On 11th June 2017, Debbie Curtis invited the Walkern History Society into her garden at the Old Schoolhouse to dig their 2nd archeological test pit.
Walkern’s original school was located at Church End from 1829, when it had ‘only four mud walls, a mud floor and a thatched roof’, until 1925 when the modern school was opened. The building was extended in 1852 – a plaque commemorates this – and an infant school built in 1877. The area, however, has evidence of much earlier occupation. A medieval ditch was found in the driveway, and the dwelling next door, known as the schoolmaster’s house, is a medieval hall house.
Most of the finds were associated with the school, bits of broken 19th century roof tiles, mortar and other building materials. We also unearthed a marble, a small 19th century, green glass medicine vial or perfume bottle, a piece of clay pipe and some animal teeth.
We worked through 20th and 19th century layers, digging much deeper through the light, sandy soil, than at the previous dig until a ‘feature’ was revealed. This was a distinct, regular seam of clay about 40cm wide and slightly curved, possibly a natural feature but also possibly an infilled trench.
We also found some ‘lilthic debitage’, the waste flakes from flint tool production.
Below is a LIDAR survey of Church End showing the site of the test pit
Click on the pictures below to see them as enlarged images taken on the day
