PLATE I
*-»
ij*r..*£
A. View of southern lialf of excavations from East.
B. Threshold of south screen's door and spere-screen (Phase IT).
| faff p. 20
PLATE II
A. Hearth from north-east.
B. South end of eastern outshut (Phase II) showing threshold.
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
By S. E. RIGOLD
(a) HISTORY
PIVINGTON, or Pevington, is a manor and former parish in Pluckley.1
The parish was united with Pluckley in the sixteenth century. The
manor, part of the Honour of Magminot (later, of Say), as for guard
and service of Dover Castle,2 gave its name to a family of sub-tenants
who were certainly there in 1253-54, probably as early as 1211-12.3 It
passed to an heiress, Amabel Gobion,4 who in 1405-06 left it to her
grandson John Spelsell. From him, through the Brents of Charing, it
reached the Derings of Surrenden in 1612. After Spelsell's death it was
probably always at farm except between 1644 and 1742, when it was
occupied by a cadet branch of Dering. The present house on the
capital tenement has a typical Surrenden facade : the carcase is mainly
seventeenth century (1644 ff.?), but apparently contains sixteenth
century work though nothing strictly medieval. There is no prima
facie reason to doubt that it occupies the original site of the manor
house and that the church was properly identified with that subsisting
in Hasted's day among the farm buildings, though it cannot now be
identified.
1 This account is based on Hasted (2nd ed.), VII, p. 473, and Philipott, Villare
Cantianum (2nd ed.), p. 276. The later documentation, which is only marginally
relevant, has not been verified. The author acknowledges assistance from communications
to Mrs. de Seyssel from the late Dr. Gordon Ward and Mr. R. H.
d'Elboux.
2 In Domesday Book it was held by Ralph de Curbespine of Odo, out of whose
lands the Magminot barony was created on his fall.
3 Among the " Holders of fees in Kent, anno 38 Henry III ", in Arch. Cant.,
XII, 197 ff. No. 226, " Willelmus de Pyuintone tenet j . feod milit. in eadem de
Willelmo de Say ". But in The Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser. No. 99),
I I , p. 617, in 1211-12 there are two separate entries under "Custod.de Mamignot" ;
" Farburne et Pointune " (the latter obviously Pivington ; the two are associated
later, e.g. at the Knighting of the Black Prince the heirs of John de P. held " Farneburne
" of Geoffrey de Say) and " Simon de Devintone " (sic—for Pevintone?).
1 Amabel held Pivington, with the advowson, and Parbourne. She and two
brothers who predeceased her were children of John of Pivington (already tenant
in 1305-06, recently dead in 1346), son of Ralph (occurs 1257), son of the William
who held in 1253-4. Mr. d'Elboux has identified from wills a cadet branch (?)
which survived in Charing until the late fifteenth century, including Thomas
Pevington, who held the manor of Broughton in Charing, and his brother John,
who left 4 acres called Brootonsmede, later held by a Brent. The Brents had the
remarkable timber house in Charing oalled Pierce House.
27
EXCAVATION OP A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
Nevertheless, some 400 yards east of the present house lies a moated
site, the subject of the present investigations. It was deserted in the
later seventeenth century, considerably after 1644, and the occupation
does not appear to go further back than the later thirteenth century.
This would rather suggest that it may represent a subordinate (dower?)
house of the manor, and the scale of the buildings found is more consistent
with this hypothesis.
(b) NATURE OF THE SITE
Situated on even ground, shghtly lower than the present house
(Nat. Grid. TQ/922465), the moat [Fig. 1] is roughly pentagonal, with
its longer axis W.N.W.-E.S.E., but the north-east part of the enclosure
lies very low and the higher, habitable part is oval with a narrow projection
along the south arm of the moat, precisely on the axis (x-y) of
the south wall of the earhest structure found on the site. This
apparently comprised a single range which filled most of the elevated
area. The coincidence of extent and orientation suggests that building
and mound were contemporaneous. The anomalous shape of the
PIVINGTON MOAT
M PLUCKLEY, KENT PHASES l b IIOVERlb a
PAVING 535 t
l a IQRE-USEO lb, II
O vmuflDin
/ VA Walls and paving
\ > not necessarily
\ \ \ LOW contemporary >H S, y
V N /• •^ "N w J J V- GROUND
***$* »AL, «Ulr
'<• in ~-« s ^
«<*« y «u
->
11 frr V - x
oo i "-» •N
% I U feel metres
3 O 5 IO 15 20 25 30 3 2 10 O
r- i t i l l
PIG. 1.
28
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
mound contrasts with the rectangular moats which are widely attested
at least from the later thirteenth century, but is not referable to any
other recognized pattern of earthwork. The purpose of the narrow
extension is unknown, but no buildings were traced on it.
