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Summary

Building at Northleigh (Lees Cottage). It is visible on the Northleigh Tithe Map.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ARTEFACT (Early Neolithic to XX - 4000 BC to 2000 AD (Between))
• BUILDING (Post Medieval to XX - 1540 AD to 2000 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, 1839, Northleigh (Cartographic). SDV343320.

Building shaded pink on Northleigh 1839 Tithe Map, this usually denotes a dwelling.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Building visible on Ordnance Survey 1880s-90s First Edition 25 inch map.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Building visible on Ordnance Survey 1904-06 25 inch map.

Ordnance Survey, 2009, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV341569.

Building visible on Ordnance Survey MasterMap 2009, shaded yellow, denoting a dwelling.

Whitton, C., 2009, Parishscapes Site Visit (Site Visit). SDV343326.

Whitton, C., noted during the Parishscapes visit the building was in a ruinous state. A one metre high wall surroundied the site.

Riley, H., 2010, Excavation of a Deserted Cottage at Summerdown Farm, Northleigh, Devon, for the Parishscapes Project (Report - Excavation). SDV348124.

An abandoned cottage near Summerdown, Northleigh, Devon, was the subject of an excavation carried out in March 2010 as part of the Parishcapes community project. The earthworks of the cottage and its plot of land were surveyed before the excavation commenced and most of that plot, together with an adjoining field, were the subject of a geophysical survey. The cottage was a single storey building with heated kitchen/living room, perhaps partitioned to provide a bedroom. A large fireplace and bread oven occupied the east end of the kitchen. A small store room had been added to the west wall of the cottage. A section through a boundary bank was excavated, together with three trial trenches. The finds were virtually all from the 19th century. A study of the documentary evidence showed that the cottage was occupied by several families in the course of the later part of the 19th century and was abandoned by the 1870s. It was part of a wider landscape of small farms which, by the end of the 19th century, had been deserted.

Parishscapes Project, 2010, Parishscapes Project 2007-2010, Bringing the Past to Life: Evaluation Report, 62-99 (Report - non-specific). SDV348001.

A survey of the site and its immediate environs was undertaken before excavation. The cottage was built on a small, level platform, measuring 15 metres by 8 metres, defined by a steep scarp 2 metred high on the west and a gradual slope 1 metre high to the east. A rectangular hollow, 4 metres by 1.5 metres and 0.75 metres deep, may be the remains of a small building.

The remains of the cottage are defined by a rectangular area of tumbled stone measuring 14 metres by 6.5 metres with some wall tops and faces visible. The building appeared to be divided into two; the main building and a small room adjoining it to the western end. The best preserved wall face was the inner face of the northern wall of the main building which stands at 0.8 metres high and is constructed if coursed blocks of undressed chert with lime mortar visible.

The eastern end of the building is defined by a large mound of tumbled stone. The cottage faces south with a 1 metre wide entrance gap in the southern wall of the main building.

The geophysical survey was carried out at the beginning of the excavation. Several relatively small anomalies were visible.

The excavation was carried out to explore the structure, function and date range of the building. Seven trenches were excavated between 24th March 2010 and 1st April 2010.

Trench MC1 took in the interior of the small room on the western end of the building, together with a small area to the north of its northern wall. A layer of dark material, 0.15 metres deep contained a high proportion of the finds from the whole excavation. Areas of decayed mortar were noted close to the walls. In the northeast corner of the room a 0.1m deep clay lens lay below the brown soil. The excavation revealed a small room 2.8 metres long and 1.4 metres wide. The room was single storey and was probably built after the main building.

Trenches MC2 and MC4 examined about half of the interior of the main room and the eastern end of the building. Below the 0.25m deep context 3, was a well-preserved lime wash floor. The base of a bread oven lay in the northeast corner of the building with a fire place occupying the eastern end.

The excavations revealed that the main building was 8.06 metres wide by 3.1 metres, with an additional room interpreted as a store room to the west with an internal measurement of 1.7 metres by 3.2 metres. The southern wall of the main building was 0.55 metres thick and the store room 0.3 metres thick. Surviving examples of this sort of cottage are rare as most have been extended.

Three trial trenches (MC3, MC6 and MC 7) each 1.5 metres square were excavated immediately east of the cottage and these show the plot of land surrounding the cottage was used in an informal way.

Trench MC5 (2 metres by 1 metre) investigated the bank on the south side of the cottage plot. The chert core of the bank was 0.7 metres high and 0.9 metres wide. There was no evidence for a ditch. The material above the bank contained a relatively large number of artefacts.

An assemblage of 154 sherds of pottery, with a total weight of 1536 grams, were recovered from the excavation. The majority of the pottery dated to the 19th century with three sherds of early 20th century pottery. Forty four iron objects and four copper alloy objects were recovered.

Walls were made from locally available chert bonded roughly coursed with lime mortar. Eight pieces of window glass were recovered. A flint tool was recovered from Trench MC7 dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age. Two pierced local sandstone objects (possible door weights) were recovered from the material infilling the store room and kitchen. A sandstone piece with an inscription which is a small date stone was also found. A fragment of whetstone was also discovered.

The Tithe map of 1840 and apportionment of 1839 shows that Lee Cottage stood in a busy agricultural landscape of small farms. There were few finds from sealed contexts but overall the assemblage dates to the final phase of occupation and abandonment to the mid-late 19thc century.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV5447 - Excavation at Lees Cottage, Sommerdown Farm, Northleigh

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