Test Pit 14 - 43 High Street

The main part of Meldreth House was built in 1848 using clay bats on a brick foundation.  The pit was dug in the garden, close to the drive that leads to the village hall car park.


The Finds

The pottery from this test pit included single sherds of Bronze Age and Romano British Ware, Early Medieval Sandy Ware and Hertfordshire Greyware dating to the 12th-14th centuries, Late Medieval Ware, Glazed Red Earthenware, English Stoneware and 24 Victorian-era sherds.

Other finds included glass, slate, coal, brick and mortar, daub, charcoal, shell and assorted metal objects. The faunal assemblage included some unidentifiable bones of mostly sheep-sized animals.

This was one of eight pits to contain Bronze Age pottery, strongly indicating settlement activity somewhere in the vicinity of the present village at that time. The single sherd of Romano-British ware, found in Context 3, also contributes towards a general scatter of Roman-era pottery across the central part of the present settlement at Meldreth, indicating activity in the area at this time most likely corresponding to one or two farms, surrounded by fields. The area around Test Pit 14 then appears to have been abandoned until the High Medieval period when small-scale deposition may indicate habitation somewhere in the vicinity. Low levels of activity seem to have continued, corresponding to the use as gardens or fields up until the 19th century, when increased deposition indicates the area was occupied once again.

For an overview of the site and finds, please click on the image of the exhibition poster which is the first image in the gallery below.

For detailed analysis of the finds, please see the results sheet for this pit, which is available as a download at the bottom of this page.

For reports and maps relating to all of the test pits, please see the documents available on our results page.


Site Diary

No site diary was recorded.


Photo Gallery

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Downloads

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