Pottery Timeline

When we started digging in the back garden we were hoping to pinpoint the time at which our village was formed in its current location. Little did we know that we would trace things back further!

At the very bottom of our very first Test Pit (1 metre square and 45 cm deep before hitting the natural chalk brash) we found a piece of pottery that looked like solidified muesli. It was later dated as Late Bornze Age.

Our next Test Pit in a different part of the garden continued past the 45 cm depth until it got too dangerous to continue at 90 cm, we had found a ditch feature. Lots of animal bone, pot boilers and Iron Age pottery came out of this.

A bigger trench continued to reveal Iron Age pottery above and below Roman grey and red ware.

Elsewhere in the garden we found the earliest medieval pottery which was dated to the 11th Century.

We have a lot of sherds of pottery in store which remain undated due to the scarcity of available archaeological pottery experts. It would be good to fill in the gap between the Roman period and the 11th Century. But for now we say that the village formed on its current site around the time of the Norman Conquest because that is what the evidence suggests, so far.

Pictured from left to right:

1 x Late Bronze Age piece found at the bottom of the very first Test Pit
2 x Late Iron Age "Local Coarse Ware" rim pieces
3 x Roman grey ware pieces
1 x Roman red ware piece
2 x 11th Century pieces