JOHN MOOREHERITAGE SERVICES EXCAVATION OF A LATE MEDIEVAL WORKSHOP AND PITS ADJACENT TO PROSSER’S YARD, 7 & 9 TEMPLE ST, BRILL BUCKINGHAMSHIRE NGR SP 65465 14030 On behalf of Duncan Harding AUGUST 2010 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 7 & 9 Temple St, Brill BRTS 09 Archaeological Evaluation Report REPORT FOR Duncan Harding Raybourne House Mill Street Islip Oxfordshire OX5 2SZ PREPARED BY Gwilym Williams ILLUSTRATION BY Eoin Fitzsimons & Gwilym Williams FIELDWORK 10th – 16th September 2009 REPORT ISSUED 10th August 2010 ENQUIRES TO John Moore Heritage Services Hill View Woodperry Road Beckley Oxfordshire OX3 9UZ Tel/Fax 01865 358300 Email: [email protected] Site Code BRTS 09 JMHS Project No: 2053 Archive Location The archive will be deposited with Buckinghamshire County Museum. John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 7 & 9 Temple St, Brill BRTS 09 Archaeological Evaluation Report CONTENTS Page SUMMARY 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Site Description 1 HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 2 By Stephen Yeates with Gwilym Williams The manor of Brill 2 The Forest of Bernwood 4 The pottery industry 5 THE EXCAVATION 9 Prehistoric 9 13th/14th century 9 Late 15th century 9 Mid 16th century 10 19th century 11 Undated 11 DISCUSSION 12 FINDS 16 Pottery by Paul Blinkhorn 16 The Ceramic Building Materials by Andrew Peachey 22 Appendix 1 Catalogue of sites in Figure 1 25 BIBLIOGRAPHY 26 FIGURES Figure 1 Site location Figure 2 Ordnance Survey First Series 1833 Figure 3 Plan of excavation area Figure 4 Section drawings Figure 5 Photograph of excavation area Figure 6 Pit 63 Figure 7 Long section John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 7 & 9 Temple St, Brill BRTS 09 Archaeological Evaluation Report Figure 8 Saggar rim diameter, in EVE, per 20mm diameter class, context 35 Figure 9 Saggar rim diameter, in EVE, per 20mm diameter class, context 49 Figure 10 Saggar rim diameter, in EVE, per 20mm diameter class, all contexts Figure 11 Pottery Illustrations No. TS1: Context 49. Saggar base with base of a Cistercian ware cup adhering to the outside. Saggar: Buff-orange fabric with uniform dark grey surfaces, thick layer of green-and vitrified glaze adhering t the outside of the base pad. Cistercian ware cup: dark purplish-red fabric with black glaze on both surfaces. No. TS2: Context 49. Saggar base. Dark grey fabric with a red core. The outside of the base- pad has a thick layer of vitrified glaze, and stacking scars from at least two vessels. The smaller scar has a bright green glaze attached, and appears likely to be from a ‘Tudor Green’ vessel. No. TS3: Context 49. Full profile of heat-distorted saggar. Orange pink-fabric with grey surfaces, some vitrified glaze adhering to the rim where the vessel had been inverted during firing. No. TS4: Context 49. Lower part of saggar. Brick-red fabric with dark grey surfaces. Ring of thick, partially vitrified green glaze on the outside of the base. Runs of very dark green glaze on the outer surface of the body. No. TS5: Context 49. Lower part of saggar. Brick-red fabric with dark grey surfaces. Thick, partially vitrified green glaze on the outside of the base which sagged inwards and broken during firing, as the glaze has run over the fracture.. Runs of very dark green glaze on the outer surface of the body. No. TS6. Context 49. Saggar rim with shallow cut-aways. Buff fabric with light grey surfaces. Small ‘sticking scar’ on the rim. Figure 12 Pottery Illustrations No. TS7: Context 35: Jar rim. Uniform pale buff-orange fabric with a few spots of pale green glaze on the rim. No. TS8: Context 35: Full profile of large bowl or pancheon. Pale pink-buff fabric with grey surfaces. Some spalling on inner surface. No. TS9: Context 49: Rim from large bowl or pancheon. Buff fabric with grey surfaces. Heavily vitrified glaze on the inner surface. No. TS10: Context 35. Handle from ‘Tudor Green’ drinking jug. Reddish-pink fabric with glossy, copper-speckled glazed on the both surfaces. No. TS11: Context 49. Handle and bodysherd from a ‘Tudor Green’ drinking jug. Pale buff- pink fabric with glossy yellow glaze on both surfaces. John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 7 & 9 Temple St, Brill BRTS 09 Excavation Report EXCAVATION OF A LATE MEDIEVAL WORKSHOP AND PITS ADJACENT TO PROSSER’S YARD, 7 & 9 TEMPLE ST, BRILL, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE GWILYM WILLIAMS WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY PAUL BLINKHORN, DAVID GILBERT, ANDREW PEACHEY AND STEPHEN YEATES SUMMARY An excavation followed the evaluation of land to the rear of 7 & 9 Temple Street, part of Prosser’s Yard. A workshop shed and pits containing kiln waste – including saggars – dating from the late 