Keyhole Report for K55

Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group
Understanding Ospringe Report for Keyhole 55
47 Water Lane, Ospringe, Faversham, Kent
Grid Reference: TR 00250 60713
1. Introduction
47 Water Lane is a modern brick bungalow built circa 1959¹ on the eastern side of Water Lane, opposite the school. In 1865² the site of the bungalow had not been built upon and where the rear garden now is there was a large pond which fed a corn mill to its north.
Fig 1: The location of K55 in 1865 and 1906
a) 1865	b) 1906³

2. Location of keyhole pit
It was decided to site the pit in the front garden of the bungalow, as close to the road as was practical. The reasons for this were twofold: to be as far as possible from the site of the millpond, whose existence is already well documented and to see if the pit could cast any light on activity in Water Lane during the medieval period.
3. The procedures
A one metre square was pegged out using the planning square and the area delineated marked with string. The position of the square was recorded by measuring to mapped corners of the house. Turf was removed carefully from the square, rolled and set aside in plastic bags. The pit was then hand excavated using single contexts, each of which was fully recorded. Only half of context [04] was excavated and only to a depth of 25cm due to time constraints. All excavated soil was sieved meticulously, and the spoil heap scanned using a metal detector. Finds were set aside for each context and special finds were given three dimensional coordinates to pinpoint the exact find spot. Any features were carefully recorded. Finally, the spoil was put back in, tamped down and watered and the turf replaced.
4. The findings
The uppermost context [01] consisted of a fine-grained hard, dry soil, a light greyish brown in colour. This context extended to a depth of 23cm across the whole pit and contained a large amount of building rubble, including bricks, chalk and mortar and plaster. Beneath this the soil became a more yellowish brown colour and much more compacted, only possible to break up with a pickaxe. The volume of building material decreased significantly within this second context, which formed a layer 27cm deep across the whole pit. At a depth of 50cm a yellowish brown clay layer appeared (context [03]) which contained a large amount of small rounded flints evenly dispersed throughout the whole context. Beneath this 15cm-deep layer was context [04], a layer of large flints interspersed with a loose, dark orangey brown soil. This context was not fully excavated, but extended to a depth of at least 25cm.
		Fig 2: Full depth excavated in K55, with tabs marking the changes in context.
As well as the building rubble already mentioned context [01] also contained relatively large amounts of window glass and iron, mainly in the form of barbed wire. Other finds included two clay pipe mouth pieces, dating from the nineteenth century, and one clay pipe bowl dating from the late seventeenth century. Context [02] contained further nineteenth century clay pipe fragments as well as significant amounts of coal and slag. In context [03] the quantity of finds decreased overall compared to the previous two contexts, but proportionately high amounts of animal bone, shell and slag were discovered. The most significant find in context [04] was a worked flint in very good condition (Small Find 13). Other finds of interest included animal bones, some of which showed evidence of gnawing or butchery.
Fig 3: Worked flint from context [04]


Nearly all of the pottery in context [01] dates from the post-medieval and late post-medieval periods, although there are also three fragments which are very likely to be prehistoric. Similarly context [02] yielded a large amount of late post-medieval pottery as well as a few shards of medieval pottery and some dating from the Roman or Romano-British periods. Context 03 produced very little late post-medieval pottery and some well abraded fragments of medieval and Roman or Romano-British pottery. In contrast all the pottery found in context [04] dated from the Roman period. In the graph below, the 19^th-20^th century period is represented as yellow and pink, the medieval and Roman as blue and maroon.
Fig 4: Pottery by chronological period. Total for K55: 0.95 kg
Proportions of pottery in different contexts for K55
5. Interpretation
The majority of the finds in contexts [01] and [02] are contemporaneous with the later existence and demolition of the corn mill. The anomalies of the early clay pipe and the prehistoric pottery suggest that the land may have been well turned over at the time of the construction of the bungalow or even that soil may have been brought in from elsewhere in order to make up the garden to a required level. The finds in contexts [03] and [04] would generally appear to predate the construction of the mill, but here too the finds range across such a broad timescale from Neolithic to medieval that one must again assume that the soil has been well turned over, perhaps in this case at the time of the construction of the mill and its pond. Furthermore the fact that the sherds of medieval pottery are so small and rounded suggests that they have been turned over in the soil for centuries (i.e. midden scatter on land ploughed in medieval times), suggesting agricultural rather than occupation in this part of Water Lane.
6. Final comments
This proved to be a difficult pit to dig and to interpret. Despite the presence of fragments of medieval pottery we were sadly unable to achieve our aim of finding out more about habitation in Ospringe during this period, except in a negative way.
7. Acknowledgments
Thanks go to Raymond Godfrey and his mother for allowing us to dig in her garden.
Suzanne Miles December 2008 ¹ Swale Borough Council c1990 Townscape survey: Ospringe Village ²OS 1865 (1904 reprint) Sheet XXXIV Scale 1:2500 ³OS 1907 Sheet XXXIV Scale: 1:2500