Shrunken Settlement Remains

Description of this historic site

The remains of the Medieval shrunken village of Pillerton Priors. Remains of the village are visible as earthworks. During an excavation in an area of the shrunken village, Medieval gullies and post holes were found.

Notes about this historic site

3 The extent of the shrunken settlement shows on air photographs.
4 An archaeological evaluation carried out in 1996 by Warwickshire Museum revealed evidence for Medieval occupation. The earliest and densest period of Medieval occupation dated to the 10th-12th centuries. Features dated to this phase included an number of boundary gullies and ditches mainly on north east-south west and north west-south east alignments. Towards the south west corner of the site post holes of a timber structure or building were identified. A number of Post Medieval features were found, but the density of activity was less after the 12th century. A limited topographic survey of the site was carried out prior to trial trenching. Low subrectangular earthworks were recorded, which might have been medieval house platforms.
5 Archaeological recording during the excavation of foundation trenches for a single dwelling at Homestalls Meadow, Pillerton Priors (SP29384755) recovered a few sherds of medieval pottery dating from the 13th to 15th centuries.
6 Further to the evaluation described in 4, excavation at Sandpit Farm further investigated features dating to the 11th to 13th centuries. None of the remains indicated domestic settlement, but evidence for small-scale iron working in the form of slag and clinker recovered from a large number of large ditches and pits in the eastern part of the site (see MWA7852). A probable infilled pond was recorded in the centre of the site, and 17th-18th century levelling deposits were seen in the south and east. The remains of a post-medieval farm building with a cobbled floor was probably formerly associated with Sandpit Farm to the south (see MWA2036).

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