More information : SP33927904. An exploratory trench, 11.1m x 2.5m was cut across the
last section of city wall to be built,between 1450 and 1539.
The wall was rough faced, indicating that only those
features originally built below the ground level survive. It is of
sandstone and clay construction. The wall was apparently built on a
marl terrace. The ditch was not cut through bedrock in the normal
way, but rather formed by raising a bank against the town wall, and
an outer bank, thus forming the ditch by the removal of marl from
between the two banks. There may also have been a remnant outer
bank on a flood-plain soil which the later bank was thrown up on.
The reason for the unconventional method of ditch construction may
be that the ditch was flooded in times of crisis, as it is close to th
R. Sherbourne. Finds included large quantities of animal bone and
leather, and also wire from the wire industry.(1)
(Forms part of SP37NW48, Coventry city walls.) |