(c) EXCAVATION
By permission of the owners, Major and Mrs. Pym of Barnfield, the
elevated part of the enclosure was excavated on a careful grid system by
Mrs. Barbara de Seyssel with the assistance of Mr. Tom Semark, Mr.
Leslie Wright and other local volunteers (PL I, A). The greater part
of this work was done in 1955. The writer was not present at this
period and is only responsible for making a large-scale plan, for recutting
and extending the very precise sections in order to draw them
and test his interpretation, and, with valuable suggestions from
Mr. P. J. Tester, for analysis of the structures and finds. For the
earher work he relies on Mrs. de Seyssel's notes and descriptions, on
Mr. Leslie Wright's working plans and on photographs taken at the
time.
The latest occupation (Phase III)
Removal of a thin topsoil revealed a stratum of building-debris
with much roof-tile and occupation rubbish up to at least the third
quarter of the seventeenth century. At the same horizon were the very
fragmentary ragstone sleeper-walls of a timber-framed house. These
are indicated by broken lines on the plan of the central area (Fig. 2).
The only really substantial footings were : (i) running E.-W. along the
north edge, in such a position as to suggest an outshut rather than a
main wall, a line of large roughly squared ragstone blocks, and (ii) an
internal chimney-breast on a different alignment from the wall, which
suggests that it was secondary. A line of smaller stones, parallel with
and 5 feet south of (i) may represent the north wall of the frame proper ;
the south wall was not encountered at all. It may be taken that the
final house lay roughly E.-W. on approximately the same axis as its
much better preserved predecessor, and, probably, since the chimney
was evidently an addition and there were traces of firing a little south of
the site of the earlier hearth beneath, that even this house was built
as a " hall-house " with a central hearth. Later it acquired glazed
windows. It is unfortunate that the plan is too deficient to compare
it precisely with any of the numerous late halls surviving. The low
sleeper-walls of a timber-framed building laid, as in this case, on the
ground surface, can be robbed without leaving any vestiges.
The remains of this latest house lay on an evenly spread stratum
(" blanket ") of made-up clay, averaging 1 foot in depth and completely
concealing the earher remains, which it had preserved admirably [see
29
EXCAVATION OP A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
lilflii^
v -
_?&&&£ c<£ro
oQr>>0
C3
o n n i m i i , i n " ' , " i M i i M i ' i , i i i i i ) n i M t w i
t ' i ' < " J J J Y M . ! 4 ' • ' • J . 7 ^ ' ' ' L - ' i - ? J . : ' , ' , ' ! ? T 7 T T T TTBSl33Tfml5B
H
la-'mt
ib-ext. Io lb
] Clay of |___j Yellow ):-:-.-:-:| Ash/ I6&63 Sandy
iMound Ur_=]Chalky Loam G 2 3 Fired Loam &S2S Lime b^CilClay
. O 1 2 3 4 5 10«
— i t t i i i i t -i T U t
• Chalk
nr
LTD
Clay (vTTl TTTTT] Soil/
Blanket t ^ V j Grovel \£*£ Debris
Scale of detailed Sections'^ ^ metres
o !<>! >
H
t—t O
O
K
o
!>
M
e
co
HH
H
i>
H
&
H
O 3
FIG. 3.
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
continuity with the clay (Phase II) floor, from a lower paving of smaller
cobbles which represented an aspect (but not the earhest) of Phase I.
Important deposits of pottery and much oyster shell were sealed
between the pavings, significantly different from the primary pottery
Group " A ", but not from that among or beneath the lower cobbles,
which lay either in dark yellow sand (particularly at the west) akin to
the interior loam, or in the top of the primary clay. The lower cobbles,
therefore, do not belong to the beginning of Phase I. These sealed
wares (Group " B "), though evolved and practically free from shellfilling,
are yet much closer to the thirteenth-century tradition than the
late medieval wares associated with the laying-out of Phase I I I . Taken
in conjunction with the archaic house-plan, they suggest a date for
Phase I I at some time, probably quite early, in the fourteenth century.
A section was taken across the western moat, as far as the water
allowed, but owing to the quality of the clay it was almost featureless ;
however, it gave no indication that any lower horizon of occupation
existed. Trenches were also dug on the top and side of the eastward
projection of the mound, revealing nothing except absence of stonework.
(d) ANALYSIS OF THE HOUSE-PLANS
The plan as revealed by stripping the clay " blanket " (Fig. 2)
showed sleeper-walls of one or two courses, apparently comprising a
squarish hall, with a cross-wing or " end " (not projecting beyond the
walls of the hall), at the west (screens) end and a narrow outshut at the
east. This plan, though simple enough, appeared from the sections to
be composite and to contain work of two or three periods.
