Test Pit 14: Overstone Primary School

24th October 2013

By Martin Cuthbert

Test Pit 14 was located approximately 100 metres southwest of the church.

The oldest part of the church is 10th century, but it may have older origins. The Saxon and Norman village would of originated close to the church so the possibility of finding Saxon and Medieval finds was quite high.

From looking at the school playing field it looks like it may of been terraced. Terracing is where a site is leveled to create a flat surface.  This is done by digging into the side of the slope and moving the spoil down the slope to build this area up. 

From the excavation of the test pit it seems the site has indeed been terraced A really thin topsoil of only 0.1m overlay the natural. There were no finds, which was a real shame for the kids who came to help us.

But to be honest i’m glad it wasn’t very deep as myself and my colleague were so busy with the kids, getting them to clean finds and search for ones buried in our mini sandpits all of which were from a site my company recently excavated at.

They all really enjoyed the day and hopefully they learnt something, which was the real aim of excavating the test pit.

A huge thank you to all the kids and teachers of Overstone for helping out, especially Mr Bradman my contact at the school. And a big thank you to my colleague Janice in helping out with the excavation of the test pit and helping with the supervision of the kids.