Habitation site in Nobber

Located on the S-facing slope of the NE-SW spur on which the town of Nobber was built. House-building had already commenced on a development site bounded by the railway cutting to the SW before archaeological supervision intervened, but excavation (07E0345) recovered archaeological deposits (max. D 1.5m) and suggests that the medieval occupation covered an area of c. 1000 square metres in this part of the town. The initial occupation in the late twelfth century was represented by a roadway (Wth 4.5m plus; L 35m plus E-W), numerous pits and a rectangular building (dims 8m x 4.5m) represented by post-holes, pad-stones, paving, and stake-holes with a doorway evidenced by a pivot stone on the S side. A complete mortar was recovered from the paving. A second structure (dims 6m E-W; 5m plus N-S) just to the E was less substantial, although it had a hearth unlike the main structure. The structures were covered by a silt layer, and a stone structure (dims 5.8m plus x 3m plus) was built in the S of the excavated area in the later thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century an E-W ditch (max. Wth 2m; max. D 1.1m; L 23m plus) which was filled with ash and charcoal deposits suggests there was metalworking in the neighbourhood, while a line of circular pits to the S containing more organic material and was probably on the line of a property boundary. The boundary was continually re-cut into the fifteenth century when a stone platform (dims 2.7m x 2m) was also constructed, and the corner of a building with hammer-dressed stone was also recorded. The area seems to have reverted to agricultural use in the seventeenth century, apart from pits c. 50m closer to the Main Street where there were also fragments of clay-bonded walls. A coin of William and Mary, dated 1694 was found on a paved floor associated with these. (Seaver 2010, 2011) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 5 September 2018