Phase I
The fact that the partition-wall (F) between the Hall (H) and the
cross-wing (G) of the Phase I I house lay at an obhque angle to the rest
led one to suspect that it survived from an earlier period. This was
confirmed by the sections, but these also showed that the central part
of the external west wall and part of the north wall of the wings were
likewise from the earlier build, although they were aligned with the
Phase I I walls. Of the Hall, the primary north wall had gone, unless a
ghost was visible in the outline of the lower cobbles ; on the other hand
much of the primary south wall (K) remained, at right angles to the
partition-wall (F) on axis x'-y' (Fig. 1) : in this part it was the secondary
wall that had almost disappeared. Of the east wall (J) the central part,
which had a broad footing, was primary and there was a marked change
of level here, indicating an original hall of approximately the same
length as the later one. The hearth was in the same general area in
33
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
both phases, but a variation in the extent of firing was consistent with
the shghtly different alignment of the hall. The first house covered
more than just the hall and cross-wing. There were certainly loamfloored
extensions, both to east and west, that to the east divided by a
longitudinal wall (L), parallel with axis x-y with the chalk floor, already
noticed, to the north ; the east end was perhaps open, and the floor
sloped eastward, as though for drainage. The western extension was
ill-defined, but showed traces of firing and most of the primary potsherds
came from here, perhaps indicating a kitchen. There was a
drainage-channel (M) running north, in or just beyond it. The clean
condition of the loam flooring suggested that both extensions had been
covered, and not churned up by cattle.
Before the definitive re-flooring and re-orientation of the Hall
represented by Phase II, the transverse walls, other than F, had
apparently been reconstructed on another axis, which was to set the
axis for the subsequent Hall. This work may be contemporary with the
largely destroyed intermediate lime floor and the first set of external
paving. All these intermediate works are here designed lb. The
eastern extension was cut off and replaced by a narrow outshut, with
its floor slightly below that of the Hall, and the east wall of the Hall and
west wall of the wing, which are parallel to the outshut wall, must be
of the same construction. Both walls retain broad but indefinite
footing in the centre, from the earlier date, but in the east wall and, less
certainly, in the west these are flanked by two large square stones (N),
inset about a yard and joined to the lateral walls by footings of smaller
stones. The spere walls (S) were reconstructed in Phase II but may
have had predecessors projecting to the same depth as the large square
stones in the end walls. If this was so, ignoring the outshut wall and
wall F, which was now level with the floor, the frame would have comprised
two equal bays of about 16 feet. These could be construed as
having very narrow aisles, or, alternatively, as aisleless, but with the
weight of the tie-beam carried on inset, not terminal, posts, giving the
TT-shaped frame, noticed by Mr. J. T. Smith at Bagueley Hall,
Cheshire.1 The narrow lateral (quasi-aisle) panes would have been
filled solid. They might possibly have been spanned by the short
base-cruck-like member such as still survives in the upper chamber of
a few archaic Kentish houses2 but any sort of base-cruck construction
1 See J. T. Smith and C. P. Stell, " Baguley Hall : the survival of pre-Conquest
building traditions in the fourteenth century " in Antiquaries Journal, XL (1960),
pp. 131 ff., esp. p. 137 ; of these archaic motifs only the inset posts seem to occur
at Pivington.
2 A base-cruck form, i.e. incurved members supporting a collar, not straight
posts supporting a tie, is found in the solar at Burnt House, Benover, near
Yalding, and in several houses in East Kent noted by Mr. E. W. Parkin, e.g. at
Etchinghill (now demolished) and Frogholt, Newington by Hythe. These also
have the inset post under the bearing.
34
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
at ground level is hitherto unrecorded from Kent.1 More probably they
were spanned by an extended rafter and a short post, such as occurs at
Fairfield Cottages, Eastry. This mteresting building, originally one
house, provides perhaps the closest parallel to the Pivington hall : it
has four inset posts, two in the end wall and two in the spere-screens,
enclosing a squarish hall with quasi-aisles but no intermediate support.
The first set of external cobbhng, ascribed to the same (lb) date,
follows the outer wall-line fairly closely on the north, but on the south
approaches the eastern (hearth) bay only, with a possible extension,
lying directly on the loam, to the west of the house on the line of the
earher south front, which was also the main axis of the mound. This
would perhaps cover a kitchen, succeeding that suspected in the
previous build.
A provisional reconstruction is : in Phase la—a long range, covering
most of the mound, and lying immediately north of the main axis ;
a square hall and an irregular inner room (not yet, perhaps, a " service "
wing) occupied only the second and third fifths from the east ; eastwards
was an open(?) shed, with a medial partition, cutting off a chalkfloored
room with traces of fire—this was replaced by a narrow outshut ;
westward an extensive structure, or group of structures, perhaps containing
an external kitchen on the north, and a byre on the south.
