This deposit was very mixed and humus rich, clearly a living topsoil deposit. There was a great deal of recent material, including burnt wood, suggestive of gardening and recreational activities. The trench lay downhill from the house and the depth of soil may possibly be explained by build up in recent centuries.
The trenches 15 Church Lane Only one deposit was excavated in this trench, a very thick topsoil, consisting of a mid brown sandy clay loam with <2% stones, context (1). Towards the end of the time available, a sondage was dug in the south-western corner of the trench, which showed that this deposit was 0.41 m thick at that point. Beneath it there was a lighter deposit that was not investigated.
90 Norton Road The uppermost deposit in this trench was a mid brown silt loam topsoil that provided the base for the turf above, context (1). There were almost no stones in this deposit, which came down at a depth of between 70 and 90 mm onto a gravely deposit, (2). This was again a mid brown silt loam, but with 15% gravel up to 10 mm in diameter and much broken flint and decayed chalk.
This deposit was between 30 and 40 mm thick and lay above another mid brown silt loam, (3), with only a little gravel. This was between 60 and 105 mm thick and lay above a hard, yellow-brown clayey matrix, (4). This was between 55 and 100 mm thick and sealed a surface composed of closely spaced chalk rubble blocks (up to 200 × 150 × 150 mm), (5), which were left in situ. This was a considerably more complex trench than that at 15 Church Lane. The uppermost deposit, (1), was a topsoil of recent date, sealing a gravel path or driveway of probable early twentieth-century date, (2). Beneath it, (3) may have been a make-up deposit for the surface or an earlier garden soil, perhaps dating from the very early twentieth century.
contd
The underlying deposit, (4), did not appear to have been a topsoil and perhaps represents a build-up above surface (5) during the late nineteenth century. Although it was not investigated, it is likely that (5) was a nineteenth-century yard or path or path surface.
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