SDO10642 - Proposed Horton and Chalbury Village Hall - Evaluation. Interim Report.

Bournemouth Archaeology was commissioned to undertake an evaluation of the site of a proposed new village hall for Horton and Chalbury parishes. Five trenches were dug to target anomalies from a geophysical survey, and sought to identify the site of a pond noted at intervals in the past. In addition, the proposed development site was close to the remains of a seventeenth-century Verwood Pottery kiln, and it was thought likely that a kilnr or associated deposits might survive in this area, particularly as documentary evidence shows that pottery was manufactured in Horton parish throughout the post-medieval period. No evidence of a kiln structure or waster deposits was found. Some pottery was found, but in relatively small quantities, which did not suggest that there was a kiln in the immediate vicinity; the authors suggested that the material found may indicate the presence of a kiln somewhere in the wider area, or be re-deposited from the known kiln excavated in 1990. Clay-lined features were observed in some trenches, and may relate to a water-management system associated with the nearby Horton Abbey. Noting the possibility that eighteenth-century ponds were enhancements of medieval fish ponds associated with the abbey, the authors conclude that further work would be needed to clarify this point.