Excavations at Great North Barn, October 2005

Lewes Archaeological Group were asked by the County Archaeologist to carry out a watching brief during the excavation of a lake at Hamsey. Anne Locke and Sue Rowland began to find various archaeological remains, and asked for assistance.

On the 10th and 11th October a small group of MSFAT volunteers excavated the remains of a small rectangular building with walls built of mortared flint. Within the building were the remains of a cobbled floor, and a packed chalk floor, whilst another area of chalk floor extended through a possible doorway in the wall.

Outside the building was another area of compact chalk floor partly overlain by rubble from the building's demolition. A section was excavated through a water channel in front of the building. The dating evidence suggests that this building existed in the 18th century, and may have been demolished in the 20th century. There is some speculation that it may have been a tide mill.

Nearby a scatter of Medieval pottery was found on the surface, and then when the excavators digging out the lake began digging deeper, a layer of sandy soil over 0.5m down below alluvial layers began to produce large quantities of un-abraded sherds of Medieval pottery, together with animal bone, wood and a few pieces of leather. It is not clear whether this layer is the result of flooding, or simply the disposal of waste into a watercourse.

There are records of a mill at Hamsey as early as the 13th century, but as yet it is not known where it was located.

The Pottery

Introduction
The excavations at the site produced 602 sherds of pottery, weighing 9,339g, from seven individually numbered contexts. The material spans the Roman period to the 19th century though by far the majority is of early to mid 13th- date. Only four Roman sherds are present (29g), all residual in medieval contexts. The post-medieval material consists of four sherds (70g) of 18th- and 19th- century glazed redware and stoneware, all from topsoil deposits. Details of the Roman and post-medieval material is housed with the archive and the current reports concentrates solely on the medieval assemblage. The condition of the assemblage is generally good. Sherd size is usually quite large with the average medieval sherd weighing 15.6g. Although much of the medieval assemblage from the topsoil contexts shows fairly extensive signs of abrasion, sherds from sealed contexts are notably frsh suggesting little re-working has occurred. The majority of the medieval pottery was recovered from a ‘midden’ layer (Context 3) which was separated from the topsoil by Layer 2. This one deposit accounted for 331 sherds weighing just under 7kg.

The main aims of the pottery analysis were to characterise the assemblage, help with the dating of the excavated deposits where possible and show the range of fabrics and forms present. The latter is considered of importance due to the dominance of probable Ringmer wares in the assemblage, as these have mainly been studied from production rather than consumer sites in the area. The current group is of particular interest as it just predates the assemblage from the North End Barn site (Barber forthcoming) and therefore offers the opportunity to extend the fabric and form range back into the early 13th century.

All the studied pottery was divided into fabric groups based on a visual examination, using a hand-lens were necessary, of tempering, inclusions and manufacturing technique. Context groups were then spot dated. All pottery was recorded by fabric group per context with these details being housed with the archive. Only one large assemblage was deemed appropriate to fully publish here as it was considered representative of the assemblage as a whole.

Conclusion
The earliest medieval pottery from the site consists of a single sherd in F1 from Context 5. The sherd is quite large (21g) and unabraded and must relate to nearby occupation. It is likely this is of 11th- to early 12th- century date though the chronology of these wares is poorly understood at present and the sherd could even be slightly earlier. The main onset of refuse disposal within the excavated area clearly began in the early/mid 13th century and appears to represent a relatively short period of activity, spanning perhaps 50-75 years. Vessels in use consisted mainly of early Ringmer sandy wares, however, a number of quite coarse flint-tempered cooking pots were still present, though some of these wares may still have been being made well into the first half of the 13th century. During this period of occupation the site acquired its pottery from local sources – although relatively well made jugs are quite common, no regional or foreign imports were noted in the assemblage suggesting the local industry at Ringmer was adequate for supply. Many of the rim forms at the current site match those from the Barnett's Mead kiln (Hadfield 1981), particularly those with the hollowed/lid-seated rims (Hadfield's Type 4), which produced an early 13th- century date based on three C14 samples. It is unfortunate that there is some doubt about the exact relationship with some of the waster heaps and actual kiln at this site (Streeten date?).

The latest medieval material from the site appears to overlap with that from North End Barn and suggesting that some activity may have extended into the second half of the 13th century. However, the low numbers of typical Q+F4 vessels suggests occupation did not continue beyond the third quarter of the 13th century.

References
Barber, L. forthcoming. 'The Pottery’ in C. Butler ‘Excavations at North End Barn, Hamsey, East Sussex'

Hadfield, J. 1981. 'The Excavation of a Medieval Kiln at Barnett's Mead, Ringmer, East Sussex' Sussex Arch. Coll. 119, 89-106.

Streeten, A. date? Unpublished PhD Medieval and Later Ceramic Production and Distribution in South-East England.

Some examples of the pottery found at Great North Barn

Members of MSFAT excavating at Great North Barn

Plan of the site

Tithe Data

392 Hog Brook

1841 Census

Tenement Analysis

Buildings

Archaeology

Old Maps

Further Information