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Jewry Street, Winchester, Update Four

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:19:17 +0000

The flint and cob foundations of the late medieval/early post-medieval building have been removed. Now we can see two separate plots on the site, each running from the old Jewry Street, Scowertenestret.

On the southern plot are the remains of a building, some 5m wide and running the full length of the site and beyond. No walls survive, but there are successive layers of chalk floors, which suggests that the building was in use for many years. It doesn’t look as if any industrial activity took place in the building, and the finds are domestic rubbish, some of which are of worked bone.

Recording the chalk floors

The plot to the north is quite different. Here there is a building roughly 8m by 5m, its longer length parallel with the old street. It had two principal rooms, similar in size. In one of them, parts of the chalk and flint floors have survived, together with holes for posts which must once have supported some timber structure.

In the other room there was a quantity of slag – waste from iron working. Outside, at the rear of the building, several pits contained more iron-working debris.

A small metal-working crucible was discovered in one pit. It is made of fine clay and dates to the early medieval period. Without analysing the residue inside it, we can’t say whether the crucible was used for copper-alloy or silver. Pits at the back of the building contained more iron-smithing waste. This workshop, which was re-floored on several occasions, appears to date from the tenth to twelfth centuries.

A fine crucible was found in one of the pits. It would have been used in the manufacture of copper or silver objects.

Medieval ‘Scowertenestret’, or Shoemakers street, was not confined to one industry, it would seem, and documentary records back this up. An early twelfth century survey of Winchester records a goldsmith in the street. Fourteenth century records show a wide range of artisans and trades including smiths, cutlers, butchers, skinners, tanners, fullers, weavers and tailors, all occupying properties owned by either the King, the Bishop, or Hyde Abbey; this was a prosperous and industrious part of the town.

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Jewry Street, Winchester, Update Three

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:52:29 +0000

The medieval building runs for 11m across the excavation site, from its frontage on the old line of Scowerenestret. The back of the building is beyond the site, under the present day Jewry Street. It was a long, narrow building (4.5m wide) with flint and cob foundations, timber walls and probably a slate roof.

Its dimensions are fairly typical of urban buildings of this date, with a number of rooms, some of them semi-basement, stretching back from the old Scowertenestret. The original large rooms were later subdivided, reusing some stone from an earlier building.

Chalk block reused from an earlier building with a possible mason’s mark or protective symbol.

Little has been found at the front of the building, because it was demolished when Jewry Street was levelled in the early nineteenth century. But a brick hearth found here seems to date from the first phase of the building, giving it an impressive entrance hall.

Cleaning the brick hearth

Deeds of 1285 refer to the site as a curtilage held by William of Buckingham. By 1417 the plot is described as a cottage belonging to John Shaldene.
Evidence from the building corroborates this. It appears to be standing on its own, with garden or open ground on each side.

A side door in the north wall of the building once opened onto a cobbled yard and an outbuilding with a chalk floor. The outside area to the south is scattered with rubbish pits.

Jewry Street was a prosperous part of medieval Winchester and boasted a number of stone houses, particularly on the east side of the street. The name Jewry Street, ‘Vicus Judeorum’ or ‘Gywerystrete’ was used from the early 13th century, but although the north-west quarter of the town was popular with members of the Jewish community they lived alongside the other inhabitants of Winchester.

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Jewry Street, Winchester, Update Two

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:33:43 +0000

Excavation is now well underway and it is clear that the medieval building running across the site was altered several times during the period when it was in use. Internal walls were put up to make smaller rooms and new floors were laid.

Below the sixteenth century building is an earlier one on the same alignment. Beyond the external wall to the south are numerous pits, presumably dug for rubbish. They are of different dates, and some were in use at the same time as the earlier building. Many finds have been retrieved from the pits, including a piece of decorated medieval floor tile, a silver penny, pieces of pottery, and bits of animal bone.

The line of the old street, running in front of the building, has been excavated down to the 1825 level, the time when this route was replaced by the present line of Jewry Street. Now we can dig further down and look for earlier layers that will help us trace the history of the street.

Part of a Late Medieval floor tile decorated with a ‘fleur-de-lis’ (lily flower) design. Similar tiles can be seen in situ in Winchester Cathedral. It seems likely that the building this one came from probably belonged to a well-to-do citizen.

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Jewry Street, Winchester

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:20:21 +0000

Commercial development at 28 Jewry Street is giving us the opportunity to investigate a corner of the city which still holds unanswered questions for archaeologists and historians. Wessex Archaeology Ltd was appointed by Clanfield Properties Ltd to carry out initial test pitting last year. Based on this work an excavation strategy was designed and agreed by Winchester City Council's Heritage Environment Officer. The unusual strategy involved sinking the piled foundations of the new building into the ground before rather than after the excavation. As a result archaeologists can dig right up to the edges of the site and work safely at some depth below the adjacent road and buildings.

