Monument Type(s):

• SETTLEMENT (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)
• PRIVY HOUSE? (16th century to 17th century - 1500 AD to 1699 AD)

Summary

A red sandstone building of late medieval/early post medieval date was recorded during a watching brief on the Shropshire Archive site. Associated features indicate occupation of the lower slopes behind Castle Street at the end of the medieval period.

Related records

Associated Finds

• FSA542 - TILE (Medieval to Early 20th century (pre-war) - 1066 AD to 1913 AD)
• FSA364 - VESSEL (Medieval to Early 20th century (pre-war) - 1066 AD to 1913 AD)

Associated Events

• ESA3750 - 1993-1995 WB on construction of Shropshire Records and Research Centre by SCCAS

Description

A rectangular structure, excavated on the Shropshire Records and Research Centre (Shropshire Archives) site, built of red sandstone, 3.2m wide externally, 1.8m internally. Three sides were revealed, 2-5 courses high, the highest surviving wall having a top course of Grinshill stone. The latter was faced on the outside, the courses below being unfaced and within a foundation cut, giving a contemporary exterior ground level of c.52.50m; the internal walls were faced with ashlar blocks up to 0.7 x 0.3m: it had been partly-subterranean. It had a clay floor, which contained 'a few sherds of fourteenth-century pottery and late medieval ceramic rooftile'. It encroached on the fills of the town ditch [PRN 62518], and appeared to be of late medieval or early post-medieval date. The structure had been backfilled with demolition rubble of red sandstone fragments, mortar, ceramic and Grinshill sandstone roof slates (?), and late 17th-early 18th-century pottery. Its function is uncertain, though the suggestion was made that it may have been something to do with a privy belonging to the early years of the Grammar School, the site being known at one time as the 'Privy Field' (ref. T. Carr, SRRC) [<1><2><3>].<4>

A number of other medieval features were recorded on this site, associated with this red sandstone structure. A length of wall, robber trench and post holes to the NE, possibly including a cess pit, indicated occupation of the lower slopes behind Castle Street at the end of the medieval period. <1>

<01> Hannaford Hugh R, 1995, A Watching Brief at the New Records and Research Centre, Shrewsbury (Watching brief report). SSA4152.

<02> Hannaford Hugh R, 1993, Shrewsbury, Raven Meadows (Article in serial). SSA10426.

<03> Hannaford Hugh R, 1994, Shrewsbury: Raven Meadows, p1 (Article in serial). SSA10427.

<04> Baker Nigel J, UAD Analysis (SMR comment). SSA20432.

Sources

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