Source/Archive record SCH7871 - Lea Hall Farm Car Park: Report on Archaeological Scheme of Investigation, Stage 1

Report detailing trial excavation (two trenches) was undertaken at Lea Hall Farm between 2nd-4th March 2015 in advance of development of a car park on the southern side of a range of barns on the south side of the farm complex. Trench A was located down the western side of the proposed car park area and orientated north-south. At the northern extent of this trench a substantial flat-bottomed, cut feature was encountered with dimensions of at least 4.5m across (north-south) and approximately 1.7m deep. It is unclear to what extent the feature extended beneath the buildings to the north. Finds retrieved from the feature indicate that it was back-filled in the mid to late 19th century, although it is not clear when it was actually originally excavated. Given that the feature lines up with the southern arm of the scheduled moat to the east it could represent a related arm. However, no such feature is depicted on historic mapping, so it is perhaps more likely to represent a large pit or pond on the southern edge of the post medieval farm. If this is the case, given the lateness of the fill, it seems likely to have been dug in the later 18th or early 19th century. It does seem to have marked the southern edge of the settlement and farmyard area up to the 19th century. A brick rubble surface seals the fill of the pit/pond/moat feature and this appears to have formed the floor of a building, possibly the one which is depicted on 1910 OS mapping but which was no longer standing by the 1940s. By 1947 a yard area had been developed on this site with a new, probably open-sided building, established on the southern side. This sequence of development represents successive expansions from the late 19th century of the yard area onto farmland. In the southern half of trench A a thin layer of plough soil was encountered, similarly in trench B, an east-west trench located to the south of the farm track. Beneath this was sub-soil which had been disturbed by the ploughing activity. It was this layer which contained the majority of pottery, building debris and other discarded material (clay tobacco pipes, glass), probably a consequence of manuring from the farmyard. Finds from trench B date from the 17th-18th centuries, whilst finds from the southern half of trench A extend across the 18th and 19th centuries. Finds from the northern half of trench A are focused on the 19th and early 20th centuries reflecting the expansion of the farm yard area. The earliest pottery found in the plough soil was a single sherd of yellow-green glazed ware dating to the 13th-14th centuries, this could suggest that manuring was already occurring by the later Middle Ages. No features were encountered in trench B.