Test Pit 18 - 8 The Grange

The houses in the Grange were built in the 1960s.   This test pit was located in the back garden, close to the location of an older house which was demolished in 1962.


The Results

The pottery from this test pit included St Neots Ware dating to the late Anglo Saxon period, an assemblage of 12th -14th century sherds including Medieval Shelly Ware, Medieval Sandy Ware, Hedingham Ware and Hertfordshire Greyware, some Glazed Red Earthenware dating to the post-medieval period and 35 sherds of Victorian-era sherds.

The other finds from this site included burnt daub, stone, glass, clay pipe fragments, brick, slate, tile and charcoal. No faunal remains were recovered.

This test pit holds good evidence that the area was first occupied during the medieval period, probably some time in the 11th -12th centuries. The pit was one of seven in the village to produce more than 50 sherds of pottery dating to the 12th -14th centuries, indicating very intensive activity in these areas at this time. The area was abandoned in the late medieval era, likely correlating to a fall in population related to the Black Death, and the area then appears to have been used as fields or gardens until the 19th-20th centuries. This pit contrasts sharply with Test Pit 17 which was dug a few metres to the NE, indicating the localised nature of past depositional activity in this part of the village.

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

Day One

We all enjoyed the day very much and found it very exciting when a piece of pottery emerged.

Day Two

We had more helpers arrive in the afternoon and the children really got into washing the finds. Again, a very enjoyable experience for all.


Photo Gallery

Please click on a photograph to display a larger image.

Downloads

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