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ARCHAEOLOGY SERVICE - Hot
off the Spade - Autumn 2002
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Latest Archaeological News from Worcester CityA very large number of field projects have taken place in the city over the last six months, including evaluation, watching briefs, building recording and small scale excavation. Field evaluation of a housing development site in the backplots of 31 and 33 Friar Street was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeological Trust. The medieval city wall forms the eastern boundary of the site. Over much of the site, Roman and medieval deposits are deeply buried. Closer to Friar Street, the remains are much closer to the surface, as on the adjacent cinema site. The area seems to have had a history of land reclamation from the Roman period onwards, with dumping of sand and gravel to stabilise the ground on the edge of the Frog Brook marshland. It is tempting to link the first phases of this with use of spoil from the excavation of the massive late Roman defensive ditches found by Philip Barker on the other site of Friar Street in the 1960s. Medieval postholes and pits were found. One of the pits had a clay lining, partly burnt, and probably had an industrial use; a smithing hearth bottom was found close by. An extensive watching brief has been maintained by Mike Napthan Archaeology on development at the King's School. This has included a detailed record of a medieval wall at Castle House, College Green, which is thought to be part of a large 12th century building associated with the castle. A detailed record has also been made of parts of the monastic precinct wall, and part was also revealed by excavation. The excavation of tree holes within the castle bailey area encountered castle period deposits as well as the robbed foundations of the post-medieval prison. Evaluation at 36 Lowesmoor, in advance of a housing scheme, revealed that this site had been heavily disturbed, probably by post-medieval sand extraction. At 29 Lowesmoor, however, a number of medieval pits were found. On another suburban site (39 The Tything), excavation of a small trench produced evidence of a medieval ditch, dated by pottery to the 14th century, and recut later in the medieval period. It was at least 1.8m deep, and perhaps 4 or 5m wide. As well as Roman and medieval finds, part of a 17th century saggar indicates that pottery making was undertaken in this area at that time. Work at all three sites was by Mike Napthan Archaeology. At another pottery production site, the Hadley works in Diglis Road, field evaluation and a subsequent watching brief by Archenfield Archaeology suggested that remains of the factory, which operated from 1896 to 1905, had been comprehensively destroyed by later activity. Field evaluation at the Lowesmoor Trading Estate (BUFAU), where a major development (largely retail) is proposed, has produced results including well preserved structural remains of the 19th century Grainger porcelain works; work on another part of the Grainger site was reported in The Recorder no 63. Preliminary recording work on the buildings of the Hill, Evans vinegar works and other surviving buildings in the area has been carried out (Nick Joyce Associates). A record has also been made of industrial buildings in the Diglis area, associated with the canal basins (Archaeological Investigations Ltd). Disarticulated fragments of human bone have been frequent finds in the area of the 17th-18th century burial ground at Angel Place (occupied now by the 1920 Fruit and Vegetable Market building, also known as Angel Mall). Ground investigations here were watched by Cotswold Archaeological Trust, and for the first time articulated burials were found. These are only 0.85m below ground level. As a result, groundworks associated with refurbishment have been limited in depth, and the burials remain in situ. Burials were also excavated at the 19th century Tallow Hill burial ground, as part of a watching brief on car park and road construction (Worcestershire Archaeological Service). Most of the burials here have been left in situ below the new construction, but two vaults were so close to the surface that it was decided to empty them. We are now into the last few weeks of work on the Urban Archaeological Database project. Information on all of the major monuments and excavations has now been added to the database, and the remaining data collection is concentrating on smaller watching briefs and building recording work. The database is now linked to the City's Geographic Information System so that searches can be carried out from the map base. Surface levels have also been collected as the first stage of creating a 'deposit model' - a 3-dimensional representation of the current and past topography of the city centre. Worcester City Council is now discussing the assessment and strategy phases of the project with English Heritage. We are also considering ways of making the database and its contents more accessible. |
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