We know for a fact that there were at least three dwelling houses on the present Orchard site, each comprising two halves housing two families. We even know the names and ages of the people, based on the census information recorded every ten years from 1841 to 1921.
It has taken us five weekends of digging so far, beginning in December 2022, with various test pits dug in three different places, to find what we think may be the footprint of the middle house. Of course there were some outbuildings as well, sheds or small store houses, and perhaps we have simply landed on the foundations of one of those.
It’s become evident that when the houses fell into disrepair, in those thriftier times, anything that could be re-used was taken away to be re-purposed. So if we are lucky we will just find some foundation material, maybe a floor, or perhaps just a space where a wall has been ‘robbed out’. I am lucky enough to be working on the middle house with a local expert who freely shares his knowledge. As you can see, I am even picking up some of the lingo. But I never imagined there would be so very many bits and pieces hiding just under the surface, which are not actually associated with our building. Medieval, Roman, pre-historic – how long have people been here, living on the spring-line just off the old Icknield Way?
While we dig, if it’s a sunny day, visitors come to peer into our pits. There are usually three pits open at any one time, one for each house. We love showing off what we have in our finds trays, mainly pieces of broken brick, tile and mortar, bits of glass and twisted metal, but also the prettier things such as blue and white china and even the odd bead. The children enjoy seeing the bones and imagine dinosaurs. They can even have a go themselves to see what they might find. Their parents tell us of the things they have dug up in their own Chinnor gardens. A local man tells us that he knows where you can still see a timber from the old Tudor building that used to be just a stone’s throw away from our site where the Avenue is now. Older people walking with sticks venture carefully across the uneven site, they remember their grandmother had some china like that which came out for best on a Sunday tea-time. And finally, a visitor from Canada is simply thrilled to be able to hold a piece of Roman pottery, she is an amateur archaeologist back home but they have very little anywhere like as old as this.
I suddenly realise that for a brief moment, the Orchard is full of people who closely match the ages and numbers of our 1841 inhabitants. Then 30-odd individuals lived here on this small site, ranging from young children up to those adults well into retirement, and the working-age people in between. The Orchard feels alive once more and we feel more of a connection with those who have gone before. This dig is a way of remembering them and their way of life.
Read more about what we found and what it all means in a later article.
Christine Davis Winter 2024
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