If you have any feedback or new information about this record, please email the Southampton HER (her@southampton.gov.uk).
Data derived from Heritage Gateway will not be acceptable for any use associated with development proposals and other planning matters.

For important guidance on the use of this record, please click here . © Southampton City Council

Summary

There is some evidence, although limited, for an earlier building on the site of Castle Vault. The vault was built in the late 12th century. The evidence comes from archaeological investigations in the Watergate Passage between 1973/4 and 1980 (part of SOU 116) and more detailed excavation and survey work on Castle Vault in 1991 (SOU 441).

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: None Recorded

Monument Type(s):

• CASTLE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1618 AD)
• BUILDING? (built/extant, Medieval - 1100 AD? to 1200 AD?)

Full description

See Parent Record MSH23 for a summary of the documentary and excavation evidence for Southampton Castle, a discussion of the development of the Castle derived largely from [1], and a full list of sources.

SOU 116 (part of) (watching brief on removal of fill of Watergate Passage after 1973/4, and excavation in 1980):
[7] & [6] in [1]: Phase 1A. A blocked doorway is visible in the north wall of the Watergate Passage. This wall is the south wall of Castle Vault, and the doorway would have come out in the top corner of the inside south wall of that building, however there is now no evidence of the doorway on the inside of the wall. However, the inside wall includes a possible truncated north-south wall (p25, plate 2), perhaps the remains of a continuation of the east wall of Castle Hall (the building south of the Watergate Passage). There may therefore have been another building north of the hall, destroyed when Castle Vault was built. The doorway would have provided access to that building.

SOU 441 (Excavation and Survey at Castle Vault, Cement Terrace in 1991):
[2] (see also [3][4][5]): Two trenches were excavated prior to conservation work. Trench 1 was dug in Cement Terrace, through deposits overlying the south end of the vault roof. Trench 2 was excavated inside the vault adjacent to the south wall, to investigate the footings of the south, east and west walls. The internal and external elevations of the south wall of Castle Vault were drawn, in order to compare features on the two faces. Two profiles were produced through the vault and Cement Terrace by theodolite survey.
The following results were obtained. The results suggest a reinterpretation of the evidence presented in earlier source [6] (discussed in [2]).
- From Trench 2, evidence that the south wall of Castle Vault is butted by the rest of the vault, and is therefore an earlier structure. The south wall also forms the north wall of the Watergate passage, and it is suggested that the wall may be part of the first phase of the Watergate, built in the early-to-mid 12th century date. The south wall was investigated in detail. In [6] it was suggested that the remains of a truncated N-S wall is present in this wall, though he doesn’t make it clear which part of the wall he is writing about. No evidence for such a wall was excavated in Trench 2. Two areas of blocking were identified in the north face of this wall, and one on the south face. One of these may have been a window, one perhaps a door, although another possible interpretation for the latter is suggested. (See pages 6, 7 and 10 for full details.)
- From Trench 1 above the vault, evidence that Castle Vault was built after the west curtain wall of the castle, although other interpretations are possible.

SCC HER: In [6] it is suggested there had been an earlier building on the site of Castle Vault, based on a “truncated wall” identified in the south wall of the vault. This “truncated wall” appears to be further west than the line of the east wall of Castle Vault, with the doorway mentioned in [6] being to the east of this – so outside the possible building. The SOU 441 survey and excavation [2] suggests a completely different interpretion of the south wall, although does not rule out the possibility of an earlier building, perhaps one built inside an existing castle curtain wall. The need for a north wall to the Watergate Passage perhaps implies there was a building here, and the possible blocked window in that wall may be evidence for a building.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESH116 - Investigations at the Castle Hall and Watergate Passage between 1974 and 1983 (Ref: SOU 116)
• ESH1538 - Survey at Castle Vault in 1991 (Ref: SOU 441)
• ESH441 - Excavation at Castle Vault, Cement Terrace in 1991 (Ref: SOU 441)

Related records

Associated Links: None recorded

If you have any feedback or new information about this record, please email the Southampton HER (her@southampton.gov.uk).

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