Archaeological discoveries in this area have revealed the evolution and layout of Fairfield Plantation. In the summer of 2001, archaeologists found an ash pit, a clay borrow pit, and a fence line. The late 17th-century ash pit was a shallow hole refilled with wood ash and early artifacts, including a wrought iron butterfly hinge, a 1580/1581 English silver six pence, and locally made tobacco pipe fragments, and it is likely related to an earlier house of Lewis Burwell II. The clay borrow pit was dug to obtain clay for making bricks around 1720, perhaps for an addition to the manor house or another outbuilding, and soon afterward it was refilled with bricks discarded from the kiln, many broken wine bottles, and other items common on early 18th-century plantations. A small surviving portion of historic fenceline was built with six-inch-square wooden posts set in holes about two feet square and spaced eight feet apart. This fence line matches a road shown on a 1781 French reconnaissance leading from Burwell's Mill, across the field, and continuing southwest toward Carter Creek.