• 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

CB35
VERNON HOUSE
 
SUMMARY

• CB35 is within the boundary of a large plot of land that includes the medieval manor house excavated in CB34. From before 1586 to the mid 19th C this was one plot, but in the mid 19th C it was divided into three parts and sold off for building. This pit was dug in the front garden of what would have been Vernon House. Soon after 1957 Vernon House and its neighbour to the west, The Limes, were joined together to make the present-day single building.
• The test pit was sited in front of the house on the outside of the projection of the manor house wall (the old manor house building may not have extended this far east). It was also close to the 19th C shambles.
• The topsoil, 20 cm thick, contains an assemblage including a layer of brick pieces at the bottom, that suggests it was re-deposited during landscaping when the two buildings were joined in the 1950s.
• Beneath the topsoil to a depth of around 65 cm the soil has also been re-deposited. Again there is a layer of small brick pieces at the base. Nothing included in it is later that mid 19th C suggesting that this was re-deposited at the time the two houses were built.
• The soil below this to the natural sandstone bedrock is the original soil and the pottery assemblage in it shows an upward sequence from Roman between 100 and 110 cm through Anglo-Saxon and Late Saxon to 15th C medieval at around 80 cm depth. There is no younger pottery than 15th C below the soil that was re-deposited in the mid 19th C.
• The medieval pottery assemblage contains abundant Nottingham Splashed Ware from the 12th-13th centuries, but also several sherds from pottery that was not made locally. Several different types of medieval pottery were found and it is the most abundant of all fabric types.
• Late Saxon and early/middle Anglo-Saxon pottery is relatively common in this pit.
• There were only a few sherds of Roman pottery, but they included Nene Valley colour-coat and white mortaria pieces. These finds in conjunction with the younger material backs up the evidence from CB34 and CB01 that there was a long history of activity at this site before the manor house was built in the 13th C.
• The bed rock at 183 cm depth is medium-grained sandstone the same as the stone used in the manor house wall in CB34 and to make the church tower. It is probably the Hollygate Sandstone. 

Click here for a detailed account of the pit.

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