Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton,

An Archaeological Evaluation

for The Neville Trust

by Steve Ford

Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd

Site Code 66CSL04/98

November 2004 Summary

Site name: Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, Bedfordshire.

Grid reference: TL 0904 2075

Site activity: Evaluation trenching

Date and duration of project: 8th–9th November 2004

Project manager: Steve Ford

Site supervisor: Steve Ford

Site code: 66CSL04/98

Area of site: 0.2ha

Summary of results: None of the trenches dug revealed archaeological deposits

Monuments identified: None

Location and reference of archive: The archive is currently held by Archaeological Services, 47-49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading, , RG1 5NR and will be deposited with Luton Museum in due course.

This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder

Report edited/checked by: Steve Preston9 .24.11.04

i Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, Bedfordshire An Archaeological Evaluation

by Steve Ford

Report 04/98

Introduction

This report documents the results of an archaeological field evaluation carried out at site to the rear of 66 Castle

Street, Luton, Bedfordshire (TL 0904 2075) (Fig.1). The work was commissioned by Mr Roger Shrimplin of

Clifford W and R C Shrimplin, 11 Cardiff Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 1PP on behalf of The Neville Trust.

Planning permission has been sought (app no 03/562/FUL) from Luton Council to redevelop the site for residential use.

This investigation was required it inform the planning process in accordance with the Department of the

Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance, Archaeology and Planning (PPG16 1990), and the Borough Council’s policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Ismail

Mohammed of as advised by Ms Leslie Ann Mather of the Heritage Section,

Bedfordshire County Council. The fieldwork was supervised by Steve Ford in November 2004 and the site code is 66CSL 04/984.

The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Luton Museum in due course.

Location, topography and geology

The site is located south of the town centre on one of the main access routes into Luton. The plot of land to be developed is centred on grid reference TL 0904 2075 and lies behind properties on Chapel Street to the west,

Castle Street to the east and Windsor Street to the south and a Matalan shop (the former bus station site) to the north (Figs 1 and 2). The site is rectangular with an access road off Chapel Street. The site was formerly a plant contractor’s yard with Tarmac and concrete surfaces present and with several upstanding structures. The site occupied an area of c. 0.2ha. The land slopes moderately steeply downwards from east to west but levels out towards the east.

The site is located at a height of c. 120m above Ordnance Datum on an area of glacial sands and gravels with the underlying geology of middle (BGS 1992). Some chalk was observed along with some shallow

1 but dense patches of flint gravel. However, the majority of trenches comprised a brown sandy clay with a moderate amount of small flint gravel pieces.

Archaeological and cartographic background

Luton’s recorded history begins as early as AD792 when it is referred to as Lygetun. (1086) calls it Loitone (Mills 1991, 228). The place-name itself means ‘farmstead on the (River) Lea’ and combines the

Celtic river name with the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) -tun. The manor was granted to Robert, Earl of Gloucester by Henry I (VCH 1972). Numerous sites have been recorded in the Bedfordshire Sites and Monuments Record for the vicinity of the site: the majority of these are 19th-century houses.

Of most significance is the reference to the former presence of a mound on the former bus station site to the north which was considered as the site of a castle, along with documentary references to a castle on or near the site whose presence is remembered in the name of Castle Street. Robert de Waudari came to Luton as a mercenary for King Stephen and had land granted to him. In AD 1139, he built a wooden castle for the war against Matilda but this was pulled down fifteen years later in 1154. A second castle was built by Fulk de

Bheauté in 1221. Deeds for properties on Castle Street refer to the mound on which Holly Lodge stood as being the castle mound, and one of the boundaries of the property was believed to include the Castle ditch (Austin

1927).

