TEST PITS

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEST PITS IN BINGHAM

These pits were dug in ground that was right at the edge of the village for much of its history. It was part of the North open field until general enclosure in 1680-90, but then became freehold. There is no information in the available documents on the ownership of this land at this time.
The house, No 15 Fairfield Street was built in 1822 and at the time had a small back garden. The garden was extended westwards to its present boundary at some time after this, possibly in 1840.
Two overlapping pits were dug in this garden. The first encountered a rubbish pit and to explore the soil into which the rubbish pit was dug a second pit was dug alongside the first at a later date.
The rubbish pit was dug through the topsoil and subsoil into the basal clay and from its content could be dated to the mid 19th C. This would fit with the date at which the garden was extended and the time that it became practice for householders to dump their night soil and domestic rubbish in pits dug weekly at the bottom of their gardens and orchards.
The top of the pit could not be identified because of repeated working of the garden soil above it.
The topsoil contains material from the 12th C to the present, which is not uncommon in this area, but the underlying subsoil contains pottery sherds and clay pipes stems ranging from 14th C to mid 18th C. There was nothing older than this.

Click here for a detailed account of the pits.