The land is being quarried for gravel by Hoveringham Gravels Limited and the finds were made by their dragline operators in December 1967… When canoe 1 was discovered there was no immediate need to recover the remains and only a small-scale exploratory excavation took place in December 1967, when boat 2 was also uncovered … With the stoppage of the pumps, however, the water level rose and the excavation was abandoned … The excavations in July - August 1968 concentrated on the now-flooded triangle of the pit containing boats 1 and 2 … Running sand and gravel was encountered over the whole site below the level of the boats and made excavation extremely difficult and in places impossible. (1) See E1091 for excavation of canoe 3.