In 1963 during the construction of The Luton News printing works on the eastern side of Castle Street a ditch was observed surrounding a raised area thought to be a bailey. The bailey was raised 3 or 4 feet (c. 1m) above the surrounding land and the ditch was 10 feet (c. 3m) wide and of an unknown depth. The inner and outer edge had been lined by post holes which supported wooden posts of a double stockade (Dyer et al. 1964, 55). No pottery or other dating evidence was found. These observations were carried out on the eastern side of Castle

Street, between Holly Street and Kelvin Close, and appear to have located two sides of a ditched enclosure which returned in the direction of the former bus depot (Fig. 2). It was assumed that these features belonged to

Robert de Waudari’s Castle and that the motte was located where Holly Lodge once stood, to the north of this site (Figs 3 and 4).

Evaluation of the former Luton Bus Station (now Matalan) to the north of the proposal site showed that much of the area had been truncated or otherwise heavily disturbed but did reveal a small area of archaeological deposits (Fig. 2). A small follow-up excavation revealed a segment of a substantial ditch thought to be that of

2 Robert de Waudari’s Castle (Coles, in press). Castles often attracted ancillary settlement providing goods and services for the occupants of the castle and it is possible that such settlement would be present on the current site.

Evaluation

Objectives and methodology

The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the presence/absence, extent, condition, character, quality and date of any archaeological or palaeoenvironmental deposits within the area of development. Specific research aims were to determine if archaeologically relevant levels have survived on site, to determine if archaeological deposits representing deposits associated with the medieval castle were present and to establish if archaeology has survived from any period on this site.

Four trenches were proposed. The trenches were positioned to examine the footprints of the proposed new buildings but were partially constrained by the presence of upstanding structures (Fig. 2). The trenches were intended to be 15m long and 1.60m wide. They were dug by a small 3600 tracked machine with a toothless ditching bucket. The trenches were dug under constant archaeological supervision. All spoilheaps were monitored for finds.

A list of trenches giving lengths, breadths, depths and a description of sections and geology is presented in

Appendix 2.

Results

The four trenches were dug in the positions shown in Figure 2 and ranged in length from 14.2m to 16.0m.

Trench 1 (Plates 1 and 2)

Trench 1 was aligned NW–SE and was 15.0m long. The stratigraphy consisted of 0.47m of made ground

(Tarmac, scalpins and hardcore) above 0.8m of dark brown sandy clay subsoil. This in turn overlay the natural geology which was a brown sandy clay with small flint pieces at a depth of 0.55m. Some modern features penetrated the subsoil towards the centre of the trench but otherwise no archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered.

Trench 2 (Plate 3)

Trench 2 was aligned SW–NE and was 14.6m long. The stratigraphy consisted of 0.4m of made ground (Tarmac, scalpins and hardcore) above 0.32m of dark brown sandy clay subsoil containing modern brick, etc. This in turn

3 overlay the natural geology which was a brown sandy clay with small flint pieces at a depth of 0.8m (Fig. 5).

The north-west end was heavily disturbed by a modern brick-filled cut and a sewer pipe was present at the eastern end. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered.

Trench 3 (Plate 4)

Trench 3 was aligned NE–SW and was 15.5m long. The stratigraphy consisted of 0.55m of made ground

(Tarmac, scalpins and hardcore) above 0.25m of dark brown sandy clay subsoil. This in turn overlay the natural geology which was a brown sandy clay with small flint pieces and some chalk patches at a depth of 0.8m. A sewer pipe was present towards the centre of the trench. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered.

Trench 4

Trench 4 was aligned NW–SE and was 14.2m long. The stratigraphy consisted of 0.68m of made ground

(Tarmac, scalpins and hardcore) in layers above 0.27m of dark brown sandy clay subsoil with modern brick, slate etc. This in turn overlay the natural geology which was a brown sandy clay with small flint pieces at a depth of 0.95m (Fig. 5). Several modern features penetrated the subsoil towards the centre of the trench and a large modern slate-filled pit was present at the north east end. Two possible features were examined towards the north-east end, both of which produced tile fragments, of post-medieval or modern date and both of which are considered to be rootholes/burrows. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered.

