The Mystery of the Speckled Pit: Investigations at Preston Within, Faversham
Investigations at Preston Within, Faversham
by Dr Pat Reid
In the summer of 2013, members of FSARG (Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group) were carrying out investigations along a north-south transect in Faversham, i.e. along Preston Street and the Mall as far as Watling Street (the A2). We were looking particularly for medieval activity, especially midden scatter contexts indicating early agriculture, and had some very interesting finds - a medieval bronze seal matrix, a Saxon knife, a large crushing wheel used in a courtyard and so on. Reports on this project can be found under the heading PSN13 on the FSARG website www.community-archaeology.org.uk.
The biggest surprise, however, came from the most modest of the excavations, Keyhole 99. This was dug on the eastern side of the Mall in the pretty garden of a small terraced house built around 1850. The tithe map of 1840 shows this area as orchard. On the assumption that K99 would be a simple pit (maybe 40cm of 19th-early 20th century debris in a well worked garden soil overlying a possibly midden scatter level, itself overlying brickearth with some worked flint) the supervision of the pit was delegated to two second-year members, to give them full experience in identifying contexts, managing the small team and keeping detailed records.
In fact, at about 30cm down, a 15cm thick fine sand and shell layer was exposed. Under that was a thin ‘speckled’ layer of slaked lime (‘icing-sugar’ like in appearance) on a red brick dust coated surface. Under that surface was a large quantity of clean break pottery sherds (i.e. not midden scatter), date range AD1100-1530. The ever familiar (for Faversham) Tyler Hill pottery was dominant but there were a number of other higher quality types such as Kingston White Ware and Tudor Green. We also realised that the garden wall separating the adjoining property was probably built on the line of a much older boundary as it lay on top of the slaked lime layer, which was probably a garden feature, perhaps the base of a garden seat.
the house from its neighbour to the north, and built presumably on a long standing medieval or post medieval closed store, as it was filled by domestic and site debris. The slaked lime and sand layer might have been part of a floor surface, contemporary with the dressed stone pieces we found among it, suggesting there was once a medieval building there. Indeed, later observation revealed that the sand layer ran under the modern foundations and was probably medieval.
This raised many questions. The sand, shell and lime layers were seen as part of a mortar making area. The dressed stone and pottery came, it seemed likely, from a nearby medieval building demolished and then rebuilt with brick. The fact that there was no trace whatsoever of anything later than medieval under the mortar floor and plenty of later post medieval and 19th century above put these construction events in the early post medieval frame - a time when such rebuilds of medieval domestic properties were going on all over north Kent. Times they were a-changing and no-one wanted collective life around the hearth in halls any more - big brick chimneys, staircases, ceilings and private rooms were ‘the thing’ all over the county.
So where had this been happening near K99?
Addressing the mystery (and encountering others)
Preston next Faversham is a very ancient parish, with its donation to the Archbishop of Canterbury documented in AD822: it stayed in diocesan hands for the next 1100 years. Unlike Faversham, the ‘kings little town’ (Coenwulf, King of Kent in a document of AD811), Preston was never a clustered settlement but rather a collection of manors - Macknades, Perry Court, Westwood, Sedgrove, Ham (a detached portion, known as North Preston Without), with Copton the most important.
Now, none of these manors is close to the site of K99. What was nearby, however, was Preston House, referred to by Hasted as a ‘Gentleman’s Seat’. Preston House was only about 200 metres away on Preston Grove. Hasted tells us that Preston House was originally a Tudor mansion, inhabited in the mid 1500s by the grandparents of Robert Boyle, the famous Royal Society physicist. Around 1790, it was demolished and replaced (again, a typical practice in this area at least) with a Georgian mansion. This was demolished in 1930, with no above ground survivals. The question then became - was Preston House actually preceded, unknown to Hasted, by a medieval property?
There were, however, still surprises ahead. Careful map regression showed a curious rectangular enclosure only about 50m to the east of K99. This enclosure appears to be a built structure in the earlier maps but this disappears around 1900. Nevertheless, the rectangular boundary survives until now, where it forms the garden boundaries of a small 1960s end-of-terrace house. The earliest maps showed the enclosure as being part of a farm complex, referred to on the 1901 census as the ‘Old Farm’. Was this our original medieval property?
A little further away were St Catherine’s Court and the Vicarage. The mortar floor of K99 did not seem to fit in date with any of the Church refurbishments but it is possible that the Vicarage or early outbuildings of St Catherines were involved. St Catherines Church, a very ancient foundation, is attributed to Copton as a manorial chapel. The main difficulty with this assumption is that St Catherines is nearly 2km north of Copton, though only about 200 metres from K99. This church is yet another of Preston’s mysteries, but beyond our archaeological reach at the moment.
