Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

Saxon
No structural features of Dark Age date were found, although fragments
of loom-weight and grass-tempered pottery suggest the existence of
Saxon settlement not far from the site.
Medieval
Several medieval boundary ditches crois the site., One produced much
of a 13th Century cooking-pot, another the dismembered skeleton of a cow.
Other features include pits, waterhOles or wells, and large outdoor
hearths. A large circuler structure (0.8 m. diameter) also of this period,
may have been e dovecote.
Post-Medieval
The remains"of a substantial building encroached upon the northern
. part of the site, and the evidence suggests that this dated from the
Tudor period.. The original building was Probably of stone, later refashioned
in brick, and to the south existed an extensive Cobbled area.
Finds from this locality included pottery, spurs, buckles, knives and
coins. The area then became the site of several large pits.whose purpose
seems to have been the querrying of the- limestone subsoil. This
activity, falling in the 18th Century, probably.represents the quarrying
of Marl for agricultural use.
In its final form the building housed a large cellar, and bottles
from the fill suggest a mid-18th Century date for demolition. This is
Confirmed by the fact.that it does not appear.on a detailed Enclosure
map of Bierton dated 1780.
llmost 100 people assisted on the excavation, the majority in a
voluntary capacity, and the Success of the operation owed much to this
support. The task of processing the coUntless finds is well advanced,
and work on a detailed report has begun.
LITTLECOTE, Buckinghamshire (SP 832 242, Figure 3) - Paul Herbert
A hamlet oh the south-west side of the parish of Stewkley, in the
Cottesloe Hundred, 'Litecota' Was surveyed separately after the Conquest
.wherein it was described as having been, and still remaining, under
° three Landowners.
An extent of 'Lidcote, was taken in 1323 which showed a normal arable
village maintaining 140 acres of arable, with a manor house and *
fruit garden; 15 free tenants were on the rent roll.
In the report upon inclosureSof 1517, 'Litilcote' was said to have
been enclosed by Thomas Pigott in 1494, at which time he held the manor;
he was accused of displacing 24 persons. In 1507 William Sheppard enclosed
the final 100 acres of the Manor and evicted eight perSons, bringing
the total to 84, and totally destroying the village.
The manor house was pulled down in the 17th Century and some out
offices were converted into a farm residence.-
A chapel,dedicated to St. Giles was founded prior to 1266 by Hugh
de Dunster-and was probebly pulled doWn in the'late 16th Century.
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