Monument Type(s):

• SETTLEMENT (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)

Summary

One of Shrewsbury's five medieval suburbs, which probably dates from the Norman period and which may have originated as an extramural (?free) trading area around the river quays which remained at the heart of the suburb until relatively recently.

Related records

Associated Finds

• FSA2081 - MAMMAL REMAINS (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)

Associated Events

• ESA2012 - 1993 evaluation of proposed flood alleviation scheme at Frankwell and Greyfriars by Giffords
• ESA4628 - 1994 WB on geotechnical trial pits for proposed flood alleviation scheme at Frankwell
• ESA4789 - 2000 Desk Based Assessment of Frankwell Quay by Nigel Baker
• ESA5381 - 2002 evaluation of the Water Lane pumping station site (Frankwell Flood Alleviation Scheme) by Marches Archaeology (Ref: FFA 02B)
• ESA5879 - 2003 assessment of Builder's Yard, Frankwell Quay
• ESA6071 - 2006 WB at Nettles Lane, Frankwell, Shrewsbury by Border Archaeology
• ESA6072 - 2005 WB at Nettles Lane, Frankwell, Shrewsbury by Marches Archaeology
• ESA6932 - 2013 Evatuation trial trench on land to rear of 87 Frankwell, Shrewsbury by Castlering Archaeology
• ESA7370 - 2015 Watching brief to rear of 7/8 New Street, Frankwell by Castlering Archaeology (Ref: 14/04673/FUL)
• ESA7775 - 2015 WB on land to the N of Nettles Lane, Frankwell by SLR Consulting

Description

Frankwell is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, but it is mentioned, as Frankevile, later in the medieval period. The name means French (trading) settlement and perhaps indicates an origin for the suburb as a free trading settlement of early Norman origin, outside the jurisdiction of Town and Castle [<2>] (although 45 burgesses with French personal names are listed in Shrewsbury in 1086, there is no direct evidence that they were concentrated in Frankwell). Waterfront activity here therefore probably began in the early Norman period. The earliest (16th century) maps indicate that the main built up area lay along the street running north and west from the old Welsh Bridge and Frankwell Quay. <1>

An analysis of the property boundaries in the Frankwell area, especially the Frankwell Quay area, appeared to show many occurrences of the reverse S curve indicative of an origin in medieval field systems. This pattern appeared to extend north of Frankwell Street. Moreover, in the excavated test pits, considerable continuity of property boundaries was observed, in the form of successive property walls directly overlying each other. <3>

The area mapped on the SMR GIS is largely based on Rocque's 18th century map [<4>], Foxall's field name map [<5>] and a map of medieval Shrewsbury by N Baker [<6>]. <7>

Possibly a deliberate planting of Norman immigrants for the purposes of strengthening Norman control over the town? <8>

As [<8>], argues that Frankwell was a deliberate planting, mainly to control the townspeople rather than protect them from the Welsh. Initially, the suburb would have been accessed by a ford at the end of Water Lane [PRN 62572], which is thought to have been the main road out of Shrewsbury in this direction in the late Saxon period. But a bridge may have been in existence by 1160 [see PRN 01471]. Water Lane still appears as an obvious route down to the river on the Speed map of 1610 [<10>], on which it appears to be walled on both sides. The main street from the bridge into Frankwell was known as Cripplelode, probably a reference to the almshouses [PRN 01470] at the bottom of the street. It was renamed Bridge Street around the time of the construction of the existing Welsh Bridge [PRN 10002] (in 1796). ->

-> The full extent of the suburb is unknown, but in late 16th century and early 17th century maps [<10><11>] show the main settlement lying to the north west of the bridge away from the river, with the area of ground around the end of the bridge lying open. This area may have been maintained for defensive purposes. The river quays [see PRN 04696], also shown on these maps, were very important as in the medieval period, as the River Severn was navigable downstream to Bristol and upstream as far as Pool Quay. In addition, there are numerous medieval documentary references to the leather industry in Frankwell, and it appears that by about 1300 almost all of the Shrewsbury tanners and a good number of the town's dyers were concentrated close to the river in Frankwell. <9>

