Zinch House, Station Road, Stogumber, Somerset - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of the Results

Wessex Archaeology

Zinch House is of 15th or 16th century origin and lies in the south of the village of Stogumber, Somerset, which is of at least medieval origin. One test pit was targeted to relocate the remains of an outbuilding to Zinch House shown on a Tithe map of 1840. The second test pit aimed to examine land to the north-west of Zinch House to test for settlement remains associated with the medieval village of Stogumber, for which there was no previous archaeological record. The test pits revealed that over one metre of hill wash, containing a fragment of Iron Age loom weight and considerable quantities of medieval pottery, covered the site.

This test pit work was followed by a more extensive archaeological evaluation of the area involving geophysical survey, machine dug trenches and hand excavation. The four machine dug evaluation trenches and two small area excavations, partly dug by hand, demonstrated that medieval agricultural and settlement activity was represented at the site. The evaluation indicated that the hill wash probably accumulated from the medieval period onwards and it sealed a series of medieval features, including two slots and three small shallow pits.

Finds from these features included two whetstones, large unabraded sherds of 11th-14th century AD medieval pottery and food remains, including oats, rye, hazelnuts and peas or beans. A series of post-medieval deposits was also recorded and included a building with a cobbled floor. None of these deposits appeared to match the location of the building recorded on the Tithe map of 1840 but all could represent remnants of outbuildings and yard surfaces associated with Zinch House.