Finds and mysteries
During the restoration process, various features have been revealed. Some of these shed light on the development of the house and some remain mysteries. These will be described on this page and in blogs.
The small finds from the house are displayed in Wisson’s Hill study, and go beyond what history-loving holidaymakers will find, even in a Landmark Trust property.
Small finds: Tudor and earlier
The earliest item here is a piece of debitage: waste from Stone Age flint knapping.
The bones and teeth are undated. One piece of bone has a drilled hole and looks like part of a bone flute, possibly from a deer bone? It looks as if a dog got hold of this simple musical instrument, judging by the chew marks!
The two larger pieces of pottery are thought to be medieval – maybe jug handle stumps. Is this indication of pre-Tudor occupation if this site, or did the first inhabitants of the current house bring older housewares with them in the 1530s?
Oysters were a widely available food and eaten by all, including the poorest.
The larger pile of dark-glazed pottery fragments are believed to be sixteenth century.
Hundreds of handmade iron nails of various sizes have been used in construction and modification of the house, over centuries. This sample of five nails represents the range of sizes.
These dendrochronology cores were taken from oak beams and matched to known tree ring growth sequences, to confirm that the main timbers used in the construction of Wisson Hill were felled in spring 1530.
Small finds: 17th to 19th centuries
The stone tile was found in the space between the gable bedroom and the chimney breast outside the bedroom door. It is difficult to understand why it would be in this space, apparently closed off for 200 years, if the roof had never been tiled with stone, as the neighbouring house is still. In the same alcove was found an offcut of soft cream-coloured leather with tiny stitches: possibly an offcut from glove making, which was often carried out in rural homes as a cottage industry. Unfortunately this find was put away carefully during the chaos of restoration and has yet to be re-found.
The pottery fragments include 18th century Staffordshire slip wear. Glass fragments include bottles and very thin hand made window glass.
Clay pipe pieces give a wonderful image of how farm workers – or perhaps only the tenant farmer – may have enjoyed a rare moment of leisure. The pipe bowl on the right is probably 17th century and the more decorated one on the left 18th century.
Beans and oats have been found in walls and under floors (there are still plenty there). The 1796 accounts mention payments to Ann Hunt, Sarah Gee and others for hoeing beans at Staple Hill and sacks of beans may have been stored inside the house, like the sacks of dried bacon mentioned in the inventory.
The horseshoes are the only items found outside the current property, but they were picked up from the fields that formed the farm, so could have been lost from any of the working horses. They could have shod 10-year old Blackbird, worth £22, or 4 year-old Blackbird, worth £27, listed in an inventory in 1795 (the inventory shows the value of these horses when the main dining table and chairs was valued at about £1). All of the horse shoes look handmade, so pre-1900, and one appears to have ‘calkins’ so may be medieval.
The tiny brick is a mystery.
Small finds: 20th century
Newspaper fragments, calculations, cigarettes, matches, a heel plate for a work boot and a piece of blade sharpening stone gives a peep of the workers at Wisson Hill, probably either the last agricultural workers in the first half of the 20th century, or workmen turning the rundown farm accommodation into an elegant village home in the 1960s. The calculations in lbs and £ are written on a page from a very moral notebook: printed at the top of each page are ‘…y vessels make the most noise’ and ‘Discretion of speech is superior to…’
Some of the china fragments are recognisably modern, with the prize for the creepiest going to ‘the ear’ – presumably part of a china doll’s head? All of the blue and white china pieces have been grouped on this shelf of the display but many will be older than 20th century. The 1795 inventory mentions ‘Delf Ware’ and Delftware was popular from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century, but blue and white china has an enduring appeal, as can be seen from clearly later fragments and items around the house.
Evidence of transition from wood to coal as a fuel?
This is a view straight up the inglenook fireplace, behind the register place. There seem to be two types of structure that have been installed:
- A steel circle is held in place across the flue. Behind the tar and soot residues you can see that around the circle has been enclosed with stone tiles. It seems that this may be an effort to reduce the draw of the fire – and therefore consumption of fuel.
- There are two slotted bars spanning the chimney breast. I have been told that it is possible that pig carcasses could have been fitted with a T-shaped rod, which would allow the carcass to be suspended up the chimney for smoking the meat.
The inglenook itself and these structures may demonstrate the fascinating changes that early modern English people had to face, as coal took over from wood as the standard fuel for cooking and heating. I thoroughly recommend Ruth Goodman’s book ‘The Domestic Revolution’, which explains how the different characteristics of these fuels, from heat to fumes and their waste, had a huge impact on everything from cooking techniques, standard dishes, washing clothes and house design.
Around this house, the sixteenth century shows evidence of wood smoke and a house built to use wood as a fuel. Some of the seven flues around the building have residues from burning coal and illustrate the changes that Wisson Hill’s occupants would have undergone. For example:
- It is not safe to smoke meat over mineral coal, due to the fumes produced by coal, which taint meat, so any structures build for this would become useless and a new approach for meat preservation would be required.
- A smoke hood would not work with a coal fire, as sulphurous coal fumes sink and are unpleasant and dangerous to live with, compared to wood smoke, which rises. It seems that wood was still the main fuel when the fire was moved from smoke hood to inglenook, if the bars up the chimney are indeed for meat smoking.
More fireplace mysteries
The same fireplace presents a mystery with the ‘bites’ taken out of the left hand side. It is not clear that this fireplace was the farmhouse’s main kitchen, as an equally large fireplace at the back of the house also had a bread oven, but the meat smoking equipment and pot hook in this fireplace suggest that it was used for some food preparation.
Is it possible that brickwork was scooped out to allow for a meat-turning or other cooking mechanism that could be operated away from the heat of the fire? I have not yet found anything similar online, so suggestions are welcome.
This stone shelf is just above head height in the same inglenook fireplace and looks original, so probably late 16th century or early seventeenth century. It may have been used to keep salt dry and it is certainly ideal for proving bread when the wood-burning is being used.
Anyone curious about old buildings will find plenty to fascinate them in this Tudor building and can stay here for holidays.
Read about Wisson Hill’s carpenters and apotropaic markings (burn and witch marks).