Roman, medieval and post-medieval pottery, Southminster Church of England Primary School, Burnham Road (West) (EHER 48864)

2015 Test Pit 9. Medieval pottery was recovered, alongside three sherds of Roman pottery and several post-medieval sherds, from one of 12 test pits excavated as part of an Access Cambridge Archaeology project. The finds suggest the site was used in the Roman period, after which time it was abandoned until the medieval period, when it appears to have been occupied, and reoccupied in the post-medieval period.

April 2015. Access Cambridge Archaeology test pitting. The vast majority of the pottery excavated from Test Pit 9 dates to the medieval period as Essex Grey Ware, Mill Green Ware and Late medieval Colchester ware. A small amount of Glazed Red Earthenware and 19th century ‘Victorian’ wares were also found with three sherds of Romano-British pottery. This test pit produced pottery which shows that people were using the site in the Roman period, after which time it was abandoned until the medieval period, when it appears to have been occupied. It was then abandoned from the early post-medieval period to the Victorian era. A lot of the other finds probably also date to the later use of the site either as open fields or the school playground, and consist of an L shaped bolt or handle, slag, modern nails, iron nails, ceramic building material (CBM), charcoal, brick fragments, clay pipe, pieces of scrap metal, coal, glass, slate, plastic and animal bone. <1>