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Summary

High medieval, late medieval and post-medieval features and deposits, found during an archaeological excavation at York Buildings/Bargate Centre in 1986 (SOU 175 Trench 7).

Protected Status: None recorded

Other Statuses/Codes: None Recorded

Monument Type(s):

• GULLY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1350 AD)
• PATH (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1350 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1350 AD)
• SITE LAYER (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1350 AD)
• TIMBER FRAMED BUILDING (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1350 AD)
• DITCH? (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• DITCH? (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1539 AD)
• GULLY (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• IRON WORKING SITE? (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• SITE LAYER (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• STAKE HOLE (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• YARD (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1350 AD)
• DITCH? (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• IRON WORKING SITE (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• POST HOLE (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• SITE LAYER (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• STRUCTURE? (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• YARD (Medieval - 1350 AD to 1539 AD)
• DEMOLITION DEBRIS (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1750 AD)
• PIT (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1750 AD)
• SITE LAYER (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1750 AD)
• WALL (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• WALL? (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1750 AD)
• CESS PIT (Post Medieval - 1750 AD to 1900 AD)
• DYE WORKS (Post Medieval - 1750 AD to 1900 AD)
• WALL (Post Medieval - 1750 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

SOU 175 Trench 7 (excavations at York Buildings/Bargate Centre in 1986):
[1]: INTERIM REPORT on SOU 175 excavations. TRENCH 7

Early / High Medieval:
- Gravelled E/W path, c1m wide. It crossed the entire southern part of the trench, and was at least 14m long. The path overlay the early medieval structural features (see MSH1105) and was cut by early/high medieval features. It produced a small amount of late medieval pottery, so it may have continued in use.
- Structure A. A probable E/W construction trench was found to the north of path, divided into three parts by the cuts of later pits. The eastern end was a narrow, steep-sided trench with two surviving post-settings, and three short rectangular trenches continued the alignment to the west. Two gaps, each about a metre wide, may be south-facing doorways. The proposed wall is c12m long. One context produced high medieval pottery: the rest of the pottery was early medieval.
The trench was recorded in places as cutting the path, although elsewhere the gravel overlapped the fill of the construction trench, and then stopped abruptly, as if butting against a standing wall in the trench. The trench probably pre-dated the path, but was perhaps still standing when the path was laid down. Another possibility is that the trench was recut as a narrower trench along the same alignment after gravel 1807 had been laid down.
- ?Structure B. A curved, parallel-sided gully or ditch cut the southern edge of the path. It was probably not a construction trench, as there were no signs of post or plank settings, or of a beam, and the trench was distinctly curved. Several fills produced early medieval spot-dates.
- Structure C. Narrow gully, possibly an eaves-drip, which is cut by a possible posthole.
- At least 5 pits, some of them small.
- A brickearth layer and other layers.

High Medieval:
- LAYER. A thick soil deposit accumulated across the whole of the excavated area. It sealed the early medieval pits, and was itself cut by the high medieval pits. It was up to 0.27m thick, and its lower boundary was very flat and even. Its upper boundary is probably affected by later disturbance. The pottery was overwhelmingly high medieval, with a few possibly intrusive late medieval sherds, and one area badly contaminated with post medieval and early modern pottery.
- DITCH? A linear feature was found running E/W along the extreme south side of the trench. It lay largely outside the trench so its depth and width are unknown. It was probably a drainage ditch along a property boundary. One sherd of post medieval pottery has been dismissed as intrusive.
- Another feature noted cutting the ?ditch may have been a ditch recut or a pit.
- Miscellaneous layers:
- Structural features were a possible posthole, a shallow hollow and associated stakehole, and other stakeholes.
- YARD AREA at the western end of the trench, in the back yard area of No 4 High Street. Two surfaces were present.
---- YARD SURFACE A. The first of a long sequence of gravel layers was deposited, overlying the thick high medieval soil layer (above). The first gravel layer was the least extensive. On its south edge a number of large flat stones were deposited, including a large fragment of quern. The gravel was bounded by two gullies. The southernmost gully was only a few centimetres wide, and appeared to be a drip or erosion gully. The northern one might have been a deliberate cut. A number of stakeholes were found along the edge of the gravel layers, in possible alignment. The excavator viewed these as evidence for a rough roofed structure. There are "linear depressions" in the exposed surface of the earlier soil layer, either side of the first gravel layer, but particularly to the south. These were probably caused by erosion from water run-off and from wear and tear. This is interpreted as the first phase of the use of this area for metal-working, the depressions and gullies north and south of the gravel layer being water erosion from probable metalworking activity.
---- YARD SURFACE B. The second yard surface was more extensive. To the south the edge of the gravel slightly overlaps the Surface A, running down the edge of the gully and overlying the gullies and stakeholes. On the north, however, this second gravel runs up to the trench edge, sealing the ?drip gully on the north. The pottery is largely high medieval, but contains 2 occurrences of late medieval, and a possible post-medieval sherd. Since the post-medieval is clearly intrusive, the late medieval may also be. Another gully was "cut" to the south of this gravel surface, on the line of and partially removing the earlier southern gully; again, this gully may have been caused by drainage erosion. Down the centre of the gully an alignment of large tapered triangular stakeholes was driven in. These were all void when excavated, and were probably trimmed prior to the deposition of the next yard surface (see late medieval, below.)
---- PITS. A total of 24 high medieval pits were found (details in report). One was a square rubbish pit, lined with unmortared limestone, mainly undressed rubble; this pit was presumably cleaned out for some centuries, and was backfilled for the last time in the post-medieval period (see post-medieval, below).

