Test Pit 7: 22 Twyford Road

Test Pit 7 provided another vital data point on the western side of the village—an area where securing garden access is particularly valuable for our research. This side of Barrow upon Trent features strong landscape evidence for the classic medieval toft-and-croft layout, characterised by properties set along the road with long agricultural plots extending behind them.

This pit was positioned near the historic entrance to a field plot. While recorded as an open field on the Enclosure map, its earlier medieval usage remains an open question. Adding to the site’s interest, local oral tradition records the former presence of a medieval cruck-framed house directly to the east of the test pit site.

Because this specific patch of ground had escaped the disturbance of modern development behind the main road, it offered a rare, undisturbed window to search for early settlement evidence and investigate the historical boundary between the village tenements and the surrounding fields.