Possible Early Medieval sunken feature building at Plumb's Yard (St John's Close), Great Chesterford (EHER 4974)

A number of features were considered to be of undetermined date but have been reinterpreted as evidence of Early Medieval activity and possible Anglo-Saxon sunken featured building.

1982. Salvage excavation. A number of features were of undetermined date and some are not dated in the in the report in the EHER. A pit containing a dog skeleton, a mortary mixture with pieces of coal, appeared to be of "fairly recent origin". A floor was excavated "no conclusion of age or function was possible". Flotation of a small sample from Pit 4 produced seeds of wheat, barley, oats and cleavers. Worked antler and bone dice were found, no dates were given. <1> All the Saxon features were located in Area 1. Overlying floor 8 was a layer of loamy soil (5) which filled a natural depression in the gravel subsoil. This layer contained nineteen sherds of 5th-century date, some bone, a pistol ball and a few worked flints. The pistol ball is considered to be intrusive, possibly introduced when the layer was cut by the foundation of a 19th-century garden wall. Cutting this layer was Pit 3 (Cut 9, fills 15, 16, 16a, 17), which measured 3m x 4m and was 1.35m deep. The lowest fill (17) comprised a layer of gravelly soil with large stones. Above this was a slip of very gravelly soil (16a) which contained 5th-/early 6th-century sherds. Above this was a dark loamy fill (16) which contained 5th-/early 6thcentury sherds, worked flints, pot-boilers, nails, oyster and mussel shell, bone and snails. Above this was a layer of gravelly soil containing a similar range of artefacts and 5th-/early 6th-century sherds, and a shallow depression with signs of burning at its north-eastern end. Arranged around Pit 3 were around seventeen post-holes ranging in depth from 90mm to 150mm. All the layers contained occasional bits of medieval or post-medieval pottery, but these are considered to be intrusive, the western edge of Pit 3 having been cut by medieval and post-medieval pits. It is therefore tentatively suggested that this feature represents a sunken-featured building of 5th-/early 6th century date. <2>