15th century, as well as pits containing kiln clearance from the 16th century were investigated. The work has enabled a re-dating of previous interventions at Brill. The development of the pottery industry at Brill, from a royal manor in the early part of the medieval period to an enfeoffed manor from the 14th century, is discussed. Consideration is given to royal manorial trade as well as the mechanism for the emergence of early modern industrialisation in rural Buckinghamshire. INTRODUCTION Planning permission was granted by Aylesbury Vale District Council for the conversion of an existing 18th century building at 7 & 9 Temple St, Brill and for the erection of a new dwelling to the rear of the property. Due to the potential of archaeological remains to be present on the site, Buckinghamshire County Archaeological Service (BCAS) advised that a programme of archaeological works should be carried out, and prepared a brief in accordance with PPG 16 outlining how this work should be carried out. These works took the form of an archaeological evaluation, which established the presence and condition of archaeological deposits present within the site, followed by further work, which comprised an archaeological excavation. Site description (Fig. 1) The village of Brill is located on an outcrop of Kimmeridge Clay, overlain by Portlandian limestone deposits and Whitchurch Sand (BGS 1994 Sheet 227). The site lay on the Whitchurch Sand. The village takes its name from a conflation of the British breg and Old English hyll, both of which mean ‘hill’ (Ekwall 1960). Brill is located within the former royal forest of Bernwood, which existed by the 10th century AD when it was described as a large territory at Bree, rendering forest dues (Broad and Hoyle 1997, 1). The earliest form of the name is Byrnewudu of c. 950 (Mawer and Stenton 1925, 132-3), the etymology of which is also associated with bryn, reflecting the generally hilly topograohy of the Ashendon Hills. The site comprised a rectangular parcel of land c. 104 sq metres in size to the rear of properties 7 & 9 Temple Street, Brill (NGR SP 65465 14030) (Fig. 1), of a relatively flat open area of grass bordered by various trees and bushes at an approximate height of 188.8m above Ordnance Datum. The site is located within, or immediately adjacent to, Prosser’s Yard (Cocroft 1985) (Fig. 1 15). The original extent of the 18th century kiln-yard is not presently known. It is proposed that the excavations carried out by JMHS at 7 & 9 Temple St (Fig. 1 11) form part of the original kiln-yard, and may well indicate a start date in the latter part of the 15th century for production at Prosser’s Yard, which extended into the 18th century (Cocroft 1985). 1 Track TRAM HILL 145 1 21 16 2 4 5 14 22 3 24 9 7 23 10 13 12 6 20 11 18 ? 25 140 17 19 28 THE FIRS 26 LB 27 SPA CLOSE 29 Sites referred to in text 30 15 Sites Buckingham 8 Aylesbury 32 13th - 15th C. 31 Brill 15th - 16th C. 16th - 18th C. High Wycombe 135 650 655 660 0 m 500 m © Crown Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Licence number 100020449 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 7 & 9 Temple St, Brill BRTS 09 Excavation Report HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND (Figs. 1, 2) By Stephen Yeates with Gwilym Williams The manor of Brill Brill is located in the former hundred of Ashendon, and the manor was held by the king in 1086, and before him by Edward the Confessor (Morris 1978, 1.6). The Domesday entry has been taken to imply that Edward visited Brill to enjoy the hunting in Bernwood Forest (Barlow 1962, 64). Brill answered for 20 hides in 1086 (Morris 1978, 1.6), with land for 25 ploughs (of which 3 were in lordship). Of the ploughs some 17 were held by 19 villans and 13 bordars; there were 2 slaves. There was a mill (probably water) valued at 10s, meadow for 20 ploughs, and woodland for 200 pigs. The manor paid a total of £38 in white silver, and the Forest £12. The whole manor before 1066 paid £18. Woodland was also located at Oakley (Morris 1978, 19.3), a holding of Robert d’Oilly in the hundred of Ixhill (Williams & Martin 1992, 410), an estate of 5 hides and 3 virgates. The woodland at Oakley was also for 200 pigs, were it not for the king’s park, in which the woodland lies. These extracts detail the extensive woodland and parkland associated with Brill within Bernwood Forest. The associated manor of Boarstall is not recorded in Domesday, but those of Nashway and Addingrove, which lay in the parishes of Oakley and Brill, are. Nashway means ‘to the ash-fence or pale’ (Mawer and Stenton 1925, 119-120). Addingrove was a manor of Walter Gifford assessed at 3½ hides (Morris 1978, 14.6). The royal associations are evident again as previously Wulfward held the land from Queen Edith.