One hesitates to see anything of the long-house sort, but it was clearly
something much longer than the simple hall-and-bower plan that
succeeded it. In Phase lb there was a two-bay structure with an
outshut, apparently approaching that of Phase II.
Phase II
This plan is complete, except the easily reconstructed south wall.
The work of this period is recognized by the relatively large and squared
rag. It probably amounted to no more than a reconstruction of the
Hall (H) itself (possibly following damage by fire in the northern half)
and re-flooring and levelling of the whole. The inner room (G) and the
outshut were there already in Phase lb, though the latter, which shows
no signs of even having communication with the Hall, was now
provided with a good step on the south (PI. I I B). The external paving
was completely renewed, burying the previous work, but at the west
end, it may be just a repair, as the stones, though large, he directly on
1 The nearest known base-orucks in a groundfloor hall are at Dunster's Mill,
Ticehurst, within a few yards of the Kentish border (R. T. Mason, in Sussex Arch.
Coll., XCVII (1960), p. 150), and at Chennells Brook, near Horsham, discovered by
the author and to be described by Mr. Mason in Sussex Arch. Coll., c. (1962).
35
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
the loam. The layout of this shows that these three short compartments
now comprised the whole plan ; the presumed western (kitchen?)
extension was apparently now removed, as well as the eastern. The
plan, Hall, bower or inner room, with a solar over it, and outshut at the
other end, is paralleled in some relatively early existing small halls
under a single hipped roof and approaching the " Wealden " type
(e.g. Little Robhurst, Woodchurch), but is much simpler than the
common, fully developed, double-ended " yeoman's house", the
contrast being the more noticeable on a moated, and presumably
relatively important site. However, the reconstructed speres and
steps of Phase I I seem to imply a plan in which the Hall and crosswing
are structurally distinct and probably were roofed at right angles
to each other. It would seem more probable that the archaic house,
thus roofed on a T-plan, and of comparable dimensions (though with a
deeper outshut or store, communicating with the Hall), at Petham1
would provide a closer parallel than any house under a unitary hipped
roof. The most remarkable feature in common to both houses is the
very short passage bay—at Petham it is just too long to suspend a spere
from the main tie, and the square hearth-bay. This allies both houses
with archaic T-plan houses in other parts of the country, where the
passage-bay is a mere transition between the hearth-bay and a
structurally distinct wing.2
The Hall, 17 feet wide internally, and so comparable with only the
smaller of the typical later hall-houses, was, even then, proportionately
short. The passage-doors had neat stone steps and short spere-screens
(PI. I B). Speres are now rare in Kent, though surviving in the
" Highland Zone " throughout the Middle Ages : they occur at Fairfield
Cottages, Eastry (see above), in the late thirteenth-century house
excavated at Joyden's Wood,3 and the fragmentary fourteenthcentury
hall now at Scadbury, Chiselhurst ;* dwarf speres survive
occasionally in later halls, usually with an " undershot" screens
1 Formerly the " Thatched Cottage ", recently repaired, and brought to the
author's notice by Mr. E. W. Parkin. Another of the rare Kentish examples of a
structural cross-wing at the " low " end is Booting, not far from Pivington, a
grander house with some archaic features in its framing.
2 E.g. the cruck hall attached to a contemporary cross-wing with refined detail,
at Steventon, Berks., described by the author in Transactions of Newbury District
Field Club, X (1958), pp. 4 ff. This plan is quite distinct from thatin which the
solar lies in the cross-wing at the " high " end and the service end is in series with
the hall—persistent towards Wessex (Chennells Brook, Horsham, The Old Deanery,
Salisbury, both late thirteenth century), but probably the basic plan of certain
stone halls in Kent (Southfieet Old Rectory, Battle Hall, Leeds, Old Soar). j
3 Excavated by Mr. P. J. Tester ; Arch. Cant. LXXII (1958), 18 ff. ; only one !
spere-screen but a similar projection towards the high end.
4 Brought from Manor Farm, St. Mary Cray, in 1936 : see Arch. Cant. LXIX
(1955), 221.
36
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
passage ;x there is evidence that these were once common, but were in
the nature of fittings—at Pivington they may well have been structural.
The position of the hearth in the centre of the less-than-square
14-foot space within the speres suggests that this was a single bay with
no medial truss. In Phase II at least, the speres did not project
sufficiently to provide inset quasi-aisle-posts exactly corresponding to
those in the end wall.
The hearth (PL II A), set askew, was roughly 3 feet 6 inches square
and of more or less squared stones : other known instances of central
hearths are usually circular and rougher.2 No trace could be found of
the earher hearthstones.
