COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY

A SITE INSPECTION AT THE FORMER

PAUNCEFORTE ARMS, EAST STOKE

NCA-046

Emily Gillott

March 2015
Contents

Page no.
List of figures and plates i
1.0 Introduction 1
2.0 Site Location 1
3.0 Site Background 1
4.0 Site Inspection 2
5.0 Conclusions and Advice 2
References 3
List of figures and plates

Page no.
Fig. 1 The location of the village of East Stoke 6
Fig. 2 The location of the site 6
Fig. 3 The retained building, construction trenches, cellar location and the 7
findspot of the human remains

Page no.
Plate 1 General view of the site 8
Plate 2 View showing the extensive alterations to the building 8
Plate 3 The human remains discovered during the trenching work 9
Plate 4 The area where the remains were found after brief cleaning 9
Plate 5 Some of the teeth recovered from the same context as the skull 10
Plate 6 General view of the corner of the trench where the remains were 10
discovered
Plate 7 View of the interior of the remaining building 10
Plate 8 View of fireplace looking north 11
Plate 9 View of the fireplace looking west 11
Plate 10 View of the 18th century roof timbers 11
Plate 11 Views of the 18th century roof timbers 11
Plate 12 A view of the cellar discovered during the building works 12
Plate 13 A view, looking east, showing where the steps had once led down into 12
the cellar
Plate 14 Some of the timbers removed from the building for reuse 13
Plate 15 A further view of some of the timbers stripped from the building for 13
reuse

Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Lorraine Horsley for comments on the human remains, and to Alistair Ford
for the research and contributions to Section 3: Site Background. I am grateful also to
Newark Constabulary and the CID for their assistance.

Written By Read by Signed off Report date

EG LH LH 2015

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1.0 Introduction

The NCC Heritage and Conservation Team were contacted by the Newark
Constabulary after they had been informed of the discovery of human remains at the
former Paunceforte Arms in East Stoke.

The former Paunceforte Arms is currently being converted into a residential building,
as well as being extended into the area previously occupied by the car park. No
archaeological condition was placed on the works and so this report likely comprised
the only record of some of the archaeological and historic features affected by the
building works.

The site owner contacted the police after works to dig a foundation trench revealed
part of a human skull.

The NCC Community Archaeologists attended the work to assess the human
remains on 24th March 2015. As part of this site visit they also took several
photographs of the work in progress as a record of archaeological and historic
features.

2.0 Site Location

The former Paunceforte Arms is located at E475393 N349667. It sits at a

crossroads on the Fosse Way (see Figs. 1 and 2), near to the location of the known
Roman town of Ad Pontem. The River Trent is a short distance to the north of the
village and forms the parish boundary. The underlying geology is Mudstone of the
Edwalton Member formation. East Stoke village is approximately 3.8 miles to the
south west of Newark.

3.0 Site Background

East Stoke is a medieval village sitting at a crossroads location between the Roman
Fosse Way and the medieval routes of School Lane and Moor Lane. The earliest
evidence of human activity in the immediate area comes from worked flints dated to
the Mesolithic.

There is extensive Roman activity in the area along the Fosse Way. Just to the
north east of the site is the Roman town of Ad Pontem and there is likely to be ribbon
development along the course of the Roman road, stretching perhaps through the
location of the medieval village.

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East Stoke is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Stoches’ and the manor
is listed under the land of Walter d’Aincourt. The name is Old English and refers to
an outlying settlement. The village has migrated from its original position, which
once was to the north west of the Fosse Way, rather than sitting astride it. This is, in
part, due to a devastating fire that destroyed much of the fabric of the church and a
plague that claimed 159 lives (Nottinghamshire Guardian, 4th Jan, 1958). Both of
these events were reported to have taken place in the year 1646. The location of the
church of St Oswald is testament to this migration, as it sits some 700m to the north
west of the current crossroads with the Fosse. Various earthworks between the
church and the crossroads represent remnants of the older parts of the village. The
church itself is not recorded in Domesday, but dates back at least as far as 1288
when Sir James Odonis de Urbe was appointed rector (HMSO, 1906).

East Stoke is best known for its part in the Wars of the Roses. In 1487 a decisive
battle took place around the village which resulted in the death of several thousand
troops (Bennet, 1993). Evidence of these victims has been found in a number of
locations in-and-around the village, in the form of fragments of human remains as
well as burial pits.

The building related to the Paunceforte Arms does not appear on Chapman’s map of
1774 but is marked on Sanderson’s map of 1835. By the publication of the 1st
Edition O.S. map it is marked as the ‘Paunceforte Arms’ and is shown as a
courtyard-style building. Buildings are shown in the area where the human remains
were discovered.

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4.0 Site Inspection

During the course of the work a human skull was encountered (see Fig. 3). The
work was stopped and the contractors contacted the Newark Constabulary for
advice. They in turn contacted the archaeological team at the County Council who
arranged an immediate site visit to assess the remains.

Upon arrival at the site the responding archaeologists worked to establish the nature
of the human remains and whether they could be considered archaeological. Plates
1 to 6 give general views of the site, location of the find, and the human remains.

