Greys Court Rotherford Greys

A watching brief on trenches þr new surface draínage was undertaken immediately north, east and south-east of Greys Court House. One trench was just east of atrench thatwas monitored in 1997 and many of thefeatures seen
then were also exposed and some new elements relatíng to them were seen.
Several probable medieval features and deposits were seen including a northsouth linear feature just north-east of the house which contained one piece of local 12th-l3th century pottery, some rubble walls south of the house and a
possible buríed medieval soil.
The líth-century lower courtyard wall and a brick conduit south of it probably also of l6th-century date were also exposed and a section of the courtyard wall
wes removed by contractors to allow the drainage pipes to pass. The conduit was on a slightly dffirent alignment and smaller than one seen in 1997 but they appear to be converging and are probably of similar date (16th century) and connected.
The lower courtyard wall cut a narrow earlieri but also probably 16th century, brick wall showing to the north on a north-west to south-east alignment which had a tile capped flint footing and this was not encountered in the 1997 trench, it is probably not substantial enough to have belonged to a large building but it is
dfficult to say much more about its possíblefunction.
Parallel and west of thís a small area of bricl<s bedded on mortar was revealed this is adjacent to the brickfloor seen to the west in 1997 and appears to be on a similar alignment but possibly about 0.2m highea such a small area was seen
that ít is dfficult to draw any conclusions about this or the wall but it could be
related to the 1997 surface in some way.
North of these structures an east-west feature cut the buried soil and this is on
the same alignment as a medieval wall seen just three metres to the west in 1997 and ís likely to be robber cut þr that wall. Marshall (1998) considered that the
corresponding wall in the west trench being similar and parallel to o wall seen 8m to the south might together represent a former medieval building across the
line of the lower courgtard wall and therefore demolíshed by the 16th-century. As the northern of these walls was robbed out in the 2009 trench it is not possible to
compare the fabrics and thereþre the later trench does not really help to either confirm or deny the earlier theory but shows that both walls probably extended
eastwards and the south wall had an earlier phase or was built against an earlier structure.