The later external paving is informative. A broad path veers left
from the back (north) passage-door, but nothing approaches the front
door ; instead, it leads to the south front of the end, which was floored
with chalk in its southern part, as though replacing the northern part
of the former east extension. Though the passage threshold is unmistakable,
there was evidently another door in the inner room. To
the west was a broad paved base-court 22 feet wide and apparently an
independent outhouse or byre, rather than a kitchen, beyond it. The
stones of the base-court are of the larger sort; as they lie directly on
the loam, they would appear to go no further back from Phase II. The
area at the extreme west is unpaved and burned ; a further outbuilding,
destroyed by fire, evidently stood here until Phase III.
Phase III
Little can be said with certainty here. The house had an outshut
along the back, and perhaps finally, a stair-compartment or other
extension beyond it. It appears to have ended a yard or so east of its
predecessor, and its western extent may be deduced, if, as usual, the
chimney was inserted in the screens passage, and if, as seems probable,
certain large stones (T), based directly on the westward paving, are in
fact part of the footings of the final house. (Note the common use of
large stones, preferably sarsen, as corner blocks : there was hardly any
sarsen at Pivington.) This gives an external length of some 48 feet,
and, allowing for room to enter south of the chimney, a width, excluding
1 I.e. when the chamber over the service end jetties into the hall by the width
of the screens passage. A structural dwarf-spere in this position is seen, e.g. at
Sundridge (Arch. Cant., XXXVII (1925), 167—see especially the section on p.
173) ; another has recently come to light at East Mailing. One of a pair of
independent dwarf-speres survives at the Old Vicarage, Headcorn, similar in
construction to the dwarf screen that occasionally survives by the parlour door
(e.g. the house from Benenden, now at Northiam ; N. Lloyd, A History of the
English House, Figs. 100-101, p. 197).
2 The hearth is square at Joyden's Wood (Arch. Cant., LXXII (1958), 18 ff.)
and the Old Deanery, Salisbury, both late thirteenth century ; circular in late
examples, e.g. Sundridge ; Durlock, Minster-in-Thanet, excavated by Mr. Parkin.
37 o
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
the outshut, of just over 20 feet. These are normal and consistent
dimensions for a large double ended hall-house of the famihar later type.
It is possible that the southern cobble pathway was retained and now
led to the passage of the third house. The northern was certainly
partially covered over, and the southern certainly preceded the final
build, but it is possible that these pathways survived to determine the
obhque setting of the Phase I I I screens passage, which the position of
the chimney-breast would suggest.
I t was clear from the sealed deposits of each phase, that each had a
peg-tiled roof with un-crested ridge-tiles and was probably hipped, as is
usual in most comparable Kentish sites from the thirteenth century
onwards.1
(e) FINDS
(I) POTTERY. Four groups can be distinguished :
A. No sealed deposits—small sherds scattered over charred areas
over the chalk floor beneath the eastern outshut and in the unpaved
part, perhaps the site of the kitchen, at the exterme west. To be
associated with Phase la.
B. Represented by deposits sealed beneath or among the lower
cobble paving (B (i)), associated with Phase lb, or (B (ii)) sealed between
the upper and lower paving, usually in the intervening clay, and thus
associated with the Phase II reconstruction. These two sub-groups
are not clearly distinguishable in fabric, but any difference may be
obscured by the fact that B (i) consists largely of cooking pots, B (ii)
mainly of jugs.
C. Best represented by large fragments sealed by the clay " blanket
" under the total reconstruction of Phase III. B (ii) and C thus
have a precise structural context and absolute dating would be desirable.
D. Associated with the final destruction of Phase III. Late
seventeenth-century forms predominate, but there is some earlier,
e.g. Elizabethan, material.
Group A (Fig. 4)
Cooking pots : sandy wares with slight shell-filling. The full
shell-filling, which lasts in Kent until at least the mid-thirteenth
century, is absent except for one piece. The characteristic flat, horizontal
rim, with the bevel entirely on the underside (Fig. 4, ii) already
1 Compare Arch. Cant., LXXII (1958), Fig. 3, p. 28 (Joyden's Wood) ; tiles
comparable in size and texture are Icnown from thirteenth-fourteenth century
contexts at Eynsford, Temple Manor, Strood, etc.
38
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
^ \
:
K
K
^ ^
i
' i
i
* \ kv
39
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
predominates (compare groups of c. 1300 from Eynsford Castle1 and
Joyden's Wood2), but some thicker rims (Fig. 4, i) have a shght upper
bevel and should carry the group further back into the thirteenth
century. Whereas at the West Kent sites just quoted the ware is
predominantly grey, at Pivington a pinkish, oxydized surface predominates.
This seems to be a persistent characteristic of East and
Mid Kent sites, as well as of the wares from the excavated kilns at
Potter's Corner, Ashford3 and Tyler Hill, near Canterbury.4 But,
in spite of the proximity of the Ashford kilns and the general resemblance
of texture (with only a slight admixture of shell) and profile, the
Ashford material is of a distinctly brighter pink-buff than most of the
Pivington material of this group or the next. Pots from Ashford
seem to find their way to New Romney5 but Pivington, being in a clay
district, could evidently rely on another source, even nearer. Potter's
Forstal, near Egerton Forstal, is a suggestive name.