High medieval/ late medieval:
- DITCH? This feature was excavated in two places, and interpreted as two pits, however observations during the later machining of this little-excavated corner of T7 suggested that that there was a NW/SE ditch here. The feature had a burnt clay layer at the base. There is more late medieval than high medieval pottery, however the feature was possibly recut so has been assigned to the high/late medieval period. If it was a ditch, it didn't run along the inferred property boundary, and it wasn’t noted south of the property boundary which ran E/W across T7. It may have marked a sub-division in the back part of the No 4 High Street property, or it may have been a rectangular feature.
- PITS. Three small pits.

Late medieval:
- YARD AREA. In the area of the high medieval YARD SURFACES A and B the gully was filled up in the late medieval period, around the stakes from the earlier phase. It seems likely that the stakes were then trimmed, and overall silting occurred. Localised layers were deposited. A probable posthole cuts one of these layers.
- This stage in the stratigraphy represents an horizon at which many contexts were visible in plan during the excavation, some earlier than the gully 1751 and some later. Many of the gravel layers showed signs of wear. This horizon seems to represent a period of use of the high medieval surface before the resumption of gravelling in the late medieval period.
---- YARD SURFACE C. The third surfacing of the yard area was an uneven layer of cobbles, patched in some places with gravel. It was overlain with slag, mostly at its east end. It sloped down to the east, and no drainage features were found associated with it. A few localised soil layers overlay the cobbles.
---- YARD SURFACE D. The fourth surface was a layer of dense cobbles. It sloped towards the east, and itself included patches of dense slag among the cobbles. It was the topmost of the yard surfaces excavated in T7.
- Above Surface D was a discontinuous layer of loose gravel, slag and ash.
- LAYER. The latest deposit to survive the construction of the brewery at the western end of the trench is composed of dirty brickearth with oyster shell inclusions, and is probably derived from pit digging. Its high medieval spot-date can be disregarded as it overlies many late medieval phases. Although in T7 this layer was seen as a dump layer overlying the yard surfaces, similar to post-medieval pph 1697 to the east, it should be noted that in the adjoining area of T21, hole 5, we found further late medieval gravel surfaces at a higher level than those in T7, and no signs of this dump layer. It is possible that the eastern edge of the yard surfaces was moving west, and that there were no gravel surfaces above this level in this part of T7, but the sequence continued nearer to the street frontage. (???)
Visible in the surface of the brickearth dump was a narrow band of charcoal about 0.9m long, possibly being a burnt section of an E/W fence line.
- OTHER LAYERS.
---- A general dark greyish brown gravelly layer was deposited across the northern part of the trench: it was probably broadly contemporary with late medieval yard surfaces C and D in the western part of the same property. It produced late medieval pottery in some quantity, with a few post-medieval sherds, the latter are probably intrusive or a remnant of a later deposit.
---- There was a similar soil build-up in the southern half of the trench, dug in spits. A substantial amount of pottery was recovered, and suggests that the build-up was in some places high medieval and in others late medieval (disregarding a sherd each of early modern and post-medieval).
---- A feature 2.3m wide x 0.2m deep in the north central area of the site is interpreted as a surface accumulation of layers slumped over earlier pits. Although it spot-dates to late medieval, there is a high degree of residuality in the pottery.
---- Other miscellaneous layers were present.
- STRUCTURE? Traces of a possible late medieval structure, consisting of two "pier bases" each roughly 1.2m square, were found in the northern central part of the trench. The northernmost pier-base consisted of a shallow bowl-shaped pit, filled with soil and rubble, and including a void stakehole, possibly a pile, over which limestone blocks and rubble were laid in such a way as to form a fairly neat rectangle with a less well-laid centre. The southernmost pier-base, 2m to the west, was very similar in appearance, but on a slightly different alignment. It is possible that they were part of a structure extending north and east from the southernmost pier-base, but it is equally likely that they merely formed support for a back-yard feature, for example a tank. There appears to be no association with metalworking, such as slag.
- Another feature a few metres to the north of the pierbases consists of a pit, similar to that under the northern pierbase, which is filled with gravel and topped with a cobble layer. With the pierbases it forms a rough alignment of three features.
- POSTHOLES
- TROUGH. This was a feature on the southern edge of the western part of T7. This area was extremely difficult to excavate and had been recut. It appeared to be a long narrow rectangle with sloping sides and a V-profile. The feature may have been the terminal of a ditch, which ran along the property boundary and terminated short of the stone-lined pit. Overall, the trough has a late medieval spot-date. It also appeared to cut the very edge of the two late medieval gravel surfaces, although since the gravel layers were thinning out this is uncertain. The high medieval yard surfaces stop further north, so if the late medieval surfaces post-date the trough then the high medieval surfaces could be in any stratigraphic relation to the trough. However some fills, concentrated in the lower part of the feature, had high medieval spot-dates; these could represent an earlier phase of the feature, of unknown form, or be due to over-digging. If an earlier phase exists, it could have been earlier than or contemporary with the high medieval yard surfaces.
- PITS. A total of 28 late medieval pits. These included the following.
---- One pit contained leather and textiles and had an alignment of deep, void stakeholes along the eastern edge, perhaps a fence.
---- Another pit was deep, square and timber-lined. In the four corners of the pit were deep holes for post-settings. In these had been placed large posts of re-used timber. The posts were probably then driven in further, as there was no post-packing as such. The sides of the pit were then lined with horizontal pieces of wood slipped behind the corner posts. Generally these were crudely worked and often had bark on the side facing the pit. The pit fills contained well-preserved wood finds, including objects.
---- A waterlogged pit contained leather, including shoes.
---- Three pits contained an intensely green deposit, perhaps industrial waste. One of these was fairly waterlogged, although shallow.
---- One pit contained large amounts of late medieval pottery, including two olive jars.

