A team of students from the University of Hartford in Connecticut, USA, was expected to wrap up work today at the old Argyle Sugar Mill, the site of the proposed international airport at Argyle.{{more}}

The team spent the week uncovering and documenting the relics of the one-time sugar mill, which is expected to be moved to the heritage site at Escape.

Dan Saulnier, Adjunct Professor, told SEARCHLIGHT that the task at hand for him and his team of students was to dig up the relics and identify each of those pieces.

He was unable to ascertain a definite dating on the relics found.

However, according to Saulnier, based on the types of relics discovered, they date back to the 1850s.

“It also looks like the site was used for a number of reasons. We are looking to see in which order these activities were in,” he further explained.

For the most part, the team has reported that all the original pieces have been recovered, except the odd few artifacts that have strayed to private residents for ornamental reasons.

The team will be expected to present their findings to the National Trust before a further determination is made on how to proceed moving the relics.

This, however, will prove no easy task Saulnier said.

The majority of the relics discovered have been worn due to the elements of the weather or badly aged.

“It’s going to be a pretty big task,” Saulnier said.

He noted that they would also be in the process of identifying what pieces would be able to be salvaged and taken over to the new site.

Saulnier had some more bad news in that the initial idea was to have the mill lifted to the new site and set up to operate for demonstration purposes.

But according to the experts, this may not be possible.

“Some of the items are in good condition. Some of it would be in working condition, but it is too old and too rusted,” Saulnier explained.