A Privy and a Pigsty

 

 While some might shy away from looking into the toilet arrangements of people in the past, for archaeologists they're an especially interesting subject so the chance to investigate a 'privy' with no mains water connection is quite exciting.

Much has been written about Roman toilets, medieval garderobes and monastic latrines but there's surprisingly little detail about the period between the end of the medieval era and the advent of modern sanitation in the late 1800s. It's not hard to find references to cesspits, ash-pits and dust-holes but more is written about their nuisance than about their construction and use.

One of our current digs concerns that even rarer breed of 'necessarium'; the combined privy and pigsty. The toilet consisted of a bench-type seat mounted over a brick-built trough about 50cm deep. Waste would fall into the trough and ashes would be sprinkled on top with the final products of decomposition running through a small arch into an 'ash pit' which was also the receptacle for household waste and the contents of commodes. Now and then the cover would be taken off the ash-pit and the contents removed, either composted, strewn on nearby fields are taken away by a 'night-soil man'. The sketch shows what we think the building looked like and the photo below shows the 'trough' (left) and the ash-pit (right) with the connecting arch between.

Needless to say, the building was situated as far as possible from the house - probably not a trip you'd want to make in a rural location in the dead of night in mid-winter!

 

 

Revisiting the Cistern

 

Today we revisited the soft-water cistern in the yard of our early 19th century cottage excavation. The aperture seems to have had a curve cut into it to allow easier access for cleaning. We also discovered that it was originally lined with pitch, some of which still clings to the brickwork and sandstone.

  

 

 

Our Festival of Archaeology Dig

 

In the last week of July, during the Council for British Archaeology's 'Festival of Archaeology' week, we'll be carrying out an excavation on the lawn near the front door at Oak House in West Bromwich.

This iconic building dates from the early 1600s and to the best of our knowledge, there has not been any archaeological investigation at the front of the property. In 2020 we put in a small test pit at the rear of the property and after removing a century's worth of landscaping and rubbish, made some interesting finds, contemporary with the earliest days of the house.

While visitors to the house will be able to have a brief 'hands-on' archaeology session, we're also inviting volunteers to assist with the dig. Tasks will include digging with a spade, excavating with a trowel, sieving excavated material, cleaning finds etc. No experience or equipment is needed and there's no cost involved. Our public liability insurance means that we can only accept adult volunteers and each day will run from around 11am until 3pm from 26th to 28th July 2022. You can take part in one day or all three, as long as you can stay for the full session on your chosen day(s).

If you'd like to take part, please send an email to: wolverhampton-archaeology-group@gmail.com

 

Albrighton Church Dig

It's not often archaeologists get the chance to dig right beside a church and have fair weather at the end of January to boot, so we were hopeful that this double helping of good fortune would extend to finds and features at today's dig. However, as does occasionally happen, our investigations proved somewhat disappointing.

It seems that the area where we were digging has been well disturbed - not unexpected given the proximity of the existing graves - and finds were few and far between. We did find many fragments of roof tile, of different types, some of which are no doubt from the 19th century rebuilding of the church, and a few pieces of chunky floor tile, one of which had traces of a glaze.

Two sherds of medieval 'sandy ware' pot came to light, both of which date from the 12th to 15th century or somewhere between 500 and 900 years old! One had a pale yellowish brown glaze that terminated halfway down the sherd, the other was un-glazed. Most surprising was that there was just one sherd of 19th or 20th century white pottery with no sign of the usual willow pattern or other common types and none of the usually ubiquitous clay pipes. A few small fragments of bone were found, most probably from early graves that had been disturbed long ago.

Probing revealed that the soil up to a metre below the bottom of our trench was very soft and no doubt much disturbed so the dig was terminated well before reaching the natural. A report will be published in due course and circulated to members of the Albrighton & District Historical Society, several of whose members joined us for today's dig.

 

A BIG surprise

 

We were treated to a completely unexpected view at one of our on-going excavations when a small hole appeared in the bottom of one of our trenches. We were hoping to find the bore-hole for a domestic water pump which we knew was nearby but instead found a large circular rainwater cistern, measuring about 10ft in diameter and 8ft deep!

This photo shows the aperture after enlargement - the pump's down pipe (around 2" in diameter) can just be seen standing almost upright in the darkness below.

 

In the interest of safety for ourselves and others, we had the onerous task of filling in most of the tank but at least we know where it is if future investigation is required!

Before making it safe, we gingerly lowered a camera into the cistern and were greeted with some fantastic images. This one shows that the reservoir consists of courses of brickwork laid on top of a hollowed out sandstone base. The photo at the top of this article shows one of the massive sandstone slabs which cover the top of the cistern, sitting on the bricks.

 

Cottage Floor Rediscovered

 

This quarry tile floor was laid just over 200 years ago and has been buried under a metre of rubble since the house was demolished around 1950. Little is known about the cottage itself and there are no known photographs. Thanks to WAG its floor plan and the methods used in the building's construction will soon be revealed and recorded for future generations.

 

 

 

Albrighton Investigations Continue

 

Although quite a few sherds of medieval pottery were found during our initial investigations at the vicarage garden, they were not found in context. This means that they could have just been brought in from elsewhere and dumped on the garden. It was therefore decided to dig another test pit within the wooded area closer to the graveyard wall and the pavement which may have been less disturbed.

Closer inspection of old maps showed that there were two structures which appear to have been demolished when the new road was cut and fortuitously, local historian John Stretton found additional information relating to one of them. Some possible evidence was found in two of our initial test pits by way of a clay surface and a few fragments of floor tile but a document discovered by John relates to a conveyance made in 1663 confirming a tithe barn and a yard in Albrighton. On the same visit to the archive, an estate map of 1789 shows the area where the new road was cut was called ‘the yard’.

Our test pit within the wooded area was exceptionally hard to dig due to a mass of tree roots but once again a couple of pieces of medieval sandyware pottery (12^th-13^th C) were found but mixed with post medieval and 19^th century material. This was disappointing but large amounts of floor tile and an internal post hole came to light which could indicate the floor of a large barn type structure possibly the tithe barn.

The photo shows the squared post hole along with a couple of pieces of floor tile sitting on some mortar. More investigations are planned adjacent to the church very shortly.

 

Garden Test Pits

 

Although test pits dug in the gardens of modern houses rarely turn up interesting archaeology, they very often produce dozens of finds from the last few hundred years. These may be from human activity in earlier dwellings on the site or material deposited in the field in which the house was built.

A recent dig in the garden of a cottage which dates from the second half of the 1700s, produced probably the largest quantity of finds we have ever had from a single test pit. There had clearly been a lot of disturbance in the soil above the natural sandstone, as earlier finds were found well above Victorian ceramics. This most likely represents a gradual accumulation of household waste as well as almost three centuries of gardening - the soil was uniformly fine from surface to natural, a depth of around half a metre.

The photo above shows the quantity of clay pipe fragments recovered from a single layer or 'spit' of this test pit. Some of these were made in the 17th century so might indicate an earlier dwelling or people working in, or simply passing through, the fields. In addition to these bits of pipe, there were dozens of fragments of pottery and glass in each spit, some of which may also predate the present house. Details of this particular test pit will be included in the overall Community Archaeology report which will be available on this website in due course.