Contd.
Test pits at Norton Allotments, 30 and 31 October 2009 Keith J Fitzpatrick-Matthews The group was first made aware of the potential of the allotments that lie to the west of St Nicholas’s Church by its member, Evelyn Goodwin. Over a number of years, she had found clearly ancient pottery while cultivating her plot and, on showing it to Bob Lancaster, the former curator of the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Museum, discovered that at least some of it was of Romano-British date. It had not been intended to dig any test pits here in the original five-year plan, as we were due to investigate Acre Meal Land, Andrews Wick and Tollers Close this autumn. However, the test pits excavated in Winter and Spring had been disappointing in terms of finds and stratigraphy, so we thought that digging a site where we were almost guaranteed discoveries would raise the group’s spirits. We knew that the allotments had formerly been the site of a group of cottages that were converted to use as the parish poorhouse, probably in the seventeenth century; they were known as the Town Houses. We know little about their form, although an old painting suggests that they were timber-framed with brick nogging. Some of Evelyn's finds, including clay tobacco pipe stems, probably derived from the cottages or poorhouse. Others of her finds are more unexpected. There is a considerable quantity of Romano-British material, mostly pottery. It is very abraded, which is hardly surprising on a well tended allotment. It also fits with nearby discoveries at St Nicholas's School and from several places in Church Lane as well as the contemporary finds from the main summer excavations in 2008 and 2009. What we did not know before the test pits was the context of Evelyn's material. Was it being brought to the surface from buried Roman features or was it a general scatter of Romano-British rubbish that has been in the topsoil since it was first discarded, as the clay pipes are likely to have been?
Photos courtesy of Christl Squires
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