Medieval and post-medieval pottery, Allotments, Pantile Road (EHER 49427)

2017 Test Pit 2. One of ten test pits excavated in Southminster as part of the Access Cambridge Archaeology Project. This site appears to have had a marginal use such as fields in the earlier medieval and post-medieval periods until the Victorian era. Other finds were also recovered but remain undated.

April 2017. Access Cambridge Archaeology test pitting. One of ten test pits excavated in Southminster as part of the Access Cambridge Archaeology Project. This site appears to have had a marginal use such as fields in the earlier medieval and post-medieval periods until the Victorian era. <1> <2> The vast majority of the pottery excavated from Test Pit 2 dates as 19th century ‘Victorian’ wares, although a small amount of post-medieval wares was also recorded as Glazed Red Earthenware and English Stoneware. A single small sherd of medieval Hedingham Ware was also identified from context three. The results from this test pit were similar to those from Test Pit 1 immediately to the South and suggest that the majority of the activity in this area was from the post medieval and later, but as open fields away from the core of the settlement further East. This is the furthest West in the settlement that medieval activity has been recorded through the test pitting strategy and hints that the core of the village has always been further to the East and around the church. The other finds recovered consist of ceramic building material (CBM), tile, slate, charcoal, mortar, concrete, a tent peg, modern nails and screws, pieces of plastic, including wire covering, glass, modern CBM and tile, iron nails and bolts, this pieces of fabric, a metal hook, a metal loop, pieces of scrap metal, animal bone and the base of small clear glass tube. <3>