Monument record HTC 039 - Manningtrees; Tenement Thomas Broke; Cooks Green

Spread of charcoal and burnt daub observed when a strip was excavated close to the road for a new water main in 1993. Finds from associated topsoil include Med unglazed pottery (3 sherds of sand-tempered ware, 4 sherds of shell-tempered St Neots-type ware, all probably from one vessel) and 10 fragments of fired daub (S1).
Finds come from the NE corner of a former 2.5 acre field (now thrown into a larger field/recorded as `Manningtrees' (?corruption of Mirrington, surname of owners c.1800) in 1839/40 (S2)(S3). This was a long-standing copyhold tenement of the manor of Hitcham, referred to as `2 acres formerly of Thomas Broke/ Barkle/Brockle/Brockley'. Earliest surviving reference is 1618 (earlier manor documents missing). 1660 admission refers to `house or tenement in Hitcham in the occupation of Symon Haycloth with all yards, orchard & pasture & plowed lands that lye on that side the way the house standeth, containing 2 acres' (S3). Three individuals surnamed `dil Brok' are recorded in the 1327 Lay Subsidy roll for Hitcham (S4). Sites lies on the edge of a small row of houses called Cook's Green.