Early medieval pottery assemblage, St Mary's Church (EHER 14743)

Test pitting and a watching brief in 1988 and 1992 recorded 10th-12th century pottery sherds, and one example of an import from either northern France or the Rhineland, dating from between the late 7th and 12th centuries. The material has been interpreted as evidence of settlement in this area prior to the construction of the church.

1988. Test pit. Natural clay was encountered at about 1.34 m; cut into it was a feature, possibly a ditch, containing abundant oyster shell, flecks of charcoal and scraps of animal bone. From the top of this feature came a St. Neots-type ware rim, of 10th-11th century date. This could either pre-date the existing church, or relate to its earliest phases of use. Other (residual) finds from the test pit included a few sherds of Thetford-type ware, of broadly the same date range as the St. Neots-type ware, plus some later medieval and post-medieval pottery. <1> <2> July 1992. Watching brief. There were only three sherds of pottery from the ducting trench. Two of these were unstratified; one was a sherd of Early Medieval Ware (10th-12th century), the other was a remarkable import from either northern France or the Rhineland, dating from between the late 7th and 12th centuries. The third sherd was from context 104; it has been tentatively identified as Saxon, though it must be residual, as 104 also contained lumps of brick. The presence of this material, from what amounts to a very small sample of the churchyard, can be interpreted as evidence of settlement in the area immediately before the church was built, or could relate to the earliest phases of the church. <2>