old Woking and in Guildford High Street. We think that there were only a couple of shipments brought into England," he added.

Savage said they expected to find material from the Tudor period and from the first manor built on the site.

"We are hoping to find pottery and other things we would define as medieval," he added. (ANI)