Fine wares : a few wall-sherds of grey (unglazed, as predominantly
at Eynsford), or buff (green-glazed) jugs of late thirteenth-century
type—too fragmentary for close comparison.
The group as a whole would seem to cover at least the last quarter of
the thirteenth century and perhaps a little earlier.
Group B (Fig. 4)
Cooking pots and bowls : mostly from Phase B (i), among the lower
cobbles ; a sandy, oxydized, generally pink-buff fabric, with a greyer
core, similar to Group A, but shell-filling now practically eliminated.
This ware must derive from the same source as the Group A cooking
pots and follow closely on them. Including jugs of the same fabric, it
comprises about 75 per cent, of the total ; the grey sandy or gritty
wares, common in the west of Kent, perhaps 15 per cent., mainly from
jugs. The same flat, horizontal, or more often slightly down-turned,
rims predominate (Fig. 4, iii, iv, v),6 but some, including one still
containing shell-filling, are slightly concave-rimmed, as seems to be the
general tendency as the fourteenth century progressed. In one grey,
sandy pot the rim is slightly convex (Fig. 4, vi). A pink-buff pot
1 Yet unpublished : the difference in rim-forms noted is exemplified by two
groups, one c. 1300, the other mid-thirteenth century and still characterized by
much heavily shell-filled ware.
2 e.g. Arch. Cant., LXXII (1958), Fig. 5, 32.
3 Arch. Cant., LXV (1952), 183 ff.
4 Arch. Cant., LV (1942), p. 57 ff. : the " comparative pottery ", mainly from
Maidstone is grey.
5 The characteristic " Potter's Corner " colour is shown by a proportion of
the sherds from the " leper Hospital " site, found in recent, unpublished excavations.
6 The profiles of group B are particularly close to the Ashford ones (compare
Arch. Cant., LXV (1952), Fig. 4, p. 185, perhaps dated a trifle early) ; only the
colour and lack of shell distinguishes them.
40
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
certainly from B (ii) (Fig. 4, vii) has a convex everted neck with an
inner bead in the early thirteenth-century tradition ; this conservativelooking
pot, though in a paste like the others, may follow a fashion from
Wessex—similar pots occur frequently, e.g. at Farnham Castle and
Bishops Waltham (both late in a thirteenth-century context), but it is
not easily paralleled from Kent (it is absent from the Ashford kiln)1.
None of these wares are far removed from thirteenth-century types, but
the same general forms seem to persist for some time after. Bases are
still " sagging ". There was also part of a rectangular dish, 6 cm. deep,
with orange internal glaze.
Fine wares (i.e. jugs, the fabric is not always superior to the cooking
pots) : four fabrics, but the same general shape occurs in all—rim
narrow and flat or nearly so ; bulbous body ; handle flat and, as in the
quoted groups of c. 1300, pricked, not slashed. A round handle and
narrower baluster-like shape is also found in fabrics i and ii, and an
old-fashioned carinate rim in ii. Fabric i, pink-buff and sandy, like
the cooking pots (local) (Fig. 4, xi). Fabric ii harder but slightly
gritty, vermilion to grey, but with a thin mauve-red slip and sometimes
striped decoration in thicker, white slip;2 orange (on decorated jugs
especially) or yellow-green glaze (as on Fig. 4, viii). Fabric hi, the
typical West Kent and Surrey grey sandy ware, found throughout the
thirteenth century,3 now sometimes with a splashy, olive-green glaze
(Fig. 4, ix) ; note the wider distribution of jug wares then cooking pots.
Fabric iv, pink body, sometimes grey exterior, and overall thick white
slip (Fig. 4, x). This seems definitely a fourteenth-century innovation ;
something similar is represented in the foundation levels of the Westminster
Jewel Tower (1365). One smallish, pear-shaped jug has thumbpressed
handles (Fig. 5). i and iii are conservative, like the coarse
lph,n
FIG. 5.
1 This is a more advanced form than, e.g. Arch. Cant., LIX (1946), Fig. 8,
p. 22.
2 Not enough jugs from Ashford to settle the question.
3 Such jugs are numerous at Eynsford, but, like the illustrated example, are
unglazed,
41
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
wares, ii and iv progressive and not always distinguishable from the
next group. The group as a whole is tentatively ascribed to the first
half or three quarters of the fourteenth century, though much of the
coarse ware looks little after 1300.
