TEST PITS

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM

There is evidence of a cottage near this test pit site in the manorial survey of 1586 and records show that there have been habitations nearby since then. The actual ownership of the garden area containing the pit is conjectural before 1776.
There are indications of a possible habitation nearby in the medieval period up to the Black Death in the presence of a rubbish pit containing pottery sherds that can be dated 12th-14th C. There is no indication of anything happening here earlier than this.
The rubbish pit was not in use after the mid 14th C and was capped by the 15th C.
The soil profile above the rubbish pit shows that there was activity of some kind in this area from the early 15th C, but increasing in the 18th and 19th centuries. This might have been little more than horticulture leading to the ground being turned over from time to time and the use of night soil containing broken pottery as manure, but the documentary evidence we have shows that there was housing nearby from at least the late 16th C.
The top 40 cm of the topsoil was either re-deposited or turned over after the time when the adjacent houses were built with strong evidence of significant disturbance in the mid 20th C. At this time a trench was dug through the topsoil for the purpose of burying a cat.
Regarding diet, pork was the main staple in the medieval period, with a little goat and mutton, but in the 16th and 18th centuries mutton predominated.

Click here for a detailed account of the pit.