On-Site Archaeology
The succession of deposits, in stratigraphic sequence, were as follows;
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1000 |
Layer: Pale grey concrete. Yard surface. Level on top of deposit 11.98m AOD. |
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1001 |
Layer: Red brick and tile in a loose mid brown sand and silt matrix. Levelling layer for yard surface. Level on top of deposit 11.94m AOD. |
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1002 |
Drain in brick rubble and loose dark brown sand/silt matrix. Level on top of deposit 11.88m AOD. |
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1003 |
Cut: cut for drain. Level on base of cut 11.70m AOD. |
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1004 |
Fill: Friable dark grey/brown gritty sandy silt. Moderately occurring small charcoal, mortar, tile and brick fragments. Occasional pea grit and small rounded pebbles. Large worked rectangular and sub angular limestone blocks with large lumps of limestone mortar. These occurred mainly towards the bottom of the context. Level on top of deposit 11.90m AOD. |
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1005 |
Cut: Steep sided cut apparent in east facing section. Sides are almost vertical at the top of the cut but become more gradual towards bottom of section. |
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1006 |
Layer: Loose light yellow - cream mortar. Occasional pea grit and small brick/tile fragments Mortar levelling layer. Level on top of deposit 11.88m AOD. |
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1007 |
Layer: Friable, highly lensed deposit of pale, mid and dark grey; cream and pale and mid brown sandy silt. Moderately occurring small fragments of brick, tile, charcoal, mortar and shell. Ash and refuse dumps. Level on top of deposit 11.81m AOD. |
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1008 |
Fill: Loose pale brown silty sand with moderately occurring inclusions of small and medium tile fragments. Occasional small limestone mortar fragments and small rounded pebbles. Fill of cut [1009]. Level on top of deposit 11.50m AOD. |
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1009 |
Cut: Broad, shallow cut appearing in the North facing section of trench. Sharp break of slope at top with moderately sloping edges of about 40°. Quite a gradual break of slope to the base which is slightly concave 0.55m wide and 0.27m deep. Level on base of cut 11.17m AOD. |
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1010 |
Layer: Friable, dark greyish brown gritty sandy silt. Moderately occurring small, medium and large brick fragments. Occasional medium rounded and sub-rounded pebbles; small mortar and sandstone fragments; occasional charcoal flecks. Numerous lenses of mid yellow/brown soft sand and mortar rubble. Occasional discrete patches of broken tile and brick. Numerous pot sherds and animal bone and shell fragments. Level on top of deposit 11.52m AOD. |
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1011 |
Masonry: modern brick wall. |
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1012 |
Masonry: Limestone blocks with one ceramic building material (CBM) leveller in the 2nd course down |
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1013 |
Masonry: Limestone blocks with occasional CBM. levellers. Average size of materials 0.33 x 0.20m, 0.18 x 0.21m, 0.26 x 0.15m. Bonding material: gritty sandy mortar. 5 courses, partial rendering/plaster. |
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1014 |
Masonry: Limestone blocks, average size of materials 0.20 x 0.13m, 0.21x0.15, 0.31 x 0.18m. Bonding material: lime mortar with grit and sand inclusions. |
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1015 |
Masonry: Limestone blocks |
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1016 |
Masonry: Limestone blocks |
Contexts [1000], [1001] and [1006] represent modern yard surfacing and associated levelling layers (see Figure 4).
Contexts [1002] and [1003] represent modern intrusions (drain).
Contexts [1007] - [1010] represent post medieval (and possibly late medieval) occupation dumps, containing animal bone and shell fragments along with pottery sherds, the majority of which appeared to be post medieval. Some however may be of late medieval date.
Contexts [1004] and [1005] represent the collapse and cut of part of the medieval wall, respectively (see Figure 4). Parts of dump layers [1007] and [1010] have been extracted, it seems to accommodate the material from the wall collapse. The cut is clearly visible in the east facing section (Figure 4). The collapse appears to have occurred fairly recently as a number of modern brick and tile fragments where found to be visible along side the large worked limestone blocks of the medieval wall.
Context [1011] is the modern brick built wall which stands on top of the medieval wall.
Contexts [1012] - [1016] represent the various offset courses of the medieval wall. Although a number of different courses were apparent, no phasing of the wall was evident (see Figure 3 and Plate 1).
All the deposits excavated to the depth of 2.00m were found to be butting the medieval wall. They therefore bore no direct stratigraphical relationship to the wall and clearly post date it. No deposits contemporary with the wall were encountered.
This trench revealed modern dump layers, modern wall footings and a Victorian drain, these were recorded photographically (see Plate 2). All the material removed was of modern/early modern date, and no deposits or features of any archaeological significance were uncovered.