Late medieval / post-medieval:
- Possible slumping over a late medieval pit.

Post-medieval:
- STRUCTURE? Limestone rubble found in the top fills of a late medieval pit was initially thought to be a pit lining, but was probably a wall footing built in a trench cut into the pit fills or slumped into them. Any continuation of the wall to the north would have been removed by the Brewery construction.
- LAYERS
---- Layers of slate dump, presumably from demolition material.
---- Soil layer sealing the slate dumps, and 3 other soil dumps containing mortar, slate and shell.
---- Layers forming a demolition/rubbish dump.
PITS In total there were 12 post-medieval pits, including:
---- A small pit with pottery including four whole pots (two being apothecary-style jars), buried upright at one end of the pit.
---- Another pit produced a whole pot.
---- The backfill of the high medieval stone-lined pit dated to this period. Some fills were organic, overlain by a thick deposit of dense gravelly fills.

Post-medieval/early modern:
- STRUCTURAL FEATURES
---- Probable E/W brick wall and its construction trench
---- Miscellaneous late or post-medieval structural features.

Early Modern:
- Walls/layers associated with Carter's dye works, at the southern edge of the trench.
- Miscellaneous excavated early modern features and fills.
- Domed brick-lined cess pit.
- Shallow rectangular pit, full of pottery, brick, metal objects etc. Many pottery vessels including Chinese, Japanese and ?Turkish imports. Bone gaming pieces were also found. Probably dates to the turn of the nineteenth century, or up to 20 years earlier.
- Possible pre-Brewery structural evidence, from S part of trench.
- Small feature, lined on the two long sides with cattle cannon bones set on end, and filled with charcoal.
- LAYERS. The upper part of the site stratigraphy was dug in spits, to save time and because no distinctions could be seen. When distinct layers were found, it was clear that our horizontal spits had cut obliquely through sloping levels, and the spot-dating records when analysed by grid square confirmed this.

Modern:
Structures etc relating to Cooper's Brewery (see separate record).

(See MSH1106 for further information about the methodology of this report, including period definitions.
See MSH1105 for Late Saxon/"early medieval" evidence.)

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESH175 - Excavations at York Buildings (the Bargate Centre) and North Walls between 1983 and 1992 (Ref: SOU 175)
• ESH2028 - Excavations at York Buildings (The Bargate Centre) - Trench 7 (Ref: SOU 175)

Related records

Associated Links: None recorded

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