Finds

No finds were recovered.

Conclusion

The four trenches excavated have revealed that the natural geology is present across the majority of the site but that no deposits of archaeological interest were present cutting this natural geology. The spoilheaps were also examined for finds but no material earlier than the late post-medieval period was observed. On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that the site has no archaeological potential.

References Austin, W, 1927, The and its Hamlets, Newport, BGS, 1992, British Geological Survey, 1:50 000, Sheet 220, Solid and Drift Edition, Keyworth Coles, S, (in press), ‘Excavation at Castle Street, Luton. Robert de Waudari’s Castle’, Bedfordshire Archaeol Dyer, J, Stygall, F and Dony, J, 1964, The Story of Luton, Luton

4 Mills, A D, 1991, Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, Oxford PPG16, 1990, Archaeology and Planning, Dept Environment Planning Policy Guidance 16, HMSO VCH, 1972, Victoria County , Volume 2, , (re-printed)

5 APPENDIX 1: Trench details 0m at S or W end

Trench No. Length (m) Breadth (m) Depth (m) Comment 1 15.00 1.60 W 0.65 0-0.47m Tarmac and made ground; 0.47-0.55m dark brown sandy clay E 0.82 (subsoil) 0.55m+ orange-brown sandy clay with flint gravel. Some modern features [Plates 1 and 2] 2 16.00 1.60 0.80 0-0.40m Tarmac and made ground; 0.40-0.72m dark brown sandy clay (subsoil) 0.72mm+ orange-brown sandy clay with flint gravel. Deeply truncated at 0-2m. Sewer at 14.6-16m [Plate 3] 3 15.50 1.60 0.85 0-0.55m Tarmac and made ground; 0.55-0.80m dark brown sandy clay (subsoil) 080m+ orange-brown sandy clay with flint gravel and chalk patches. Sewer at 8m [Plates 4] 4 14.20 1.60 1.02 0-0.68m Tarmac and made ground; 0.68-0.95m dark brown sandy clay (subsoil) 095m+ orange-brown sandy clay with flint gravel. Several modern features

6 SITE

22000 Luton

21000

SITE

TL09000 10000 66CSL04/98 Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, Bedfordshire 2004 Archaeological Evaluation

Figure 1. Location of site within Luton and Bedfordshire. Reproduced from Ordnance Survey Pathfinder 1072 TL 02/12 at 1:12500 Ordnance Survey Licence 100025880 Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, 2004 N

20900

church

t e e tr S l e p a h C

Assumed projection of castle based

on Dyer et al, 1964.

1

b

e

s 3

20800 Location of earlier excavation of castle ditch (after Coles 2004)

1 4 2

3 stairs

t e e K r el t vin S C e lo tl s s e W a ind C sor Str eet

20700

TL09000 09100

0 50m

Figure 2. Location of trenches. 66CSL04/98 SITE

66CSL04/98 Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, Bedfordshire 2004 Archaeological Evaluation

Figure 3. Map of Luton in 1842. SITE

66CSL04/98 Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, Bedfordshire 2004 Archaeological Evaluation

Figure 4. Ordnance Survey First Edition 1879 25” sheet no 354 Rear of 66 Castle Street, Luton, 2004

Trench 2 (w) 120.06m AOD

Made ground

Dark brown sandy clay (subsoil)

Natural geology Base of trench

Trench 4 (w) 120.50m

Made ground

Dark brown sandy clay (subsoil)

Natural geology Base of trench

01m

Figure 5. Representative sections of trenches. 66CSL04/98 Plate 1. Trench 1, looking east, scales 2m and 0.5m.

Plate 2. Trench 1, showing stratigraphy, looking south, scale 0.5m.

66CSL04/98 Plate 3. Trench 2, looking north east, scales 2m and 0.5m.

Plate 4. Trench 3, looking north east, scales 2m and 0.5m.

66CSL04/98