WELLINGTON History and Museum Society has revealed the results of a community dig in part of the garden of the Old Court in the town.

It says: “The finds found came from the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries and consisted of stone ware, glazed red cream ware and earthen ware. A few pieces of Bristol ware were also found, the company having started around 1650 and worked into the 18th Century.

“The usual clay pipes were also found – one piece of bowl had letters etched into the clay. It read PRA over TAV. The TAV stood for Taunton, so a search on the internet found a family called Pratt who made clay pipes in East Reach from 1832–1850s. Other finds consisted of a variety of stone. Chert, which a section of the house is built from, sandstone, also the round smooth stones found in the sandstone. There was also lime mortar, river stones, brick and a few stones which showed burning.

“The overall result concluded that any earlier finds such as the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries would be deeper than the one metre that was dug for the test pit.”