• BINGHAM: AN OVERVIEW
• HISTORY OF BINGHAM
  • Introduction
  • Prehistoric times
  • Iron Age
  • Roman Bingham
  • The Anglo-Saxons
  • Medieval Bingham
  • Tudor times
  • Stuart times
  • Georgian times
  • Victorian Bingham
  • 20th Century
  • 21st Century
• ARCHAEOLOGY
  • Project Details
  • Field Walking
    • Summary
    • Field Walking Method
    • Database Design
    • Details about the Parish
    • Protocol
    • Description of Finds
      • Introduction
      • Flints
      • Stone Axes
      • Iron Age
      • Roman
      • Anglo-Saxon
      • Saxo-Norman
      • Medieval
      • Post Medieval
      • Stoneware
      • Clay Pipes
      • Glass
      • 19th-20th C
      • Miscellaneous
    • Analysis of Results
      • Introduction
      • Prehistory
      • Iron Age
      • Roman
      • Anglo-Saxon
      • Medieval
      • Tudor-Stuart
      • 18th Century
      • Modern
    • References
    • Conclusions
  • Crow Close
    • Purpose and location
    • Historical background
    • Topographical survey
    • Geophysical surveys
    • Analysis of results
    • Discussion/conclusions
    • References
    • Acknowledgements
  • Test Pits
    • Market Place Dig
    • Robert Miles Jnr School
    • Archaeological test pits
    • Churchyard
  • Warner's Paddock
  • STUDY OF OLD MAPS
    • Bingham in 1586
      • Introduction
      • Interpretation
      • Town Centre
      • Additional Holdings
      • The Open Fields
        • Furlongs/Holdings/Strips
        • South Field
        • East Field
        • West Field
        • North Field
      • Holdings and Strips
        • Reconstructing holdings
        • Analysis of holdings
        • Sizes of holdings
      • Street and road names
    • Bingham in 1776
      • The Estate Terrier
      • Town Map
      • The Fields
      • Homesteads
      • Shared Tenancies
    • Bingham in 1841
      • Apportionment
      • Town Map
      • Life in 1841
      • Analysis
      • 1841-1901
  • BUILT HERITAGE
    • Introduction
    • Development of Bingham
    • House Histories
    • Old and New Views
    • Architectural Details
    • Street Names
    • St Mary Church
  • CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
  • FARMING IN BINGHAM
  • BINGHAM AT WAR
    • World War I
    • World War II
  • BINGHAM'S RAILWAYS
  • CHURCHYARD
    • Introduction
    • Search the Churchyard
    • Churchyard Map
    • Genealogical Charts
    • Inscriptions
    • Species List
  • ORAL HISTORY
  • NATURAL HISTORY
    • Wildlife and Flora
    • Natural History Surveys
    • Linear Park
  • GEOLOGY

TEST PITS

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM

List of Test Pits

CB34
THE LIMES
 
SUMMARY

• From 1586 until the mid 19th C this was on a large plot of land that included the medieval manor house lived in by the de Bingham family from 1266 to around 1348/49. This pit was sited on where their manor house was thought to have been.
• In 1857 the plot was divided into three and sold. The houses that now occupy the two sites that fronted on the Market Place were built as separate houses. In the mid 20th C they were joined to make a single building that was used for a time by the Rural District Council.
• The topsoil contains an assemblage of finds that suggest it was re-deposited after the building phase in which the two houses were joined
• A soil layer below this contains debris derived from the mid 19th C building phase that gave rise to The Limes.
• This layer of soil has an irregular base where it overlies a pile of building rubble, pottery, glass and other materials that had been dumped at some time in the early 17th C onto a plaster and lime floor. The building rubble includes limestone roofing slates, red clay roofing tiles, fragments of partially glazed floor tile that are thought to be medieval, dressed stone and white gypsum plaster that had indentations on one side where it had been pressed against a stone wall.
• The floor was severely eroded and degraded before the rubbish was dumped on it. It was followed in a southern extension of the pit to a stone wall that was well built and set with sandy mortar. The wall is 20 inches thick and is believed to be the outside wall of the medieval manor house.
• The plaster and lime floor consists of five layers:
  • Upper layer
  • Skim of white plaster
  • Lower layer
  • Layer of flat stones
  • Sand layer
  • Rests on clay
• The total thickness is 15 cm. The upper layer is a hard material with a mix ratio roughly of 80% gypsum plaster and 20% lime. Large aggregate of charcoal, gypsum, burnt limestone, burnt shale and sandstone is typical. The lower layer seems to be a failed attempt at a plaster and lime floor producing a crumbly mix that had no strength and could not have served as a floor.
• The archaeology beneath the floor yielded a sequence of finds from Roman, early/middle Anglo-Saxon, Late Saxon and 12th-13th C pottery suggesting that the floor was could have been laid at the end of the 13th C and in this respect it is similar to CB01 next door.
• Only two sherds of medieval pottery were found above the floor and cannot be used reliably for dating purposes. The best way to give an upper date for the laying of the floor is by comparison with the sequence in CB01.

Click here for a detailed account of the pit.

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