Finally, a set of questions revolved around that red brick dust. Our dating placed this dust very early in the modern history of bricks in Kent - maybe 1550 - 1600? Maps again helped, showing a brickfield in 1840 and brick and tile works in 1865 just to the east of K99. Were these the source of the brick dust, indicating a brickmakers workshop close to the house?
Further excavations in this area might reveal more about the activities of the brickworkers and the connections with the early post medieval building boom.
the south of K99 on what is nowadays the Jewsons site. Further documentary research suggests that this is not one of the Kentish Stock producing works for which Faversham is well known, but a red brick producer dating back at least to the late 18th century. Was this brickworks, in fact, functioning earlier than this?
The investigations 2014-5
NB full reports on these can be found on the FSARG website under PSN14 and PSN15.
Preston House
We were granted access to all of the gardens covering the site of the former Preston House. Resistivity surveys were carried out on all of them and seven excavation points identified. Keyholes 110 and 112a, b and c found substantial cellar remains and Keyhole 114 revealed remains of what we think was a sunken pineapple house. Keyhole 110 was the most useful for dating, showing a rear wall of the Georgian house’s cellar (whitewashed and with a hook) and west of that wall, backfill debris from the former Tudor house (early red brick and a Nuremburg jeton). Keyhole 123 found a chalk surfaced courtyard around 70cm down, contemporary with the Tudor house. Importantly, no evidence whatsoever for a preceding medieval property was found - on the contrary, in most pits the medieval agricultural surface eventually turned up, with its characteristic midden scatter of small abraded bits of pot, bone and flint.
The 'Old Farm'
Again, we were given excellent access to the area overlain by the earlier farm. The enclosure, spotted in the map sequence, turned out to be still walled, with good survival on the south, east and north sides. The above ground brick dates were late 18th century, contemporary with the Preston House rebuild and the building of Grove House, next door. Excavation at the north and south ends of the enclosure (Keyholes 117 a, b, and c) did not show any medieval base, although some dressed stone and early brick fragments were found at the south end. The most startling piece of evidence came, however, not from our digging but from a photograph (see below), taken by the owner of a later house against the enclosure on its east side. The previous owner had dug a large hole in the south west corner of his garden up against the outside of the wall and early brick and medieval stonework was seen in the lower layers. To the right of the photograph is the concrete platform on which the modern terrace is built - here the wall has been mostly destroyed.
This structure is far from understood as yet, but we do think that it is the one associated with the features and finds in K99. Is it a tithe barn, associated with St Catherines? Clearly what is needed here is archive research which will take place over the coming year.
The brick and tile works
Although famous for Kentish Stock brick production 1850-1920s, central Faversham itself is mainly red brick, some of which is very early. FSARG is at present building up a reference collection of local brick types (by fabric, size and features) to assist interpretation of the built landscape, but so far, no early local brick producer has been positively identified.
The archaeology of the Preston brick and tile works itself is inaccessible, buried under a thick layer of concrete on the Jewsons site, but inference from the surrounding built environment strongly suggests a red brick manufacturer. This assumption had to be tested further, and in early summer 2015 permission was obtained to excavate in two gardens in Nelson Street. These backed onto the former brickfield, close to the works shown on the 1865 OS map.
What we found was very interesting. In both pits at a depth of around 40cm, the garden soil deposits, with their content of clay pipe fragments, Victorian pottery, cinder and nails, abruptly stopped. Below that we found a complex of chambers separated by clay walls. The content of the chambers was a different backfill, with the few finds consisting solely of medieval midden scatter. The depth of these chambers was around 60cm - matching the depth of extraction of the 'strong earth' used for red bricks.
In short, this looks like evidence for very early brick earth extraction, maybe dating to the mid 1500s and quite possibly the brick making site for the building of the original Tudor version of Preston House and the possible tithe barn.
Final points
So, as is the way with archaeology, we have perhaps answered some questions but in the process generated a whole lot more. Some we have not even tackled - for example, as far as St Catherines is concerned, we have carried out resistivity surveys of the graveyard and Vicarage grounds and other non-invasive tasks, but questions arise inevitably about this oldest of churches in the Faversham area. The start of this article shows a fragment of a 7th century Saxon cross found during the restoration of the church in the late 19th century. The closeness of St Catherines to the Kingsfield Anglo Saxon burials (6th-7th century) is highly intriguing. These questions, however, must await another day, as must any exploration of those ancient manors, rebuilt many times and still flourishing in 2015.
Great thanks to the people of Preston who gave us access to their lovely gardens, took so much interest in our activities and findings and provided us with invaluable support material. Also special thanks for the use of the charming Schoolroom as a base - we feel positively spoiled.
A final reminder once again - detailed reports with lots of illustrations are available on the FSARG website, under PSN13 and PSN14, with the 2015 ones arriving by Christmas 2015. Also on the website is an email address if you want to contact me, Pat Reid, about any of the points made in this article: I would especially welcome further discussion on the archaeology of early (16th-17th century) brick fields.