Monument record MDO20315 - Fosters School, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne; Middle-Late Bronze Age settlement in Area 2

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 settlement dating from the middle to late Bronze Age. This included the remains of several post-built structures, including a number of circular huts around the periphery of pottery production zones . In some cases these were clearly visible as isolated post-rings, but often the density of features meant that it was difficult to assign them to a particular structure.

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 2 was located in the central part of the site in an area of Neolithic and Middle Bronze Age activity identified during the earlier evaluation. It was also located over a small natural coombe, within which colluvium had accumulated protecting the prehistoric deposits from later ploughing. Area 2 was further subdivided into areas 2a and 2b; the northern and southern parts of the area respectively. The excavation revealed extensive evidence for settlement dating from the middle to late Bronze Age. This included the remains of several post-built structures, including a number of circular huts around the periphery of pottery production zones . In some cases these were clearly visible as isolated post-rings, but often the density of features meant that it was difficult to assign them to a particular structure. 'Structure S8: This was located in the northeast part of Area 2. The circular structure consisted of 29 postholes and measured c.6.5m in diameter, with a porch located on the southern side... There were no occupation deposits within the hut, but functional zones can be inferred from the pits at the rear of the structure and the internal postholes...To the north and east of the structure were postholes and small pits that may have formed structures or fence lines associated with the house and the larger pits. Most of the features contained pottery, including wasters, and pit [2561] also contained part of a fired clay mould... On the east side of S8 was the remains of four-post structure [S9]. All the postholes associated with this contained burnt limestone but no artefacts. Structure S10: This circular structure was located beyond the limits of the coombe in the southwest part of Area 2. It measured approximately 5.5m in diameter and consisted of five postpits and 10 postholes, with a porch entrance on the southeast side... Structure S10 contained the greatest amount of Late Bronze Age pottery found within a single structure on the site, totalling 519 sherds, including 259 wasters... Close to the southern edge of the structure was pit 2084...A group of seven postholes was excavated 2m southeast of pit 2084. These were all steep-sided with rounded bases and all fills contained fragments of heat-discoloured limestone. The posts do not form a coherent pattern. Structure S11: This comprised a group of eight truncated postholes that had been excavated through bonfire deposits… No artefacts were recovered and the structure was built once open-firings had ceased in this area… Immediately west of S11 were pits 2412 and 2479, which had been backfilled with a mixture of heat-discoloured material derived from a variety of sources.' [1]

Record last edited

Jul 8 2008 12:52PM