Historic Christ Church-Archaeology: Phase II Excavation of Brick Kiln Sites

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Phase II Excavation of Brick Kiln Sites--October 2002
Building on the results of John Metz's Phase I survey in April 1999, as well as the Phase I survey of the Parsonage Lot undertaken in February 2002, the Foundation went forward with a Phase II excavation of the brick kiln sites in October of 2002. Archaeologists Thane Harpole, Dave Brown, and Rob Haas directed the project. The Foundation also invited its volunteers as well as local elementary students to participate in the site work. All told, some 17 volunteers from Historic Christ Church and 13 fourth and fifth graders from Lancaster Middle School, Chesapeake Academy in Irvington, and Botetourt Elementary in Gloucester assisted the archaeologists. Several students from the College of William and Mary's Anthropology Club also participated in the excavations. The Phase II excavations confirmed the existence of a major brick manufacturing operation on the site. Coupled with documentary evidence from Robert Carter’s diary, the excavations indicate the area functioned as an industrial site for about ten years (1726-1735), during which time some 400,000 bricks were produced and the church constructed. The findings also revealed that a Native American settlement occupied the Christ Church property before Englishmen began to inhabit the area. Harpole, Brown, and Haas dug 18 test units, each 2 ½ feet square, south and southeast of the church site. They found evidence for at least three, and possibly four, kilns or clamps. The kilns were oriented northwest to southeast in the project area, with two located south and east (respectively) of the Carter Reception Center and one just west of Rt. 646 (see image to right). The exact size of the kilns could not be discerned from the digs, nor could the overall design of the brickyard or the location of activity areas for mixing and weathering the clay and for molding, drying, and storing the bricks; however, the team did find remains of brick benches used in constructing the kilns, evidence of fire channels, fragments of waster bricks, and a fragment of a coping brick from the churchyard wall. And while the paucity of domestic artifacts speaks to the site’s use primarily as a brickyard, Harpole, Brown, and Haas unearthed some tobacco pipe stems, a glass bead, and sand and shell-tempered Native American pottery, some with cord-marked surface treatment. The archaeologists found the site to be largely intact. Its high research potential, the integrity of its archaeological deposits, and its significance for understanding brickmaking in early eighteenth-century Virginia make it eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia State Landmarks Register.	Archaeologist Thane Harpole excavates test units believed to mark the edge of one of Robert Carter's brick kilns. This site plan shows the location of the three kilns and their orientation towards the church site. Click image for a larger view. Thane Harpole and Dave Brown are the Co-Directors of the Fairfield Foundation in Gloucester County, Virginia. Click on the link to visit their work at this important site from colonial Virginia.
Click on the photos below to see more of the excavations on the brick kilns.