Test Pit 19-1: 62 High Street

We were very warmly welcomed by everyone at 62 High Street as we dug our first test pit of 2019 in their front garden, opposite the White Lion.

Our finds were all post-Mediaeval, but excitingly we uncovered a feature that we believe is associated with the village lock-up. The lock up is described in 1848 as being opposite the White Lion in the area that we were digging. In the tithe map of 1841 (shown left) a small, grey, square building can be seen on the edge of the plot labelled 526 (the White Lion is plot 260). This corresponds to our test pit.

This building was not present on the 1884 OS map and there was evidence of burning in the test pit, though maybe associated with a hearth rather than a building fire.

It is tempting to speculate that this is the ‘White House’ that Jane Wenham was locked up in while she underwent witch trials in 1712.