Test Pit 10

Test Pit 10. Aldersyde, Low Street

Property description and location

Aldersyde Cottage is the southernmost of three Grade II listed 16th century cottages fronting onto Low Street green (NHLE No. 1352374, see Test Pit 9, Beech Cottage). The Tithe apportionment says that the property and its small rear garden were in the ownership of the executors of James Lawler but gives no description.

Test Pit description

The test pit was located in a flat area of lawn, c.10m to the rear of the house. This showed a 0.5m thick layer of dark grey/brown worked topsoil, Context 1, with patches of chalk, clay and charcoal. This sealed at least 0.2m of mid brown silty/sand which had relatively less inclusions, Context 2, the base of which was not seen.

Test Pit finds summary

The earliest pottery from this pit dates to the 16th-18th century (GRE and IGBW). The remainder of the pottery is Victorian and modern. Other finds include mortar fragments, clay tobacco pipe and glass.

Test Pit Discussion

As with Test Pit 9 the thick topsoil and mixed finds material correspond to the known use of the site as rear gardens to the cottages fronting Low Street since the 16th century. Context 2, being a cleaner deposit, appears to be an earlier preserved soil horizon and although it did contain some modern pottery this could be intrusive. Again as with Test Pit 9 the natural subsoil was not observed and buried soil horizons or features relating to the medieval settlement could be preserved at depth.