TEST PITS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM
List of Test Pits
CB05, CB37 and CB38
CHESTERFIELD ARMS
SUMMARY
- The three test pits, CB05, CB37 and CB38 are situated in three different plots on the map for 1586. Each one was rented by a cottager. The three plots became unified under one tenant between 1776 and 1841. There is no documentary information about the period before 1586, but the presence of the same kind of orange, early Midland Purple Ware in all three pits suggests that before 1450 the three plots were unified. The pub dates from the mid 18th C.
- Test pits CB05 and CB37 both show natural soil profiles. In CB05 there is continuity from the organic topsoil down to the geological deposit at the base. In CB37 the natural profile is below 25 cm of imported topsoil and crushed rock used as a foundation to the playground at the eastern end of the property.
- CB38 was a half pit (50 x 100 cm) dug to investigate a buried wall. The wall is made of stones and Victorian brick and probably dates from the 19th or early 20th centuries. The soil removed from this pit seems to have been deposited against the wall when the rear garden to the pub was re-modelled, possibly in the second half of the 20th century.
- Recovered pottery covers all time intervals from Roman to Modern. In CB05 and CB37 it generally conforms to stratigraphical rules in that the younger pottery is near the top and the older at the bottom, but there is a degree of mixing suggesting that the ground has been turned during cultivation. The evidence suggests that there was deep ploughing up to the early18th century, but garden cultivation after that.
- There is little Roman pottery and it is all Grey Ware, suggesting that this area might have been agricultural land associated with the Roman houses found near the south end of Cherry Street.
- Early/middleAnglo-Saxon and Late Anglo-Saxon pottery confirms a presence here at that time. More importantly, only the second Middle Anglo-Saxon pottery sherd found in Bingham was recovered from one of these pits.
- Stamford Ware indicates activity during the Norman period.
- CB05 revealed the most medieval pottery and the different types span the whole of the medieval period, both before and after the Black Death. Many of the sherds show little sign of erosion. This taken in association with abundance in CB05 suggests that this pit was situated close to a domestic rubbish dump that would be near a house.
- The amount of pottery from different ages after the medieval period is relatively low, but the conjectural map of 1586 and documentary evidence shows that there were cottages along Church Street in 1586 and a pub on the site from the first half 18th century.
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