Copstones Hill
In July 1992 Rex Key and Allan Peacey, taking an evening walk down the
green lane to Burrington, picked up a handful of seventeenth century
pipes in the gateway to a field planted with potatoes [field 28 of the
tithe map]. This field has been walked several times each year since,
always yielding new material. It had been noted that the spread of
material was concentrated in the corner of the field adjacent to the
gate. In February 2004 material was collected from a number of 30 metre
squares in this and adjoining fields in order to gain a better
understanding of the nature of the assemblage.
One of these squares was
set out from the north east corner of field 28 to cover the noted area
and a second in the adjacent field [41 on the tithe map], the two
squares separated by a hedge. Even though the original target had been
picked over several times, the last only two months before, it yielded
821 pipe fragments whilst the adjacent square in field 41 separated by a
hedge yielded not a single fragment. Clearly, whatever the nature of the
assemblage, be it a primary deposit or secondary dumping, the hedge was
in place at the time. The pipes, 115 in all, date from the second
quarter of the seventeenth century; only 15 have stamps
and of these 13
are wheel.
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