Watching brief at former car park site at Nettles Lane, Frankwell, Shrewsbury during redevelopment revealed a series of heavily truncated brick walls and ceramic drains which were probably associated with mid to late 19th century tenement housing that occupied the area to the rear of Frankwell street frontage that were demolished in the 1960s to make way for Nettles Lane and the car park. During the topsoil strip and also the foundation trench excavation, a small quantity of ceramic building material, pottery and clay pipe fragments of a 19th century date were identified on the site. <12>

A further watching brief in Nettles Lane in 2006 did not confirm existence of in situ medieval remains at the rear of burgage plots associated with the street Frankwell. Post medieval deposits of brick rubble and pottery as well as the intact post medieval remains of an access to a probable cellar were revealed at the edge of the site. Areas of medieval cultivated soil, occasionally cut by post medieval pits and postholes confirms conclusions reached from the cartographic evidence that most of the area remained as open ground throughout the post medieval period prior until its incorporation into the court house gardens. <13>

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 2013 on the land to the rear of 87 Frankwell, Shrewsbury. The evaluation showed that previously unrecorded archaeological features can be located well below ground level on the site, although well-masked by post medieval / modern deposits. The most interesting feature recorded was the large possibly circular or sub-circular feature that extended from the east side of the trench. The feature was difficult to interpret satisfactorily or to date with certainty. The upper cut of the feature was indistinct and although the feature was excavated to a depth of 1.82m below ground level, it was not bottomed. Five sherds of ceramic material with a broad dating range from 11th to mid-16th century recovered from the fill provide interesting dating evidence for the infilling of the feature. No undisturbed natural was recorded in the trench and deep deposits have clearly built up in the post-medieval period. The paucity of 17th / 18th century ceramic material, particularly the more common slipware, suggests a gap in activity on the site from the medieval / late medieval period until modern times. The deep subsoil was devoid of ceramic material and the majority of post-medieval material was recovered from modern rubbish pits and the levelled topsoil recorded during the evaluation.->

->The extent of medieval occupation in the area of Frankwell is to date unknown. While archaeological evidence has been gained from the riverside, particularly in excavations for the new theatre, there has been little opportunity to test the archaeology elsewhere within the suburb. The evaluation has demonstrated that medieval activity was not confined to the riverside and the main streets extending from it and there would appear to be a high potential for undisturbed buried archaeological deposits elsewhere within the suburb. <14>

The feature described in <14> probably represents a quarry pit. <15>

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken to the rear of Nos 7 & 8 New Street, Frankwell, Shrewsbury, SY3 8JN (SJ 4872 1289). The proposed development site lay within the historic core of the medieval suburb of Frankwell, within a group of tenement plots that were likely to have medieval origins. The watching brief demonstrated that this site had been extensively disturbed in the past. The excavations exposed the foundations of the brick wall of pre-1838 date that once formed a rear property boundary, together with a c.1930s ceramic pipe which carried the foul sewer system, all buried within a deep deposit of demolition material. Other than the foundation of the wall, no archaeological evidence was recovered and the depth and nature of the demolition material bear testament to the changes that have taken place over the past 200 years or so. <16>

A programme of evaluation and excavation was undertaken on the site of a proposed pumping station, adjacent to Water Lane to the south of the medieval suburb. This recorded extensive waterlogged deposits. These sediments overlay apparently sterile riverbed gravel. It was considered possible that early medieval or Saxon occupation levels might exist below that gravel. Subsequent excavation proved this not to be the case, or at least, not at this exact location. Instead, it seems that the site was scoured clean of sediments down to ancient natural gravel at some time in the 13th or 14th centuries. This erosion event was undoubtedly caused by severe flooding and probably coincided with a known deterioration in climate sliding from a warm dry zenith at c. 1250 AD to a cold wet nadir at c. 1400 AD. The scouring was followed by the deposition of another sequence of medieval riverlain deposits, nearly all waterlogged, at depths below 3.5m (from the pre-2002 ground surface). ->

