TEST PITS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM
List of Test Pits
CB26
10, NEWGATE STREET
SUMMARY
- The site for pit CB26 is within land farmed by Edmund Bludworth in 1586. Unusually, he lived on Chappell Gate (most farmers lived on Husband Street, now Long Acre).
- The plot did not change until the northern part was sold to the railway company in the mid 19th C, but the southern, eastern and western boundaries remained unchanged.
- On the tithe map of 1841 the south eastern corner of the plot (now the corner between Newgate St and Gillot’s Grove) was occupied by a house and farm buildings. One of these buildings has the date 1817 set in bricks on it suggesting that it was built that year. The pit site is close to these buildings. By 1883 the site of the test pit was surrounded by farm buildings, with the internal space between them probably a crew yard. Although some of the small farm buildings on the eastern side are still there the rest, including the farmhouse, were demolished to make way for new houses in the 1960s.
- Apart from the topsoil, which is recently introduced, there is rubble and disturbed ground related to the demolition of the farm buildings down to 73 cm depth where it rests on a cobbled surface. There are good indications that the rubble was laid during the 20th C.
- Much of the pottery was found in the topsoil and in the rubble and includes medieval, post-medieval, 18th and 19th C stoneware and the one prehistoric flint.
- The bricks in the rubble include 2 1/4 inch thick, which is typically Georgian.
- The cobbled surface is made from volcanic stones probably from the Trent gravels. Beneath it is disturbed ground to the basal clay. A land drain is set in it, but there was no visible indication of the sides of the trench used to lay it. The cobbled surface above the drain has not been dug through. The drain is cylindrical and typical of drains made in the second half of the 19th C
- Dated sherds from beneath the cobbles include 19th C pottery in the 10 cm above the drain, which probably got there in the trench as the drain was being laid. Both the drain and the cobbled surface are likely to be late 19th C. The only other dated sherd from beneath the cobbled surface is a Midland Black Ware piece probably attributable to the 17th C, though it is not possible to be sure that it has not been introduced.
Click here for a detailed account of the pit.