b'In an old document covering the period 1304 toLonghouse: A house with opposed entries and 1306 (see Bulletin 13, Account of Archbishopsan unheated lower room which was once used Temporalities 1304 to 1306) manorial incomefor accommodating livestock or as a workshop is recorded from Farms of mill, oven, cottagesor storage-place. The evidence for its former use In this instance, the Latin term for oven isfor livestock is usually the presence of a drain or furni which is not specific enough to identifysump. Humans and animals entered the building the use it was put to whether baking or drying.via a common door and passage. The longhouse Nevertheless, it could still be the very onewas a common form of farmhouse in the Middle unearthed. Ages and later [although] it is debatable whether [it] was once the normal type of farmhouse Structures throughout Britain. In the early modern period livestock were removed from the lower ends of The 4 structures unearthed were 3 buildings (onelonghouses and the space was used instead for of these was a flimsy structure of uncertain function,service rooms. . They are longer than they are the other two were identified as Building 1 andwide, being only one room deep, and are readily Building 2) and a kiln. distinguished by their off-centre entry with an Building 1 was the most substantial, having theaxial chimney-stack to one side.following characteristics:A medieval longhouse type with a crossFrom: David Hey, The Oxford Companion to passage Local and Family History, 2000.Constructed of chalk rubble with padstones of reused sandstone and internal partition walls with its head to the South. No grave goods were Built around the 14th Century found and there was no dating evidence. However, Not used after the 15th or early 16th Century the discovery of post-holes in a circle did suggest Building 2 by comparison was: Smaller & not asthat there was a later wooden structure, possibly a substantial as 1 roundhouse, above the burial.Associated with the neighbouring kiln/oven It was this burial that gave rise to the rather Having a free-standing, single flue embarrassing contemporary headline of Neanderthal Constructed of sandstone blocks and chalkMan Found In Bishop Wilton. True, some flint cobbles fragments found on the site were said to be evidence Pottery found in the floor was dated to the 12thof Neolithic man but the way that the burial was rashly Century and pottery in the latest fill to the 15thdescribed has to be attributed to the imagination of Century the reporter!Both of these buildings were deemed to have beenWith dating uncertain, the conclusion was that the abandoned and levelled after the 15th or early 16thburial could have taken place anywhere from the Iron Century when the site was used for pasture. Age, through the Roman period up to the 6th or 7th The kiln, which appeared to be associated withcentury.Building 2, was presumed to be usedfor drying grain before threshing or for parching grain before brewing.Trackway & ditchesFrom the accompanying photograph you will see whyThe raised site of the burial was found to be skirted this was described as having a keyhole shape whichby a metalled trackway flanked by ditches. Today was common over many centuries, evidently. Anotherthis is enclosed within the hedged corner of the field possibility which the excavators were not aware of isopposite the Rectory.that this structure was the communal oven which is mentioned on numerous medieval documents as theFindsproperty of the lord of the manor who charged for its use. Whether such an oven could be used for the typeA fine iron key was recovered from the floor in the of drying mentioned or whether it was for the makingproximity of the entrance from the cross-passage in of bread and other cooking, we cannot say. As withBuilding 1.the other buildings, it was judged to have beenPre-medieval finds were scant: four flint flakes demolished around the 15th Century. indicating possible neolithic human activity; one single sherd of Iron Age pottery; a few sherds of Romano-Burial British pottery.A single, crouched burial was found close to theNo medieval pottery earlier than the 12th Century gateway into the field opposite the Rectory. It waswas identified.positioned on its left-hand side, aligned North/SouthOther notable finds included: two Nuremburg 326 BULLETIN 17'