Test Pit 9:         Church Street

27th July 2013

Test Pit 9 was located just east of Church Street, approximately 80 metres east 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.

By Martin Cuthbert

We had the usual finds from the topsoil (031) including china, clay pipe stems, tiles, glass. Just below the topsoil we found a modern pit [034] cutting the subsoil (033). The pit contained a complete animal skeleton most likely the previous owners pet cat!! After we removed the skeleton we carried on down through the subsoil finding post-medieval pottery sherds, tile and glass and four sherds of medieval pottery dating between 1050 and 1600 indicating that the site has been in use from c.1100.

Eventually we reached the natural clay and gravels. To my surprise we had excavated the test pit directly over an archaeological feature, possibly a ditch [036]. The ditch was located in the eastern edge of TP9 below the subsoil.  The ditch was aligned NE-SW and continued beyond the limit of excavation.  The full dimensions of the ditch could not be ascertained: it was 0.48m deep and contained a single fill (035), comprised of soft mid to light brown silty clay with occasional small sub-angular stones.  Three sherds of greyware pottery dating to 1050-1350 were recovered, indicating this feature may have been in use in the early Norman period.  A small assemblage of animal bone was also recovered from pit 036.

A huge thank you to all our volunteers, Paul from LBDAHS, our pottery specialist Paul Blinkhorn and of course Bruno and Abi for allowing us to dig a hole in their garden.