SDO201 - Archaeological Assessment of the New Parsonage Site, Godwin's Orchard, Kington Magna, Dorset

In June 1991 AC archaeology was commissioned by David F Brealey to carry out an archaeological assessment of the site of the proposed parsonage in Kington Magna. The site lies at the periphery of the village (See Fig. 1 for location), nearby buildings being of 18th or 19th century date, and early edition of OS maps show the plot to be an Orchard. The frontage of the site, parallel to a hollow-way known locally as Cart Road Hill, is marked by a low, wide bank, considered, prior to assessment, potentially to represent the site of structures pre-dating the earliest mapping of the village. Four evaluation trenches were excavated, comprising a 0.9% sample of the proposed development area. These were concentrated in areas to be affected by the new building works. A small undated pit in trench 2 contained much charcoal, andan area of soil in trench 4 containing post-medieval pottery, animal bone and stone may have been a large pit, but was not excavated. All four trenches revealed broadly similar soil sequences, comprising modern topsoil/agricultural soil artefacts of medieval to modern date resting over a lower soil of friable, mottled, loamy clay, in some places heavily charcoal-flecked, and containing only medieval and earlier artefacts, and natural basal yellow-brown sandy clay. The assessment produced a substantial quantity of medieval pottery, the majority derived from a sealed horizon, apparently undisturbed by later ploughing. Although no substantial subsoil features or structural traces were found associated with this horizon, the size and freshness of the pottery sherds suggests activity close by, and possibly on the site under consideration.