-> Cartographic evidence seems to indicate that the site was rough ground on the river bank from at least 1575 until c. 1730 when it was absorbed into a garden. From about this date onwards, the area was subjected to various landfill dumping, probably largely comprising refuse until the existing ground surface was created sometime shortly before 1900. ->

-> The medieval water front lies somewhere along the length of Water Lane. If the findings of the excavation are representative of a wider area, then the medieval waterfront probably lies at 2m (or slightly more) below Water Lane. The volatile nature of river currents can often be fairly localised and earlier deposits may exist closer to the early medieval or Saxon river bank, wherever that might be. ->

-> During the evaluation and excavation, cattle horns were recovered in enormous quantities, especially from the medieval contexts on site. If the limited excavated area is indicative of the wider river frontage, then there must be many tons of cattle horn lying in the river medieval mud deposits along the Frankwell shoreline. This evidence would seem to corroborate the documented leather industry in Frankwell, with the use of horncores in the tanning process. <17>

A watching brief was carried out on a soil stripping exercise ahead of development of a plot on Nettles Lane in 2015 that was identified as having being used in the medieval period, as part of the suburb of Frankwell. Only deposits associated with 19th and 20th century brick built structures were identified, with later development having cleared this site of any medieval deposits. <18>

<01> Gifford and Partners Ltd, 1994, Report on an archaeological evaluation ... proposed Shrewsbury Flood Alleviation Scheme (Excavation report). SSA5615.

<02> Hobbs J L, 1954, Street Names of Shrewsbury (Monograph). SSA365.

<03> Gifford and Partners Ltd, 1994, Archaeological Watching Brief ... Proposed Shrewsbury Flood Alleviation Scheme, p1,p15 (Watching brief report). SSA5616.

<04> Rocque J, 1746, Rocque's Plan of Shrewsbury (Map). SSA5727.

<05> Foxall H D G, 1982, Field name map for St Chad, Shrewsbury, Frankwell township (Map). SSA22012.

<06> Baker Nigel J (ed), 2002, Shrewsbury Abbey: Studies in the Archaeology of an Urban Monastery, Fig 4 (Monograph). SSA10481.

<07> Gathercole E Clare, 1999/ 2002, Comments by SMR compiler in SMR database, 30/07/2004 (SMR comment). SSA20725.

<08> Nash A F, 2004, Land at the rear of 60 Mardol, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: a report on a watching brief (Watching brief report). SSA21615.

<09> Appleton-Fox Nic, 2003, Builders Yard, Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: report on an archaeological assessment (Deskbased survey report). SSA22109.

<10> Speed J, 1610, Speed's Plan of Shrewsbury (Map). SSA5574.

<11> Burghley (for Burghley, by ?Symonds J), 1575, The Burghley Map of Shrewsbury (Map). SSA5543.

<12> Hancox N & Priestley S, 2006, Archaeological Observation: New Autotyres Depot, Nettles Lane, Frankwell, Shrewsbury (Watching brief report). SSA22675.

<13> Wykes R, 2006, Nettles Lane, Frankwell, Shrewsbury: Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief (Watching brief report). SSA22677.

<14> Frost Pat, 2013, Land to rear of 87 Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: archaeological evaluation (Excavation report). SSA24407.

<15> Carey Giles, 2014 onwards, Comments by Giles Carey, HER compiler in HER database, 18/09/2014 (SMR comment). SSA26784.

<16> Frost Pat, 2015, Rear extension to 7 & 8 New Street, Frankwell, Shrewsbury: archaeological watching brief (Watching brief report). SSA27399.

<17> Tavener Nick, 2002, The new pumping station, Frankwell Flood Alleviation Scheme, Water Lane, Frankwell, Shrewsbury: report on an archaeological evaluation and excavation (Excavation report). SSA21265.

<18> SLR Consulting Ltd, 2015, Nettles Lane, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: archaeological watching brief (Watching brief report). SSA28556.

Sources

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