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ARCHAEOLOGY SERVICE - Hot
off the Spade - Spring 2002
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| A lengthy watching brief
on excavations for columns and ducting for the latest extension of
the CCTV network has produced interesting results in a number of places.
Perhaps the most important was the identification of the foundations
of the medieval postern gate in St Nicholas Street (the Gaol Gate
or Trinity Gate), lying immediately below the pavement. Remains from
the Roman to post-medieval periods have been recorded elsewhere in
the city. Foundation excavations at Kings' St Albans in Mill Street may have encountered the Civil War ditch which has been seen in previous work. A watching brief during large-scale alterations at the former Red Lion, Sidbury, recorded evidence of the timber-framed building which suggested that it dates to the later 16th century, with a wing at the rear which is possibly earlier, and is therefore a rare suburban survivor of the Civil War. There are deep deposits including medieval pits in the backplot. Roman deposits were reached in a small excavation for a new stairway at Tramps night-club, Angel Place, and in Severn Trent water-main works in Sidbury. Two more extensive pieces of work have been carried out by the Worcestershire Archaeological Service. At 15/19 Fish St, a watching brief on foundations for a new apartment block has recorded important medieval remains. Part of this project comprised a small excavation to recover environmental samples from layers which had been recognised in earlier work at the site. Preliminary analysis has shown that the preservation of organic remains is exceptional, even including such materials as animal hair. At Tallow Hill, excavation and documentary research on an area of mid 19th century housing has started to throw light on the lives of Worcester's poorest inhabitants in the mid-Victorian era. There have been field evaluations at the site of the proposed Tesco supermarket development (Christopher Whitehead School, St Johns; by Wessex Archaeology), and at the Studdert Kennedy Centre, City Walls Road (by the Field Archaeology Unit, University of Birmingham). Neither produced dramatic results, though there is potential for important archaeological remains to survive at both sites. The chance to do underwater archaeology is rare in Worcester. However, the canal pound upstream of the Sidbury lock was recently drained for a short time for maintenance work. One area of the canal bed was relatively clear of silt, and several stone walls and foundations could clearly be seen. It seems likely that these relate to the Commandery, and that they represent buildings in an area just outside the city ditch which was taken for canal construction in the early 19th century. And finally... Two of Worcester High Street's medieval survivals can now be viewed at leisure by the public. Keystones cafe-bar, below Marmion House, at the top end of Copenhagen Street, has as its centrepiece the remaining part of a medieval stone vaulted undercroft, the only one still to be seen in the city. Sadly most of the medieval building was swept away in the early 1960s, leaving just one bay intact. There is more detail on the history of this site (once known as the 'Earl's Post') on the City Museum website - click here. On the other side of the street, a new branch of Coffee Republic has recently opened in the former Golden Lion, a pub which closed around 1980 and has since been in shop use. This is a very important survival of a timber-framed 15th century merchant's house, concealed behind a Georgian facade. |
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