Group C (Fig. 6)
Cooking or pickling pots and bowls : two distinct fabrics : (i) conservative,
soft and sandy but fairly smooth ; rather pallid pink. The
rim is always gently concave and everted, the extrados of the rim
curving more steeply to meet the interior in a single angle (Fig. 6, vii,
viii and x—bowl), (h) Progressive—very hard and ringing, but
gritty ; brick-red, or lighter, often with a grey or mauvish slip. The
rim of the cooking pots is very sharply incurved to form a ledge for a
lid (Fig. 6, i, ii, iii and xi—bowl). Fragments of lids in similar ware are
found (Fig. 6, iv, v). A comparable, but earlier(?) piece from Temple
Manor, Strood, has the ledge formed separately. In all vessels the
extrados and interior run fairly parallel towards a squared-off rim. A
splashy treacle-brown internal or external glaze occurs sometimes. A
comparable form, in even harder grey ware with a red lining, is found in
the Dissolution d6bris at St. Augustines, Canterbury.
Fine wares :
(i) Jugs and " cisterns " (" gotches " or spigot-pitchers)1 in ware
similar to cooking pots of type ii, with the same grey or mauve
shp and sometimes curvilinear designs in white slip (Fig. 6, ix) ;
these were also found in the same context at Temple Manor.2
They usually have a light red lining, and indeed, the white slip
patterns can occur without the grey shp. Some jugs have the
splashy treacly brown or olive glaze over the grey shp. The
rim and pricked handle are much as in Group B, but handles
regularly have thumb-impressions at the top.
(ii) Thin white " Tudor" ware with a deep green glaze, all
apparently from small jugs,
(iii) Stoneware. The one reconstructable Rhenish jug has quite a
thick grey glaze, but a vertical neck and medieval-looking
carinate rim (Fig. 6, vi)—not the common early sixteenthcentury
form with plain, shghtly inturned rim.3 It was
found right against the Phase I I north wall.
In general the indigenous wares remain essentially medieval: the
1 Compare Sussex Arch. Coll., LXXVI (1935), 223 (Bodiam), Antiquaries
Journal, XXXV (1955), 64-66, and, especially, Colchester and Essex Museum
Annual Report 1929, p. 19 and pi. x, 2 (cistern associated with a cooking-pot,
called a storage-jar, with ledge for lid, precisely as at Pivington, fabric ii).
2 A late fifteenth-early sixteenth-century midden, unpublished.
8 E.g. tho vessel of the Maidstone coin-hoard, Arch. Cant., LXV (1952), 190,
Fig. 6.
42
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
X ^
\J\
V
Si
V ft
43
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
precise chronology remains uncertain, but there seems to be nothing to
prevent as late a date as an open-hailed house will allow, even into the
second quarter of the sixteenth century. Distinctly fifteenth-century
wares are hard to identify, but some may be included in Group C.
Group D
The later sixteenth and seventeenth-century deposits were not
sealed. From the sample preserved it would appear that wares were
plentiful down to the third quarter of the seventeenth century, but that
later material was negligible. The final element was a selection comparable
to that from the filling of the moat at the Jewel Tower, Westminster
(c. 1660), and included pipe-bowls and stoneware " Bellarmines
" of evolved seventeenth-century form.
The Delft included the usual forms coarsely painted in blue or blue
and orange, some probably Lambeth, and a fine, imported plate,
diameter 25 cm., with a design in blue of distantly Chinese inspiration.1
(Fig. 7).
[run
FIG. 7.
(II) BUILDING MATEBIALS
Roof-tiles throughout were of the almost unchanging two-pegged
Kentish type, and ridge-tiles, as usual, without crests. A proportion
of each had an orange glaze.2
Floor-tile : one fragment from stone-debris west of hall, i.e. probably
from the demolition of Phase II. Thin (1 -4 cm.) with grey core,
bronze-green glaze and white shp print, not inlay, showing cusping and
part of a human figure, or a stag (Fig. 8, v). The fabric suggests an
import ;3 such things are known in Kent from richer domestic sites in
the fifteenth century (e.g. Tonford), but are unexpected here.
1 Compare C. H. de Jonge, Oud-Nederlandsche Majolica en Delftsch Aardwerh,
Fig. 176.
2 Compare Joyden's Wood, Arch. Cant., LXXII (1958), 28, Fig. 3.
3 For the fabric compare London Mus. Medieval Catalogue, Fig. 81, 65, 66,
and Antiquaries Journal, XVII, p. 442 : a duplicate of one of these was found at
Tonford near Canterbury.
