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Hunt The Saxons

A Community Archaeology Research Project in
Faversham, Kent

Interim Report for the 2006 season

To be read as a follow-on from the 2005 Interim Report

 
Please treat this information as provisional. If you disagree with an interpretation of the evidence, with an identification or assigned date, do not hesitate to contact us though the website – indeed, the seeking of alternative views is the main reason for online publication at this stage.

Pat Reid
Dec 2006.




Contents

Introduction

1. Research aim

2. Strategy for 2006 stage

3. Preparations for 2006

4. Practice

5. Findings (each TP plus summary)

6. Towards final reporting

7. Finally - what about the Saxons?
 
Introduction
This account follows on from the 2005 Interim, and is written at the end of the second season. As with the 2005 report, this one will report on the community aspects as well as the archaeological findings.

 
1. Research aim

The research aim remained unchanged from 2005.

 
2. Strategies
A well-attended open meeting was held in April 2006 where all aspects of the 2005 season were reviewed and decisions made about the 2006 season. We all knew the Tanners St/ West St area far better that had been the case in 2005, not just archaeologically but also historically from documents, maps and the expertise of local historians. Team members also had hands-on experience of excavation in the study area, so the decisions set out below were very well informed.
  • To set the dates for the excavation season to overlap with school holidays to enable sixth formers to take part.
  • To continue mainly with a 1sq m Test Pit (TP) / spits approach but to allow more time (at least 3 days) for each test pit
  • To carefully select TP locations that had marked potential based on research findings so far.
  • To open up a larger area at the back of the south eastern part of Tanners St where evidence from TP12 had suggested medieval deposits relatively near the surface.
  • To excavate and record this larger trench using single context methods and appropriate recording techniques.
  • To obtain surveying equipment so that changes in height in the area could be accurately mapped.
  • To continue with the on-site finds processing in the Bull garden.
  • To provide training in new skills (such as surveying, scale section drawing and Brick and Tile identification).
  • To pay for a second team member to be trained in First Aid.
  • To involve more team members in supervising Test Pits.
  • To involve team members in writing Test Pit reports.
  • To do an Open Day again.
  • To request that FSARG is permitted to do the Annual Lecture for the Faversham Society (April 2007) on overall findings.

In short, as predicted in the 2005 report, the field approach would be much more focussed and skilled in 2006.

 
3. Preparation for 2006
In October 2005, an application had been made to the KAS for a small grant to cover expenses. In April, a sum of £300 arrived, which was much appreciated. It was set aside to pay for First Aid training, Finds identification training and consumables such as finds bags.

In June, a number of meetings took place to firm up details about finds processing, the use of IT and other procedural matters. Training was given to the 6 new volunteers and advanced training for more experienced ones. A team member was trained by the Red Cross.

A number of garden offers from last year were followed up and checked for permissions. Some new locations were also researched for ownership, owners tracked down and asked for permission – all were very helpful.

 
4. Methods in practice
Seven test pits were dug in the 2006 season, making seventeen overall. Three were in gardens on the west (stream) side of Tanners St (TPs 16, 26 &26A) and three were in gardens on the high, eastern side of the street (TPs1, 11 & 29) We had decided not to dig in West St this year because the deposits were so deep (see 2005 reports from 75, West St TP22, and 78 West St TPs 23A & 23B). The seventh one was in the grounds of the Almshouses, chosen mainly for its suitability for public access for the Open Weekend but also to give a useful ‘non-residential’ base line for comparisons with garden TPs. Unless there were good archaeological reasons for stopping, all but one TP was taken down to the 1.2 metre maximum depth possible.

Besides these standard Test Pits, one 2m x 2m exploratory trench was dug in an empty plot tucked away on the eastern side of Tanners St, between the backs of gardens and the Almshouses wall (TP27). TP 27 was excavated contextually, with appropriate recording sheets and use of scale drawings. Seven days were spent on this trench.

Finds processing continued as successfully as last year at the Bull. Because of the increased confidence of the finds team they were able to make more use of occasional helpers and were able to get a lot of pottery labelling done.

Finally, in the autumn, thanks to donated surveying equipment and a resistivity meter constructed by two of the team members, we were able to return to the area to carry out surveying to establish the lie of the land accurately. Although it was not possible to plot in all of the TP sites, enough were accessible to give a good overall idea. The resistivity meter was used to map out some of the open area down in Flood Lane. A report on the survey findings will follow shortly.
 

Fig 1: Excavation spots over the two seasons, with TP numbers. OS 1907 XXXIV.9

 
5. Findings
Reports follow for all of the seventeen 1 x 1 m Test Pits, plus the report for the 2 x 1 pit dug in 2005 (TP25). For Small Finds (SFs) mentioned in the reports, go to the Small Finds section of this web site, and for further details on individual clay pipes, go to the Clay Pipe database (2006 updates available Jan-Feb 07). TP 27 will also follow shortly. In 2006, one of the new team members took on animal bone recording as a special task, and the production of a database for animal bone will be ongoing over this winter.

The most striking comparative point relates to the contrast between the pits in gardens of old established residences on the stream/creek side of Tanners St and West St (14, 16, 26A, 17, 22, 23A &B) and those on the higher ground to the east and south (1, 9, 11, 12, 27, 28, 29). With the former, at 1.2m maximum depth, the dominant period is 16th/17th and with the latter (as suspected from TP12 dug in 2005) medieval farming levels are reached at around 60cm. This was particularly strongly demonstrated in the larger excavation TP27 where context 0006 was almost entirely medieval or earlier in content. These contrasts will be more fully explored in the forthcoming article using the survey results.

 
6. Towards final reporting
This project has produced an enormous amount of information, as the Test Pit reports show. Much of this must be checked and fully archived over the next year. The considerable amount of glass found in all pits has yet to be dealt with in any detail. Yet there is a limit to the usefulness of precise artefactual detail in a situation of such complex stratification and narrow keyholes of investigation, and it seems more productive and manageable to treat the record as a resource and pull out certain threads for reporting upon. At present, these are the most obvious ones:
  • The Roman period and links with the Ospringe area. Seven of the test pits contained Roman pottery and/or other Roman artefacts. (short article)
  • The medieval period. Nearly all Test Pits had medieval material and more than 50% had Saxo-Norman material. Some evidence for medieval structures (TPs 14, 25, 26) and cultivation (midden scatters) was also found. This will be linked with documentary evidence involving Faversham Abbey and the Maison Dieu (Ospringe) both of which had interests in this part of Faversham (Cantiana article, combined with next item?)
  • Tanning in Tanners St. Archaeology and documents provide solid and detailed evidence now for tanning from the 13th century through to the early 20th century
  • 19th/early 20th century decline and recent recovery. Much infill of tenements and later demolition has taken place. This would be of interest to local people.

The material will also contribute towards medieval pottery and clay pipe catalogues for Faversham, in the longer term. Discussion is at present also taking place about the lodging of findings on the Kent Sites and Monuments Register.

We have become quite expert on the strengths, limitations and practical issues to do with mini- excavations in old urban areas, and would like to share this with a wider audience: the new CBA Community Archaeology website may well provide a forum.

 
7. Finally -what about the Saxons?
We did finally find small amounts (93gm) of what we think is Ipswich ware in TP1 and a few sherds that might be Saxon elsewhere. TP1 was a particularly interesting pit with Roman material as well as a lot of small, highly abraded medieval pottery sherds, so in a limited sense we did find them. We have increasingly begun to feel, however, that we are looking in the wrong place, and in 2007 will turn our attention to a different part of town.

Dr Patricia Reid, Honorary Archaeologist for the Faversham Society

December 2006