TEST PITS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM
List of Test Pits
LMCB05
6, CHURCH CLOSE
SUMMARY
- The top 37 cm of this pit are the result of landscaping and re-deposition of material from the site of the house during building in the 1960s. The very hard, compacted nature of the soil at and below 30 cm suggests that the re-deposition took place in two phases, one just prior to completion of the house and the other when the foundations were dug before machinery that would have compacted the soil was brought on.
- The soil below 37 cm depth is probably the original topsoil/subsoil. It rests on sand that was likely to have been laid down in a river flowing into the lake that lay to the north of here in prehistoric times. Plenty of roots in the sand possibly date from the time when this area was emerged above water level and well vegetated. Bone in the sand is probably fossil bone from a time before human occupation on this site.
- Being so close to the margin of the lake and, therefore, possibly on boggy ground it is surprising that there are records of cottages along the boundary of the churchyard just to the south in the 1586 and 1776 surveys and this pit is within the plot of land associated with these cottages. It is interesting then that apart from one sherd of medieval pottery there is nothing in this pit older than 18th C. There is no physical evidence of the 1586 cottage here.
- Most of the pottery found is attributable to the 18th and first half of 19th C. There is sufficient to indicate the proximity of a house, but there is no documentary evidence of one, particularly on the tithe map of 1841. The source of this pottery is, therefore, not known.
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