Medieval/post-medieval pits and levelling deposits, The Old Brewery site, Fullbridge (EHER 48554)

Trial trenching in 2014 recorded three medieval pits, one of which was lined with cattle horn cores. The use of horn cores to line pits has been noted on post-medieval sites and industrial sites, but in the case of the Old Brewery site, may have been decorative. Also recorded were post-medieval levelling deposits.

April 2014. Trial trenching. A modest amount of archaeological features were identified in the four evaluation trenches, including three medieval pits, and numerous deposits dating from the post-medieval and modern periods. The function of the medieval pits is unknown, although they all seem to be quite large in size. One of the pits was unusual in that it appeared to have been lined with cattle horn cores. The use of horn cores to line pits has been noted on post-medieval sites, where they may have been used as a cheaper alternative to bricks. However, in the case of the pit on this site the horn cores have been placed upright, and there only appeared to be one layer of them. It is therefore possible that they may have been a decorative feature. In any event, the presence of large amounts of horn cores on an archaeological site usually indicates some sort of industrial activity, which could include horn working but, where heads and feet are both represented, could also involve secondary uses of hides arriving with heads and feet attached, such as for tanning. Despite documentary evidence for post-medieval tanning in the Fullbridge area, the evidence here does not suggest horning (the outer horn had not been stripped from the cores) nor tannery waste (no feet), even though the location (close to a water supply and on the periphery of the settled area for the medieval or early post-medieval periods) would also suit the ‘noxious’ tanning industry. Evidence of activity in the post-medieval and modern periods is attested by various walls and pits, and numerous layers of material (mostly recorded in section). Whilst some of these may relate to post-medieval surfaces, many appear to be dump layers, presumably imported to build up the ground level of this low lying area (mapped as landslip on the geological map, so a reaction to that may be posited). The presence of large amounts of clinker could be related to the former coal yard which is shown on the 1875 Ordnance Survey. <1> Note: This monument was formerly mapped as a polygon which extended beyond the site boundary and has been reduced to the excavated trenches using information from <2>.