This quarry tile floor was laid just over 200 years ago and has been buried under a metre of rubble since the house was demolished around 1950. Little is known about the cottage itself and there are no known photographs. Thanks to WAG its floor plan and the methods used in the building's construction will soon be revealed and recorded for future generations.
Although quite a few sherds of medieval pottery were found during our initial investigations at the vicarage garden, they were not found in context. This means that they could have just been brought in from elsewhere and dumped on the garden. It was therefore decided to dig another test pit within the wooded area closer to the graveyard wall and the pavement which may have been less disturbed.
Closer inspection of old maps showed that there were two structures which appear to have been demolished when the new road was cut and fortuitously, local historian John Stretton found additional information relating to one of them. Some possible evidence was found in two of our initial test pits by way of a clay surface and a few fragments of floor tile but a document discovered by John relates to a conveyance made in 1663 confirming a tithe barn and a yard in Albrighton. On the same visit to the archive, an estate map of 1789 shows the area where the new road was cut was called ‘the yard’.
Our test pit within the wooded area was exceptionally hard to dig due to a mass of tree roots but once again a couple of pieces of medieval sandyware pottery (12th-13th C) were found but mixed with post medieval and 19th century material. This was disappointing but large amounts of floor tile and an internal post hole came to light which could indicate the floor of a large barn type structure possibly the tithe barn.
The photo shows the squared post hole along with a couple of pieces of floor tile sitting on some mortar. More investigations are planned adjacent to the church very shortly.
Although test pits dug in the gardens of modern houses rarely turn up interesting archaeology, they very often produce dozens of finds from the last few hundred years. These may be from human activity in earlier dwellings on the site or material deposited in the field in which the house was built.
A recent dig in the garden of a cottage which dates from the second half of the 1700s, produced probably the largest quantity of finds we have ever had from a single test pit. There had clearly been a lot of disturbance in the soil above the natural sandstone, as earlier finds were found well above Victorian ceramics. This most likely represents a gradual accumulation of household waste as well as almost three centuries of gardening - the soil was uniformly fine from surface to natural, a depth of around half a metre.
The photo above shows the quantity of clay pipe fragments recovered from a single layer or 'spit' of this test pit. Some of these were made in the 17th century so might indicate an earlier dwelling or people working in, or simply passing through, the fields. In addition to these bits of pipe, there were dozens of fragments of pottery and glass in each spit, some of which may also predate the present house. Details of this particular test pit will be included in the overall Community Archaeology report which will be available on this website in due course.
Our investigations at Albrighton have resumed after the hiatus caused by the pandemic and in some style! We were trying to find evidence of the possible medieval market site, along with traces of the ancient road - later a turnpiked coach road - and a roadside building dating from at least the 18th century.
While no direct evidence to locate the market was found, we did discover the old road and a quantity of quite early medieval pottery on the site of the aforementioned building. Arrows on the photo above show the line of the cobbled road.
The turnpike through Albrighton came into existence around 1750 but the sharply curved section we were trying to locate fell out of use around 1840, when the road was finally straightened. This short section of road has been hidden by 20th century landscaping and was found to be almost a metre underground! It seems to have consisted of various sizes of cobbles, probably set in a clay matrix. Some toll roads in this 'pre-Tarmacadam' era were covered with a layer of gravel but we found no obvious evidence for this. Being somewhat distant from Wolverhampton, and knowing that local people had free use of the road in exchange for maintaining it, it's possible that there was little change in the overall structure of the road; what we found could even represent a much earlier construction.
Being unable to find any evidence for a building which is known to have stood beside the road we were somewhat disappointed... until our finds were properly cleaned, at which point it became clear that we had a almost 20 sherds of (possibly locally made) 'sandyware' and other cooking pots, some of which could be as early as the 1200s! The photo below shows one of these fragments; most of them are very coarse and gritty with varying degrees of blackening from the cooking fire.
A full report from the dig will be published and made available here in our reports section in the near future.
It can't be often that an original photograph can be found of something discovered in a test pit but the object above bucks the trend. It's a piece of cast stone, found in one of our community archaeology pits at Coven last weekend. It appears to be from the fountain or planter shown on a raised plinth at the edge of the photo. The photograph was taken a few metres from where our find was made so it's highly likely to be the object pictured. The house was demolished in the 1960s so our find has been underground for at least 60 years.
A small sherd of pottery from an adjacent test pit is somewhat older. This fragment is from a typical lead-glazed coarse earthenware porringer - a small bowl-shaped cup with a handle. It was probably made at Wednesbury and dates between the late 1600s and 1800.
A perforated malthouse drying floor tile, probably of late 18th century date.
After an absence of almost 12 months due to the pandemic, Coven Community Archaeology Project is finally back on track. Details of upcoming digs can be found on the Events page.
As restrictions were eased in spring, we began initial exploration for the site of 'Coven Furnace', a blast furnace which was in operation for much of the 17th century. While our investigations are still at an early stage and we have yet to dig any test pits etc, we have managed to find a number of large worked sandstone blocks which could well be part of the furnace or some ancillary building.
On Sunday 30th May we revisited one of out test pits from last year in which an unusual wooden object or structure was discovered. Despite revealing more of the timbers and receiving a plethora of suggestions, we're not yet certain what we've found. However, a perforated tile from a malthouse drying floor found in association with the timbers may provide a clue. We shall be digging again in the same area in a few months time.
A large worked sandstone block, possibly connected to the 17th century blast furnace at Coven
The mysterious wooden object or structure revealed in our latest test pit