Tudor Tour

Archaeological dig data
The excavation of 1972 found hundreds of pieces of broken pottery in the area that we now believe was the site of the farm of William Fraunces. Bowls, cooking pots and jugs were identified from the shards uncovered by the dig. Nearly all the medieval pottery was Potterspury ware.
The dig on the site of the Fraunces croft or homestead farm also discovered large numbers of animal bones. The material seems largely to represent table waste as the bones found were mainly those that would have had lots of meat on them and had scratches from medieval butchers knives on them! The quantities of bones found suggests that Willen was mainly a sheep farming area, but William Fraunces also kept cattle which, the bones suggest, he occasionally ate.