In the west of the field is a sub-rectangular enclosure, variously thought to be anything from Bronze Age to a Post-Medieval industrial enclosure.

One trench across the enclosure bank showed it to be built of earth, capped with stone. The earth contained Medieval pottery, so dating its construction to Medieval or later. The top-soil contained lots of clay pipe stem, but none was found in the bank, so a Medieval date of construction is likely.

A second trench inside the bank uncovered a sturdy dry-stone wall of a probable barn; an iron mule shoe and a trowel were uncovered inside the building, and a pile of calcite crystals outside. What were they collected for? Medieval pot shards were again found mixed in with more recent artefacts.

The third trench was the most exciting. This was placed over a prominent bump near the south-east corner of the enclosure. English Heritage had interpreted it as a collapsed post-medieval chimney, part of the industrial complex. We soon discovered it was much earlier, again Medieval, with pot dating back to the 13th century found amongst the tumble of stones. This building had thick dry-stone walls, the builders in-filling the gaps with soil. This soil contained even earlier Roman pot-shards and a few Neolithic flints.

The most curious feature was a circular, stone-slabbed platform built onto the end of the building. It was strongly built over a foundation of stones packed together on their edges. The circular walls may have continued higher above this platform.

What is it?? We do not know, but there are signs that it was a corn drying oven. These usually have a big furnace to one side, but we did not find it. We did find some burnt stone and a concentration of charcoal. The furnace could have been outside the limit of our trench.

Interestingly, amongst the soil sampled from between the stone slabs, are charred seeds: wheat, beans, half a small pea and probably linseed (the seed of flax). If these findings are correct, then it shows that this drying oven was used to dry and aid the storage of several different crops.

We were lucky to have Adam Stanford take some amazing overhead photos. ( Adam Stanford © Aerial-Cam 2009 )  More of his work can be seen at http://www.aerial-cam.co.uk/charterhouse.htm