NHER 67175 (Monument record) - Medieval ovens or kilns and medieval/post-medieval and undated ditches

December 2021. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The most notable remains revealed were two adjacent clay-built ovens or drying kilns of probable medieval date encountered within a trench in the south-east part of the site (which was then expanded to allow them to be fully investigated). The more substantial of the two was circular which the other was smaller and more irregular. Both lay within a large shallow working hollow filled with spreads of dark burnt material and heat-reddened sands likely to represent rake out from the ovens or kilns. Finds recovered from these features included ten sherds of what is probably medieval pottery, several fragments of animal bone and undiagnostic fragments of ceramic building material. Samples taken from the fills of the structures and the surrounding spreads or burnt material all contained carbonised cereal grain, with the main identifiable type being rye, with smaller amounts of oat and barley also present – all of which is consistent with a medieval date. Little charcoal was noted, with the presence of heather stems and a crowberry seed suggesting that peat or heathy turves had been the primary fuel. It is suggested these structures may have either been bread ovens or crop drying kilns. There was no evidence for any form of surrounding structure.
The only other features recorded were six ditches, the majority of which lay in a single trench to the north of the ovens or kilns. These features were mostly undated, the one exception being an east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditch in the western half of the site that contained several fragments of medieval or early post-medieval ceramic building material.
A post-medieval pantile was the only unstratified find recovered.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 26 July 2023.