Test Pit 4

Test Pit 4. Yew Tree House

Property description and location

Yew Tree House is a Grade II listed building (NHLE No. 1032481). Formerly three cottages (Nos.37, 38, and 39 Church Hill) the property dates to the 16th century and contains a post bearing the date 1573. The house and garden sit at the northern end of a loose group of buildings infilling a block of land between Low Street, Church Hill and Green Street, to the north of the village green. The property is possibly depicted on the stylised 1619 map of Hoxne Hall, which otherwise shows this block as being broadly open space, and so the property could be one of the first buildings encroaching upon what may once have been a significantly bigger village green. The house is clearly shown on the Tithe map (named in the apportionment as 'Cottages and Gardens' and owned by Sir Edward Kerrison or Miss Doughty) and 1st Edition OS.

Test Pit description

The garden, lying on the steep natural slope, has clearly seen significant landscaping and the Test Pit was placed in a flowerbed immediately south of a terraced patio on the south side of the property. It showed a consistent layer of mixed garden topsoil, Context 1, extending to a depth of at least 0.7m.

Test Pit finds summary

The earliest pottery from the pit is dated to the 15th-16th century (sherds of LMT from Spit 4). In addition GRE sherds dating to the 16th-18th century were found. The majority of the pottery however dates to the Victorian period or later. Additional finds include two complete glass bottles, the remains of glass jars and some brick samples.

Test Pit Discussion

The thick garden topsoil is a clear reflection of the pits position within a heavily landscaped garden since the 16th century and the finds reflect the domestic occupation of the site. The LMT sherds are likely to be broadly contemporary with the construction of the property and it may be significant, in view of its suggested position within a possible larger medieval green, that no earlier material was recovered.