| Summary: | Four phases as folows:
1. Saxon: 3 contemporary ditches, presumably associated with enclosure hedges. One ditch traced for 30m and was 1.75=2.0m wide and up to 1.2m deep. Others shallower, one has cleaning slot. No datable finds but charcoal in fill gives date range cal ad 550-890.
2. 12th-13th century: 3 parallel gullies on E-W alignment with two parallel lines of irregularly spaced and sized pits. Gullies less than 1m wide and slightly discontinuous. Probably more than one phase, reflecting a track alignment with adjacent shrub-hedgeline.
3. 3 shallow and discontinuous gullies, following N-S route of Berry Lane and associated with leaf (SX87SE/47). Probably define a path adjacent to the leat, which has subsequently evolved as berry lane. Pottery from the gullies belonged to c AD 1250-1400. No structural features or building debris was recorded, nor any features above the subsoil. Various other features, pits and gullies, of uncertain date, were recorded. No certain Saxon pottery was recovered, but 18 oxidised chert-tempered pieces are of the 11th or 12th century. A further 58 medieval sherds were recovered, largely Totnes-type coarseware. Post-medieval pottery was also recovered, solely from the topsoil which showed signs of having been cultivated during the last century. That Fairwater Leat and Berry Land bisect the earlier medieval gully alignments suggests that they are secondary features dating after c 1300. Some of the property boundaries alongside Berry Lane do still retain the saxon alignment such as the principal boundary wall at the south end of Berry Meadow. |
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