Preliminary work started just before Christmas and the excavation began in earnest last Monday, 5th January 2009. The excavation team of ten will be on site until the end of February. By then we expect to have investigated around 300 cubic metres of archaeological deposits ranging in date from the Iron Age right up to the 19th century.

Perhaps the greatest archaeological potential of the site is to give us more evidence about the development of the Late Saxon (AD 9th-10th century) town, in particular its north-western corner. The site lies over the line of a street and buildings that were part of the Late Saxon town plan. Among the questions we would like to answer are when the street was first laid out and how built-up it was.

Below the Late Saxon street and buildings we also expect to find traces of the earlier Roman town. It is likely that a Roman street runs through the site and we may find evidence for its development and that of any buildings that flanked it.

It is possible that evidence of earlier structures or occupation may also survive. The site is inside the Iron Age enclosure of Oram's Arbour, which preceded the Roman town.

As well as the remains of streets and buildings, we expect to recover large quantities of finds and environmental remains. These will tell us more about the activities carried out on the site at the various stages of its history.

Pottery, animal bone, plant and seed remains and industrial residues, such as those produced from metalworking, can give us a picture of people's everyday activities in the past.

The north-western corner of the historic city has been the subject of a number of excavations in recent years and we now have a much better idea of its development through time. The current excavation will add to the results of excavations carried out nearby on Jewry Street and in Staple Gardens.

During the excavation we will be providing information on boards at the site and in the Winchester Discovery Centre opposite.

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Digging a Roman bath house - week three

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:56:22 +0000

This season has been full of surprises, and the greatest surprise of all came on the penultimate day. There is another Roman building underlying the bath-house at Truckle Hill. This was a completely unexpected and very exciting discovery.

It had been difficult to explain the painted plaster wall outside the caldarium (hot room) but a new wall immediately outside the wall of the tepidarium (warm room) is clearly part of the same, earlier building. The excavated section includes a window opening, and the masonry work is of very high quality. This wall had also been decorated with painted plaster.

This first building was clearly luxuriously appointed with a mosaic floor (a small section of floor was found in situ at the base of the painted wall).

Work has continued all week in the first frigidarium (cold bath) and the remains of the steps down into the bath have been uncovered. At more than 1.5 m it was much deeper than expected and would have been more of a plunge pool than a bath. Large pieces of roof tile from the collapsed roof lay at the bottom of the frigidarium, together with blocks of tufa which had formed the ceiling.

Groups from the South Wiltshire Young Archaeologists’ Club and from Hardenhuish School have been out to help excavate the area at the end of the valley. It now seems almost certain that this was the building site where large quantities of mortar and plaster were produced for the bath-house, its predecessor and the villa. This is exciting – it is unusual to find evidence of a Roman building site.

We end the season with lots of new questions. What was the connection between the first Roman building, the bath-house and the villa on the top of the hill? How large was the first building, when was it built and what was it used for? These are the questions which we hope to investigate next year.

We have many people to thank at the end of our 2008 season. First of all Mr Antony Little who has so generously allowed us to investigate the site. We would also like to thank Wiltshire County Council Archaeology Service and North Wiltshire District Council Community Awards for helping to fund this project and last but not least, the many volunteers who have helped in the excavation.

Tufa: soft limestone rock which forms beside water saturated with carbonates. Tufa is still produced in streams nearby.

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Digging a Roman bath house - week two

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:22:40 +0000

The second week of excavation at Truckle Hill is, if anything, even more rewarding than the first. Some 3m away from the rear wall of the caldarium and running more or less parallel to it, is another wall, in remarkable condition. Interest turned to real excitement when careful trowelling revealed decorated plaster on the wall. This suggests an internal wall beyond what we had thought was the extent of the bath-house. The plaster is painted with a design of red and yellow, imitating exotic foreign marble, with a buff panel framed with black. Only a small section has been uncovered but it is likely that there is more, hidden beneath the soil.

Painted Roman wall plaster

Down the slope from the bath-house we are finding quantities of wall plaster, small fragments, many of them coloured. Pieces of stone roof tile, flue tile and the odd tessera all suggest that this is where building material was dumped when the bath-house was altered or demolished.

Some 100m from the bath-house, work continues on the mysterious mound further up the valley. There is a spring near here and last week it looked as if this might have been the site of a cistern, providing water for the bath-house. Now this seems less likely. Layers of mortar have been uncovered where the ground dips in the centre of the mound. Could this be where the mortar for building the bath-house was produced?

As so often happens, this excavation is not only answering old questions, but raising new, exciting ones as well.

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Digging a Roman bath house - week one

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:32:05 +0000

The trees are just beginning to change colour at Truckle Hill and it is the perfect setting for an excavation. This year nearly 40 volunteers have signed up to help investigate a Roman bath-house near the site of a villa discovered in the 19th century, close to the Wiltshire village of North Wraxall.

Work began here last year when English Heritage, Wiltshire County Council and Wessex Archaeology funded a community excavation to find out as much as possible about the building and to conserve it for the future.

