TEST PITS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM
List of Test Pits
LA19
14, THE PADDOCK
SUMMARY
- LA 19 is in a small garden behind a modern house. The western boundary of the row of houses on the west side of The Paddock dates from at least 1586. Until this modern development this area had been agricultural, probably pasture in recent centuries, but it may have been arable earlier. The site of the pit is mid way between The Banks and Long Acre and was always well away from the farmhouse situated on Long Acre (or Husband Street, as it was previously called).
- There is a single soil context above the natural deposit of sand and clay at the base. However, the basal deposits are complex. There appears to be shallow trench cut into them with a sherd of cane-coloured ware in the channel fill. This seems to indicate the trench was man-made in the 19th C and that the soil above it is re-deposited. It cannot be ruled out that the channel and some adjacent stones signify the presence of a tree nearby, which has caused the soil disturbance.
- The oldest archaeological find from this pit is a sherd of early/middle Anglo-Saxon period (450-850). This and several medieval sherds were found in the lowest part of the pit. Among the medieval finds are several pieces of shelly ware that could not be dated. With them there was Nottingham Splashed Ware from late 12th to mid 13th C. All the others were from before the mid 14th C; i.e. they seem all to pre-date the Black Death (1348-49), but coincide with the period during which Bingham parish was most highly cultivated. There were no finds from the period 850 to c1150.
- Later pottery finds and clay pipes span the period late 17th to 19th C, mainly. The Midland Black Ware could be earlier. Most of the sherds were eroded and they were not abundant. Several pieces of Mocha Ware were found. This is a utilitarian ware from the 19th C. It is possible that the 19th C sherds could have been deposited with night soil, which was dumped into pits, generally on a weekly basis during much of the later 19th
- Among the miscellaneous finds from the upper parts of the pit are two threepenny bits dated 1941 and 1942.
Click here for a detailed account of the pit.