44
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
(III) NUMISMATICA
1. Latton coin-weight for Angel, 1-5 cm. square, bevelled, weight
5-122 gm. (=79-05 grains—the Angel weighed 80 grains at all times
between 1464 and 1604). Obverse type only, St. Michael and dragon
in circular beading, closest in style to that on late Henry VII and early
Henry VIII coins (Fig. 8, vii). Apparently sealed in demohtion of
Phase II, and confirming this to the early sixteenth century.1
I
i i Ic m i ~i 1 m
IV ^ I ii ,I in X
/
V////////A A I
\
cm
1
1
/ (no? vi and vii) VII
v
FIG. 8
2. Jetton, diameter 2-3 cm. ; early Nuremberg for the " Franco-
Flemish " market. Obv. stylized ship. Rev. Lozenge with French
royal arms. Legends garbled (cf. F. P. Barnard, The Casting Counter
and the Counting Board, pi. XXIX, 8, 9). A common type of c. 1500-
1520,2 found among " rock paving ", i.e. before the end of Phase II,
thus confirming the same dating.
3, 4. Nuremberg jettons of late sixteenth-century types, from
topsoil. Obv. Reichsapfel in trilobe. Rev. three crowns and three lys.
3 (cf. Barnard, op. cit. pi. XXXIII, 84), diameter 2-2 cm., of Hans
Krauwinckel (active 1586-1612), reads " Gotes Segen macht reich " ;
4, diameter 2-3 cm. of Hans Schultes, reads " Glick kumpt von Got ist
war ".
1 Square weights, including this, are generally of Low-country make : compare
Mateu y Llopis, Catalogo de los Ponderales monetarios del Museo Arq. Nacional
(Madrid), PI. XVIII, 158, wrongly ascribed to Henry VI, and PI. XV, 132, etc—
sixteenth century Antwerp weights for coins of Ferdinand and Isabella. Round
weights for Angels are known, e.g. from Somerby, Lines.
2 This is the commonest type for the series ; it has been found at Hampton
Court (not before c. 1515), and the reverse type at Wharram Peroy, Yorks. (not
after c. 1516).
45
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
(IV) OTHER OBJECTS OF METAL OR BONE
1. Copper mounting (Ifrom a belt), silvered on one face, 3-9 by
1 -4 cm. with two rivets and central perforation and incised with
schematic leaf-pattern (Fig. 8, vi). From upper layer around hearth
(Phase II—looks late fifteenth century).
2. Bronze scabbard (or possibly belt)1 chape, 4-7 cm. long, bent
from one piece of sheet-metal, with cusping on top edge (Fig. 8, iii).
From loam floor, so presumably Phase I.
3. Thin bronze sheeting showing an angle-fold. Phase II, between
the two external cobble paving layers.
4. Bronze ring, diameter 2-7 cm. Phase III?
5. Iron plate for fixing handle to wooden bucket (Fig. 8, ii). In
mortar of Phase n i wall.
6. Iron scissors, total length about 14 cm. Phase III.
7. Half of unfullered ox-shoe (possibly a horse-shoe, but looks too
broad). Phase II, immediately above lower cobble paving.
8. Flange of iron knife, riveted to bone handle-plates ornamented
with brass pin-heads arranged in fours (Fig. 8, iv). Probably Phase
II2.
9. Bodkin of fish-bone, length 8-5 cm. (Fig. 8, i). Phase II, north
corner of hearth area.
( / ) CONCLUSIONS
(a) Nothing, either from stratigraphy or single finds, suggests any
habitation of the site before the construction of the moat.
(b) The earliest remains (Phase la), which lay immediately on the
body of the mound were assignable to the mid- to late thirteenth
century.
(c) The plan of the Phase la structures is uncertain but these appeared
to be a range following the axis of the mound, with a central
hall, the position of which survived subsequent modifications, and
outbuildings at either end.
(d) The buildings were modified, and the eastern extension reduced
in Phase 16 (?c. 1300), and again in Phase I I (Nearly or mid-fourteenth
century).
(e) The Phase I I plan was largely intact : the house a simple hall
with short cross-wing and eastern outshut. Remarkable features,
which may in part derive from the earlier phases, include the inset
1 Compare London Museum Medieval Catalogue, Fig. 86, 8 and 88, 2.
2 For the form of mounting compare London. Mus. Medieval Catalogue, PI.
XI, 10, Pitt Rivers, King John's House, Tollard, Wilts., PL XVIII, no. 8 (flange
only) and Records of Bucks., XVI (1957-8), p. 161, an exact parallel save for the
ornamentation, in a fourteenth-fifteenth century context, from the Mount,
Princes Risborough.
46
EXCAVATION OF A MOATED SITE AT PIVINGTON
(possibly aisle) posts in the terminal walls and the spere screens. The
evolution of the western outbuildings (byre and kitchen) is less clear.
( / ) Apparently the Phase II building lasted throughout the
fifteenth century. There was no trace either of desertion, or of modification.
%•
(g) Early in the sixteenth century the Phase II building was
demolished, the level raised by a deposit of clay and a new hall-house
built which lasted, with modifications until deserted after the middle
of the seventeenth century.
47
