Monument record BNH 012 - Barnham Number 2 pit (IA)

Artefacts had been found on site by W G Clarke in 1913-1914 and are shown on HER card BNH 14 which must be considered as early finds from BNH 012. This site contained the second gravel pit opened by Messrs Allen Newport Limited in Barnham in 1951 but the gravel ran out very quickly and the pit was closed in 1952. It consists of a gravel terrace overlooking the Little Ouse river and bounded on the W by the railway, Little Ouse river in the N, small tributary stream in the E and another to the S. On HER map TL 87 NE the S boundary is marked at a field boundary some 60 metres S of the stream but all Basil Brown's sketches show no workings or finds beyond the stream and he states the stream to be the boundary. For Basil Brown this was a salvage operation and he worked alongside the machinery extracting the gravel so there was little time for detailed excavation and this method meant that most of the finds were damaged when they showed in the pit face (S1). Basil Brown states that the settlement extended along the ridge overlooking the small stream to the E of the site rather than along the ridge overlooking the Little Ouse river. His final plan shows 51 "hut sites" some with hearths or fire holes but no post holes were found. The huts were connected by "paths", had one entrance and were 10 feet to 15 feet in diameter and were each surrounded by turf banks. Worked flints, eg scrapers, cores and flakes, were found within hut areas or along the "paths". One hearth contained a portion of a triangular loom weight and an ox bone and pig's teeth. Three hearths, two of which are rectangular, are designated by Basil as "pottery making hearths" because they were 1 foot 6 inches deep consisting of black earth overlying 3 inches of red clay beneath which was 4 inches of soft yellow clay, and sherds of coarse hand made pottery and a few sherds of fine yellow/brown ware were found in the black earth layer. A large rectangular fire pit measuring 7 feet 4 inches x ? x 2 feet 6 inches deep and filled with cracked flints was found 2 feet below the surface which Brown calls a "cooking hearth".
Pottery sherds of Hallstatt, La Tene (burnt) and Belgic are at Ipswich Museum, and two-thirds of a plain flat bottomed pot measuring 4 inches high x 3 inches rim x 4 1/2 inches girth which was first described as Anglo Saxon but was later dated as IA. A black, burnished sherd with incised chevron is held at SAU but it is not clear whether this is IA or Anglo Saxon (S1) (S2) (S3)(S4).
Details of site are held by IPSMG (extension of register) and a final plan of the site gives 54 pits or hearths covering an area about 350 feet by 175 feet. Most features were regarded as the bases of circular huts (see above). For details & drawings of the `IA' pottery see (S5). Beaker sherds and Rom sherds were also found.
Also Pal, BA, Rom & Sax.