Excavation Areas 2004

Quick Links: Introduction | Area A | Area B | Area C

Work in Area B has steadily gathered pace throughout the project. For this year the trench has been extended yet further and more exciting finds are hoping to be uncovered over the coming months.

For more information on what happened last year you can still read the archived information on what happened in 2004.

9th August 2005

On this photograph [above] of trench B you can see:

• A possible early property boundary shown on maps of the area drawn in the 17th - 18th century.
• An 18th century building a small stone-founded building occupied the western half the excavation area. This has now been largely removed and only the stone built cellar B still remains. Three of the four cellar walls had been built with an alcove presumably to house a lantern or an oil lamp to provide light while people were working in the cellar.
• A series of curving trenches excavated to the north of the cellar which probably represents part of a planting scheme to a formal garden dating to the 16th or 17th century. These formal gardens were layed out on top of demolition rubble belonging to an earlier group of buildings. We currently think that this dramatic change to the sites appearance was brought about by the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-16th century.

In the photograph [above] of the trench extension at the western end of trench B you can see a substantial stone wall foundation has been uncovered, indicating a wall 5ft thick. This is associated with the cobbled surface and is thought to be part of the medieval monastic precinct that once surrounded Saint John’s Church.

25th July 2005

The eastern end of the excavation appears to have been truncated at some point in the past as there is a stratigraphic jump between 18th century garden soils and deposits which are producing exclusively Roman material. The centre of the trench is occupied by a substantial sandstone wall foundation that is on a unique alignment which does not respect either the walls of the amphitheatre or the general arrangement of St. John’s church. The date and function of this wall will be established by further excavation this year.

The 17th Century Building

A small stone-founded building was found to occupy the western half of the excavation in area B. The walls of this building suggested that it had been divided in to three living areas/rooms one of which contained the base to a small fireplace/hearth. The largest room lay directly above a stone built cellar which was accessed via a stone and brick flight of stairs. Three of the four cellar walls had been built with an alcove presumably to house a lantern or an oil lamp to provide light while people were working in the cellar.

The building must have fronted on to Little St. John Street though no evidence for a threshold was found. To the rear of the building there were a series of lazy-beds thought to have been for the cultivation of a specialist crop such as liquorice. To the east of the building there were several shallow pits, one of which appeared to contain a fragment from the base of a lead lined coffin – along with several fragments of human bone recovered from the area the possibility that there are human burials on the site still remains.

Area B has been extended to the west this year in the hope that we will uncover part of the buried section of the arena wall. Thus establishing it’s place in the construction sequence of the amphitheatre.