Medieval remains on land South of Landermere Road (EHER 80598)

Trial trenching recorded a 12th to 14th century agricultural enclosure and late medieval or post-medieval field system. Excavation recorded a sequence of intercut complexes of medieval pits overlain by a largely orthogonal arrangement of ditches and gullies of post-medieval date. A number of post-medieval and undated pits were also encountered.

October 2017. Trial trenching. The evaluation uncovered evidence of a series of ditches and gullies at the North of the site, that have tentatively been interpreted as delineating enclosed areas for the purpose of holding and controlling sheep. Assemblages of medieval pottery, typically domestic in nature, suggest a broadly later 12th to 14th century date for this period of agricultural activity. In addition, the recovery of remains of cultivated wheat grains and possible common peas from the fills of a ditch and a pit imply small-scale domestic processing or cooking activity. These archaeological remains are likely to represent part of a farmstead or farm. Two ditches located in trenches toward the south of the site may constitute remnants of a late medieval/early post-medieval field system. <1> December 2017. Archaeological excavation. The excavation recorded a sequence of intercut complexes of medieval pits overlain by a largely orthogonal arrangement of ditches and gullies of post-medieval date. A number of post-medieval and undated pits were also encountered. The intercut pit complexes are interpreted as localised quarrying in a rural context that were infilled with material containing pottery and other artefacts of likely domestic origin mostly dating to the 11th-14th centuries, but perhaps extending later. Of particular significance is an anthropomorphic carved terminal from a medieval bone knife handle, which is believed to be only one of three published examples from Britain. The overlying post-medieval ditches and gullies, initially detected by the evaluation and provisionally dated as medieval, clearly contain a component of residual artefacts deriving from the quarry pits. The function of these perpendicular linear features is unclear, but is conjectured to define small enclosures of an agricultural nature. A scatter of post-medieval and undated pits is associated with this phase of land use. <2>