NHER 65099 (Monument record) - Potentially medieval or early post-medieval features and remains of late post-medieval buildings

December 2015. Trial Trench.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
A single trench was excavated, with machine excavation halted when post-medieval structural remains were exposed immediately beneath the modern overburden. Hand excavation of the remainder of the trench demonstrated that a relatively undisturbed subsoil lay beneath a modern demolition layer. Removal of this deposit exposed a number of archaeologically-significant features, including a shallow pit, a possible east-to-west aligned ditch and an adjacent, similarly-aligned narrow linear feature. The latter contained two reasonably substantial post-holes and therefore potentially represented the remains of some form of timber structure. A single sherd of medieval pottery found in this possible beam slot was the only dating evidence recovered from any of these features. A medieval to early post-medieval date is though likely, particularly given than none of these remains were visible until the subsoil was fully removed.
The post-medieval structural remains comprised the footings of a single wall and a brick floor. These related to a group of cottages that were demolished in the 1960s. Bricks from the floor were of 18th or 19th century date. The construction and demolition of these buildings appears to have resulted in only minimal disturbance of the underlying subsoil.
Unstratified finds included two medieval pottery sherds, a single late post-medieval/modern pottery sherd and single fragments of post-medieval floor tile and brick, all of which were recovered from the subsoil layer.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 June 2021.