The human bones had been found at a depth of 80cm during the construction of a
foundation trench for a new building. Fig. 3 shows the location of the find. The
recovered remains consisted of the rear section of the cranium (the occipital and the
majority of the left and right parietal bones), some fragments of mandible and five
teeth. The cranial vault showed thickening of the bone which would be indicative of
Paget’s disease. The break on the cranial bones was fresh and had been made by
the digger on site. Fragments of human bone could be seen in the edge of the trench
which was not excavated further, leaving any other human remains in situ. The skull
had been removed from where it was encountered to prevent it being damaged
further. It was kept on the site adjacent to the find spot.

The section of the foundation trench was cleaned by trowel to reveal archaeological
layers. The tarmac surface sits on top of a thick layer of sandstone rubble hardcore.
This rubble context gave way to a context of apparently fairly sterile mid brown soil.
Below this was a layer or lens of crumbly tarmac material, followed by another layer
of mid-brown soil. The partial skull was recovered from this last context or mid-
brown soil, which was the deepest visible context. Adjacent to these contexts was a
fairly modern brick wall, but it was not possible to tell, given the conditions, the
relative dating of the wall and adjacent contexts.

Not enough of the assorted contexts was revealed to understand whether the human
remains were from an articulated burial or redeposited from a disturbed one. In
addition while it is extremely likely given the location and situation within the
contexts, that this is a redeposited historic burial, it was not possible to be certain of
this. As such the remains were removed by the Newark CID and sent for
Radiocarbon Dating to provide certainty that they were archaeological in nature.

In addition to making an assessment of the human remains discovered at the site the
archaeologists took the opportunity to take a number of informal photographs of the
work in progress. As no archaeological condition was placed on the site any
archaeological work commissioned for the site will be at the discretion of the
landowner. It was therefore deemed pertinent to take some photos of some of the
archaeological features, and of the historic building in its stripped-back form, as
these would likely remain the only record from the work.

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Plates 7 to 15 show various aspects of the site, including the alterations to the
building, recovered timbers from the demolished structures, and the previously-
unknown backfilled cellar.

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5.0 Conclusions and Advice

The remains were probably archaeological in nature, and appeared to be

redeposited, although it was not possible to say this with certainty. There are a
number of records on the Nottinghamshire HER detailing finds of human remains
around the village. There are a number of possible archaeological explanations for
the existence of human remains on this site. The remains were found alongside the
Fosse Way on the outskirts of the Roman town of Ad Pontem. It was usual Roman
practice to bury people alongside the road outside towns. There was also a
significant medieval battle around the village which resulted in many casualties, and
some of these have already been identified elsewhere around the village. A third
possibility is that this could represent the remains from a crossroads burial. These
are poorly studied burials, but it was common practice for criminals and outcasts to
be buried at crossroads, rather than within the consecrated ground of the
churchyard.

It is not possible to posit further as very little of the contexts around the remains were
revealed. The only dating material observed was a small fragment of Midland Yellow
pottery, which came from the same context as the skull.

Information provided by the police suggested that the foundation trenches where the
remains were discovered were unlikely to extend further. The community
archaeologists advised that it would be beneficial, should the landowner so wish, to
have an archaeologist present on site if further groundworks were to take place.

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Figures

Fig 1: The location of the

village of East Stoke, and
its relation to the new
A46 road and the River
Trent. The box highlights
the crossroads that the
former Paunceforte Arms
sits at.

(Source
www.openstreetmap.org)

Fig. 2: The location of the site. (source www.google.co.uk)

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Fig. 3: Showing the retained building, construction trenches, cellar location and the
findspot of the human remains.

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Photographic Record

Plate 1: General view of the site, looking to the east, showing one of the
construction trenches.

Plate 2: View showing the extensive alterations to the building.

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Plate 3: The human remains discovered during the trenching work, and one
fragment of Midland Yellow that was recovered from the same context.

Plate 4: The area where the remains were found after brief cleaning. The circle
marks the find spot.
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Plate 5 (left): Some of the teeth recovered from the same context as the skull. Plate
6 (right): General view of the corner of the trench where the remains were
discovered.

Plate 7: View of the interior of the remaining building.

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Plate 8 (left): View of fireplace looking north (from the interior of the building). Plate
9 (right): View of the fireplace looking west.

Plates 10 (left) and 11 (right). Two views of the 18th century roof timbers.

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Plate 12 (left): A view of the
cellar discovered during the
building works. Looking
south west. The cellar
appeared to have been
disused and backfilled.
Beneath the building it
opened out to the right, and
the structure was composed
of stone rather than brick.

Plate 13 (below): A view,

looking east, showing where
the steps had once led down
into the cellar.

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Plate 14: Some of the timbers removed from the building for reuse.

Plate 15: A further view of some of the timbers stripped from the building for reuse.

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References

www.southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk

Inquisitions and assessments Relating to Feudal aids, 1284-1431, Vol IV, London:
HMSO (1906)

Bennett, Michael. Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke, 1993.

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All photos by Emily Gillott (Nottinghamshire County Council) unless otherwise stated.

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