TEST PITS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM
List of Test Pits
CB19
21 CHURCH STREET
SUMMARY
- The test pit was dug under an area of patio to the east of the house and west of Church Lane.
- Documentary evidence from 1586 suggests that there has been a cottage on the site of the test pit since before 1586. Photographs and a painting show a small cottage here in the mid 19th C, but it has now gone.
- The western boundary wall of a cottage was found in the test pit and there were about 75 cm separating it from the wall of No 21. This is wide enough for there to have been an ally between the two buildings. A painting of the cottage dated 1855 shows a wooden gate facing on to East Street where this ally would be.
- Inside the wall there was mostly made ground with layers of ash and many of the finds recovered from the test pit showed signs of burning. This suggests that the cottage that was on this site in the 19th C may have been destroyed by fire.
- The date range of the material from the made ground is late 16th C to early 19th C with a good 18th C signature. This is consistent with the documentary evidence of the age of the buildings on this site. One piece of brick, 2 inches thick could be Tudor.
- There was no evidence of a floor to this cottage, but it is thought that the made ground encountered had been shovelled into the site to level it after the cottage had been destroyed and before later development.
- The wall of the cottage had no foundations, but was laid straight on sedimentary material that has been interpreted as a flood deposit. The deposit is undisturbed under the wall, but to the side it has been disturbed and there is a layer of ash within it that contains a sherd of medieval pottery. This raises the possibility that the deposit precedes the 13th-14th C. The flood material is similar to a deposit excavated in No 2 East Street, about 50 m away. This one is thought to be between the end of the Roman period and 1050.
Click here for a detailed account of the pit.