EDO6278 - Horton and Chalbury Village Hall; observations and recording 2008

An area of 30m by 30m was stripped of topsoil. A JCB tracked excavator using a 1m toothed bucket dug the foundations of the building amounting to ten trenches. Beneath the topsoil was a clay layer of variable thickness which contained small rounded flints and three ceramic field drain pipes orientated north-east/south-west. The evidence collected from the site indicated four phases of activity. The first being 13th century and probable remains of an agricultural surface including 'ridge and furrow' practices. The second phase relates to the cutting of a large U shaped feature which may be the western edge of a former claypit sited 20m east of a mid 17th century pottery kiln. The third phase was represented by three north-east/south-west ceramic drain pipes in the subsoil used to drain the ground to improve agricultural potential, probably dating to after the mid 19th century. The fourth phase relates to the filling of the pond on the site of the clay pit between 1963 and 1994 with heat fractured flint and blackened clay. There was no direct evidence of Verwood Pottery industry although the former clay pit may relate to extraction for its manufacture.