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Structure 10 - Hut Base

This page was last updated at 4:25pm on 13/2/12

Picture of the structure taken by CART in July 2011

The following information is an EXTRACT from an archaeological report produced in January 2012 following CART's Coleshill Uncovered project. A range of people contributed, including CART. The report was edited by John Winterburn and Anna Gow.

We have extracted the key info for this area but would suggest you read the full report here

STRUCTURE 10 - HUT BASE

These structural remains were discovered during the January evaluation weekend and given the National Trust SMR number 154015 (see Feature Register in Appendix B). Located 36m west of Structure 2 this concrete platform is on a north-south orientation with its' short sides to the north and south.

Believed to be a hut base the northern end of these remains are broken away, however it appears that it would originally have been of different dimensions to the other huts, the short side being 3.20m and the long sides being at least 8.4m. A large crack, running north-south along the length of the concrete structure divides the base, with other cracks spreading out from this central one. A concrete lip is located on both the east and south sides of the base with circular holes located along it. The lip is 0.11m wide, sits 0.04m below the main concrete platform and is at least 0.15m deep. There are two holes on the southern lip the distance between them being 1.35m (the eastern corner has broken off, but there was probably another located here) and three were found on the eastern long lip (again there were probably more originally but a combination of tree roots and an incomplete platform means that they cannot all now be seen). One of the holes on the southern end of the concrete base has the remains of a wooden post in-situ.

Half-way along the eastern side of the concrete base there is a single piece of in-situ shuttering, possibly asbestos board (see photograph below). On the top face of the concrete base, towards its' western side, are the casts of inverted bricks.

Significant finds
Clearance of this structure did not provide any significant finds all items collected were post WWII.

Conclusion
Clearly another hut base, Structure 10 is longer and thinner than the other bases on site. The concrete lip situated on the southern and eastern sides may also have been located on the northern side of the platform (due to that end of the platform being broken we cannot confirm this). However the western side of the platform is intact at the southern end and there is no evidence of an outer lip here. It may be therefore that this structure was a three-sided hut, with the western side open to the elements. This different construction may well have been due to the use that the building was put to. Unfortunately nothing was recovered from the area that would provide us with clues as to what this use was.

Read more about the house pre war here and during the war here.