Monument record MDO20316 - Fosters School, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne; Middle-Late Bronze Age pottery production in Area 3

An open area excavation at the former Foster's School playing field, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne was conducted by Exeter Archaeology during 2002 in advance of development for housing. This revealed extensive evidence for pottery production in Area 3 dating from the middle to late Bronze Age. This included pit clusters back filled with burnt limestone and pottery wasters, possibly rudimentary kilns or structures fro pre-heating pottery prior to firing in bonfires. Many of the pits contained large amounts of pottery, including wasters within their fills. The Middle-late Bronze Age pottery assemblage from the site is one of the largest ever recovered.

Exeter Archaeology conducted an open area excavation at the site of the former Foster's School playing field, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne during the summer and autumn of 2002 in advance of development for housing. A draft report has been written for future inclusion within the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society [1]. The excavation followed on from an earlier evaluation and survey on the same site conducted during 1998 [2][3]

The site was excavated in three main areas, Area 3 was located in the north eastern part of the site. The prehistoric deposits had been trucated by recent ploughing and only features cut into the bedrock survived in area 3.

The excavation revealed extensive evidence for pottery production dating from the middle to late Bronze Age in Areas 2 and 3. The production occurred in two main areas within area 3. The first lay in the western part of the area. This comprised a number of large pits with heat afftected limestone and pottery in their basal fills. The basal fill of pit 1149 showed signs of heating in situ, suggesting that the pits were rudimentary kilns or used to preheat pottery prior to its firing in bonfires. Most pits contained wasters amongst the pottery. One pit 1181 also contained 11 perforated fired clay objects.

A second focus of activity occurred to the east and included a further concentration of pits, many of which had been backfilled with waste deposits. These included heat affected limestone, calcite, ash and charcoal as well as pottery and wasters. 'Further to the east, pit 1160 contained a very high proportion of burnt limestone, with a group of five slabs of indicating that the pit may have been used to warm pottery vessels prior to firing.' There were also two linear post-hole alignments and a linear gully that may have supported fences or windbreaks associated with bonfire firing.

The pottery production was dated by radiocarbon to date from 1140 +/- 80 cal BC to 940 +/- 60 cal BC. The duration of production is estimated to be 1 to 220 years at 95% probability. The Middle-late Bronze Age pottery assemblage is one of the largest ever recovered during an excavation. [1]

<1> Best, J, 2008, A Late Bronze Age Pottery Production Site and Settlement at Foster's Field, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO10587.

<2> Valentin, J , Chandler, J and Geophysical Surveys of Bradford, 1995, The archaeological assessment and evaluation of land adjacent to the former Foster’s School, Tinney’s Lane, Sherborne, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO10359.

<3> Valentin, J, 1995, Further archaeological evaluation of land adjacent to the former Foster’s School, Tinney’s Lane, Sherborne, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO10361.

Record last edited

Jul 8 2008 2:47AM