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Excavations and Survey around the Village of Stokenham, Devon       Summer 2007

IN ADDITION TO DR. WILLIAMS' REPORT GIVEN BELOW THE FOLLOWING LINKS MAY ALSO BE OF INTEREST

http://www.sogaer.ex.ac.uk/archaeology/stokenhaminterim.pdf

http://www.sogaer.ex.ac.uk/archaeology/news/stokenhamkey.shtml

A Preliminary Report By Dr. Howard Williams

Introduction

In July 2007, Dr Howard Williams of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter led the third season of fieldwork at Stokenham, Devon.

In two prior seasons the fieldwork project excavated a late medieval long house and farmyard including culverts and hard-standing surfaces. Beneath this we found a sequence of ditches, the earliest and most ephemeral of which dates back to the Bronze Age. The project also involved the archaeological survey of the churchyard of Stokenham

Manor Field, Stokenham
This year the project moved on to explore the medieval and Tudor manor house abandoned in the 1580s within ‘Manor Field’ east of the parish church. Following geophysical, topographical and fieldwalking surveys conducted in previous years, the decision was made to open two trenches. The detailed topographical and geophysical surveys were also expanded with students conducted a gradiometer survey of the field as well as a GPS survey.

Trench 1

Trench 1 consisted of a 25m by 5m intervention placed to investigate the largest terraced platform in the Manor Field. This terrace had produced the highest concentration of medieval building material and finds in the 2005 fieldwalking survey. Trench 1 revealed the remains of one of the rooms of the manor house with the substantial foundations of walls suggesting a building of at least two storeys. While subject to robbing and covered by over half a metre of demolition material, a surviving fireplace was revealed together with artefacts dating to the 14^th and 16^th centuries AD. One wall was found collapsed and contained sculpted sandstone window-pieces, further evidence of a high-status building.

Elsewhere in Trench 1 was found demolition material and beneath it, construction and rubbish dumps rich in artefacts of 14th to 16th century date. The building material indicated a lordly dwelling. The roof was of slate with decorated ceramic ridge tiles. The walls were partly mortared, lined with plaster internally and lime-washed externally. The floor included flagstones and decorated tiles with a fish-design (perhaps from the manor's chapel?). Mortared drains were also revealed. Principle finds included a large animal bone assemblage including cattle, sheep, pig and possibly also deer, horse and dog. There were also large numbers of fish bones and oyster shells. Finds included iron nails (parts of the timber superstructure of the building), iron tools and horseshoes, fish hooks, belt-buckles, brooches, pins, a thimble, a bronze finger-ring and bronze and silver coins. Among the finds indicative of a high-status building was an iron key with a heart-shaped handle. All this evidence serves to suggest that Trench 1 had correctly located the site of the abandoned and lost manor house of Stokenham.

Trench 2

Trench 2 was a 10m by 3m intervention that was located to explore an area that the 2005 fieldwalking revealed was a midden. We found a dark soil rich soil in the centre of the trench containing animal bones, oyster shells and artefacts including bronze pins and metalworking evidence. The walls of another building were also uncovered, cut into the natural to form a flattened terrace on the down-slope side. Furthermore, in Trench 2 a mettled road was revealed. From its alignment it is likely that this was one of the main routes into the manorial complex. It was made of slates carefully lined on-end and contained by large quartz blocks.

Trench 3

Trench 3 was a small 2m by 2m intervention opened to explore an intersection of ditches identified in geophysical survey. The trench revealed material of medieval date from one of the ditch-fills.

Churchyard Survey

The 2007 season also involved research into the archaeology of post-medieval and contemporary commemoration. This involved the completion of the archaeological survey of the Stokenham churchyard memorials building on work done in 2005 and 2006, the results of which hope to provide a detailed picture of the changing nature of mortuary commemoration over the last three centuries. Each grave was subsequently 3-D recorded through a dGPS survey. Initiated and completed in the 2007 field season was the complete archaeological survey of the churchyard of the neighbouring parish of Slapton. The similarities and differences between the commemorative histories of these two parishes promise to reveal interesting results about mortuary variability both within and between parishes since the eighteenth century.

War Memorial Survey

The chief supervisor of the 2007 field season was Sam Walls, Exeter Graduate Fellow and project assistant on the X-Arch (Exploring Archaeology) community archaeology project. Sam’s doctoral research focuses on the archaeology of 19^th and 20^th century public monuments. As an element of his research, the 2007 field season incorporated two investigations of visitor-interaction with the famous Torcross war memorial. Consisting of a World War II U.S. Sherman tank that sank during practices for the D-Day landings off Slapton Sands, the monument commemorates those U.S. soldiers who lost their lives during the exercises for D-Day in early 1944 during which the area was evacuated of its local population. Through interviews with visitors and observations of how visitors interacted with the monument, important information was gleaned concerning how this monument is experienced and interpreted.

Funding and Context

Overall, the fieldwork fulfilled its research objectives of revealing and exploring components of Stokenham’s medieval and Tudor manorial complex through survey and excavation, completing two churchyard surveys, and incorporating a war memorial survey. The project also involved the successful training 22 first year Exeter archaeology students supported by the Department of Archaeology’s Student Fieldwork Fund. Stokenham ‘07 also involved the advanced training for 5 student-supervisors with the support of the alumni-funded Exploration Fund. In addition to these research and student-training outputs, the field season was designed to incorporate a range of community archaeology activities. To this end, the project was funded and supported by the University of Exeter and the Heritage Lottery funded X-Arch (Exploring Archaeology) project. X-Arch provided logistical support for the project, arranged the open days, one of which took place in collaboration with the Devon Archaeology Society. X-Arch also provided guided tours to over 900 visitors as well as the participation of over 120 school children and 8 local volunteers.

Acknowledgements

The 2007 fieldwork team were: Alistair Black (geophysical survey supervisor), Anna Davenport (churchyard survey supervisor), Adam Jones (trench supervisor), Rebecca Miller (finds supervisor), Becky Tyers (survey supervisor), Sam Walls (chief supervisor) and Howard Williams (project director).

University of Exeter students-volunteers participating in the 2007 fieldwork were: Bill Barrett, Matt Battey, James ‘Jesus’ Collins, Grace Doughty, Lynsey Dunn, Max Falinski, Jennifer Humphries, Perse Johnstone-Burt, Dom Keegan, Rhys Langford, Katie Leek, Locryn Leizour, Cherry Martin, Johnny Micklethwaite, Kim Pedder, Matt Saunders, Sian Smith, Tom Smith, Emma Turner, Andy Verbinnen and Margaret Wilby. Other volunteers included Clare Bradley, Alice Brennan, Lynden Carter, Clive Essery, Joseph King,  Matthew Powell and Ted Watkins.

Thanks for advice and support to Penny Cunningham (X-Arch project manager), Graham Tait (Devon County Council), Jim Cobley (metal-detecting) and Alan Wills (cherry picker operator).

Thanks and gratitude to the many members of the local community who offered support and hospitality to the project (including cakes!). Thanks also to the numerous local volunteers that helped with the fieldwork. Special thanks to Councillor John Baverstock for his support. Thanks also to the landowners Oliver, Mark and Jean Brooking for permission to excavate in Manor Field and for generously providing a camp site and beer for the field team.