FIELD WALKING
DESCRIPTION OF FINDS
ANGLO-SAXON
24 sherds of Anglo-Saxon pottery were found including those from the additional field 2890, which is situated outside the parish on the east side of Granby Lane. They were identified by Jane Young and named following Young, Vince and Nailor (2005). All the sherds, which are well worn, are undecorated. They fall within the date range 5th to 8th century. The Charnwood wares have the longest date range at 450-800 AD; the sandstone tempered types have a date range of 550-800 AD.
Early to Middle Saxon
Charnwood-type fabric
There are six of these. The body is dark grey and gritty. The temper is white angular quartz up to 3mm in diameter, biotite, sub-rounded, fine quartz, small dark, rounded possibly lithic grains and fragments of acid igneous rocks mostly intergrown quartz and mica, but some quartz and feldspar were seen. Sandstone grains are present in one of these sherds.
Sandstone-tempered
These are the most abundant. The body is black or dark grey, some with oxidised outer surfaces. In one the oxidation was over the broken edge and therefore late. The temper is mostly quartz with some sandstone. Mica was seen in one and another, coarse fabric, contained chaff. There are three rim sherds. They are simple slightly everted, on a body 6 mm thick. Though it is difficult to measure the rim diameter one is approximately 12 cm.
Two local varieties were identified: Trent sandstone tempered and Central Lincolnshire sandstone tempered.
Cremation urns
A number of fragments of cremation urns were collected in 1972 on the site of a cremation cemetery near Starnhill Farm. Details of them were published by Alvey (1980, pp82-83). These are now held in the Nottingham University Museum. They have not been re-examined during this project and cannot be assigned to any of the fabric types described above.