Although we will only be here for a fortnight this time, most of last year's volunteers and many new ones have signed up to help. I visited the site at the end of the first week, on a lovely, autumn day, to find eight volunteers hard at work.

The first trench has been cut at right angles to the outside wall at the rear of the building, to locate the flue which would have fed hot air into the caldarium (hot room). After digging through quantities of sand, a small square was visible in the wall. Too small to be the flue, it looks at the moment like a putlog - a hole for securing scaffolding.

Inside the caldarium the curved wall was being exposed along with the base of an arch which once spanned that end of the room. One tessera gave a clue as to the floor surface, a suggestion borne out by finds from a trench further down the slope. Here, amongst the rubble of the fallen building were more tesserae and intriguing fragments of painted wall plaster.

Fragment of painted wall plaster, held by its disoverer

Some 100m away from the bath-house, also on the side of the valley, is an area of raised ground. It wasn't clear from an earlier geophysical survey whether this was a pile of rubble or something more interesting. Excavation has uncovered what looks like a collapsed wall here, but whether it's part of a boundary, a building or perhaps a water cistern we have yet to find out.

The collapsed wall during excavation. Is it part of a boundary, a building or perhaps a water cistern?

Find out more about the Roman bath house at Truckle Hill.

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Practical Archaeology Course 2008: Day Ten

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Today was our last day at Down Farm as, after five successful years, this will be our final year on this site. After a week’s training our participants are now confident and competent and needed little instruction from us. The site was quiet except for the rustling of records and the scratching of trowels as we pressed on with work on this Iron Age settlement site.

Over the past five years we have dug countless postholes, several pits, an enclosure ditch and numerous sections of enigmatic quarry hollows. This has revealed a wealth of information about the prehistoric residents of this site.

We now believe that we have found a small farmstead where a small group or even just one family lived for several generations. They farmed the land, built roundhouses and square ancillary buildings, quarried chalk and buried their waste. We’ve found evidence of activities that may have been rituals – a cow burial flanking the enclosure ditch and a human femur buried in a shallow pit – the meanings of which are now lost to time. All that remains of their lives are the traces preserved beneath our feet which our teams have painstakingly excavated in order to bring to life the prehistory of Down Farm.

The team from week two of the Practical Archaeology course 2008

Thanks

Wessex Archaeology would like to thank everyone who has dug with us, this year and over the previous four years, and everyone who has supported the project. We’d like to thank those that have given workshops and worked behind the scenes on post excavation and project management to make this a success. We’d also like to thank Martin Green, not only for letting us work on his land, but for the talks, tours, advice and good humour he has shown over the past five years.

The Wessex Archaeology Team.

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Practical Archaeology Course 2008: Day Nine

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0000

A package arrived at site last night. We opened it expecting to find essential site kit from Wessex HQ and were delighted to find instead a gift of sweets from Keith who came on the course last week. Keith, you are a star and we thank you!

The Wessex Archaeology team with their gift of sweets sent in by Week One participant, Keith

Buoyed by the sugar we spent the whole morning on site. Most people have now completed their first posthole and some are storming ahead and are working on their second, third and even fourth features. This is fantastic progress, especially since we lost nearly two hours dig time due to Tuesday's wet weather.

The information that we have gathered this year will help us to further understand the prehistory of Down Farm. By linking postholes with similar fills and dimensions we can infer which form structures with those around them. The site is complicated as it seems that Iron Age settlers built and renewed many structures on the site over hundreds of years. This has left complicated patterns of overlaid postholes dotted across the chalk and only the careful excavation conducted by our participants can unravel them.

Matt Leivers joined us in the afternoon to teach our team about prehistoric pottery. This is a popular workshop using real examples - both wonderful and nerve-racking to handle - which was captured on camera by Wessex Archaeology's top photographer Elaine Wakefield.

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Practical Archaeology Course 2008: Day Eight

t.goskar@wessexarch.co.uk (Wessex Archaeology) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:46:25 +0000

Despite a bruised sky and threatening clouds we managed to stay relatively dry today. The site, which we had to abandon last night due to the continuing rain, was little more than damp underfoot – ideal for excavation.

Today has been a day of visitors. Our first was a newt which had inexplicably crawled into our tea hut overnight – we think he might have been after the Jaffa Cakes. Later in the morning we were joined by Wessex Archaeology’s geophysicists Paul Baggaley and Ben Urmston. They conducted a survey of the unexcavated section of the settlement enclosure which is to the south of our site. This builds upon a smaller geophysical survey that was conducted last year and will help our understanding of the site as a whole.

A friendly newt visiting the site tea hut

At lunchtime we were joined by friend of the dig Margaret Melsom, who bought gifts of cakes (much appreciated!), and Jessica Grimm, Wessex Archaeology’s animal bone specialist. Jessica took our team through the basics of animal bone identification and for a short while our tea hut was transformed with jaw bones all over the place.

Recording a post hole

To finish the day we returned to site. A further eleven features have been excavated and recording continues on eight more. This is fantastic progress and we learn more every day about the prehistoric inhhabitants of Down Farm.

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