Monument Type(s):

• HUMAN REMAINS (Medieval to 21st century - 1066 AD? to 2099 AD?)
• WALL (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD?)

Summary

This site represents: a wall of probable medieval to post medieval date, human remains of probable medieval to post medieval date.

Related records

Associated Finds

• FSA479 - HUMAN REMAINS (Medieval to 21st century - 1066 AD to 2050 AD)

Associated Events

• ESA3574 - 1925-6 observation by H E Forrest at 24-26 Pride Hill, Shrewsbury

Description

Observations made by H E Forrest in 1925-6 when 24-26 Pride Hill was redeveloped for the (surviving) Morris & Co's building. The old buildings were removed right down to their foundations . A very thick wall of red sandstone was found 8 yards from the street at basement level. Forrest interpreted this in his TSAS note [<1>] as part of the Norman town wall following the Drinkwater hypothesis and earlier observations on this site by R E Davies (see below), from which it may be assumed that the wall ran approximately parallel to the street, though in an earlier account in the Chronicle s SN&Q column he had wondered if it was probably the rear wall of the original cellar, adding that it had a narrow passage cut obliquely across it [<5>]. About half-way between this and the later (i.e. real) town wall was a mass of masonry-possibly a third town wall said Forrest. He continues, when the men were clearing away the debris in the basement, they came across two human skeletons, lying side by side at full length [<1>], also about half-way between the two walls [<5>]. NJB noted from an interview with an elderly lady in 1987 a rumour current in the 1920s that the skeletons were not, as Forrest supposed, the remains of executed medieval felons, but recent murder victims [<4>]. R E Davies (as one of the Town Walls Committee of the C & SVFC) had visited these properties before the first world war, and noted what he interpreted as a third town wall, of Norman date, and a return, perpendicular to the street, in the later/outer wall [<2>]. These observations cannot be plotted, but seem most likely to be based on the presence of domestic stone cellars of various dates, particularly for buildings set back from the frontage, and retaining walls on the gradient, as well as (possibly) the known 13th-century town wall <3>

<01> Forrest H E, 1925/ 1926, Changes in Shrewsbury: Nos 2 and 3 Castle Street, pxxxvi (Article in serial). SSA10336.

<02> Davies R E, 1909/ 1912, Town Walls of Shrewsbury (Article in serial). SSA5571.

<03> Baker Nigel J et al, 1993, Further Work on Pride Hill, Shrewsbury, p41 (Article in serial). SSA4148.

<04> Baker Nigel J, 1988, The Archaeology of the Charles Darwin Centre, esp pp.21-23 (Archaeological fieldwork report). SSA4147.

<05> Forrest H E, 1926-Oct-29, Discoveries on Pride Hill (Article in serial). SSA10335.

<06> Baker Nigel J, 1987, Comment, 1987 (VERBAL COMMUNICATION). SSA11062.

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.