A Watching Brief at English Walls, ,

CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 HISTORY OF THE SITE 3 3 THE WATCHING BRIEF 5 4 DISCUSSION 6 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 6

ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Oswestry town centre, showing the location of the study area Fig. 2: Site plan, showing the location of burnt areas Fig. 3: Burnt area (4) in the eastern part of the study area

1 A Watching Brief at English Walls, Oswestry, Shropshire

1 INTRODUCTION In April 1997 work began on the construction of an extension to the rear of Pet World, 2-4, English Walls, Oswestry, Shropshire. The development site lay about 10m inside the line of Oswestry's medieval town wall (Fig. 1).

Because of the potential archaeological significance of the site, it was made a condition of planning consent that the construction works should be subject to a programme of archaeological monitoring and recording.

The Archaeology Service, Shropshire County Council, was commissioned to carry out the archaeological monitoring and recording. This report details the results of this work.

2 HISTORY OF THE SITE 2.1 The Medieval Town Oswestry is not mentioned by name in Domesday, and it would appear that until the the town was a minor settlement within the manor of Meresberie (). However, a reference to "luvre" in the entry for Maesbury has been identified as the Norman at Oswestry, built by Reginald the Sheriff in the late 11th century (Thorn, 1986). The castle motte probably dates to this period. Fragmentary remains of stone walls at the summit of the motte are believed to be the remains of a 13th-century shell keep. Other stone walls around the top of the motte are thought to be of 19th-century date, re-using medieval masonry from the castle and from other sites in the town.

Following the Norman conquest, Oswestry became an important strategic military site. The castle was used as a depot for major campaigns against the Welsh and was a base for defensive cavalry (Dalwood, 1996). From the 13th century, Oswestry was the caput of the FitzAlan Lordship of Oswestry, a Marcher lordship or Welshry held by the earls of Arundel until 1536 when it was restored to the county as part of the new Hundred of Oswestry. The castle was used occasionally as a residence by the FitzAlans, and a parliament was held there in 1398. The town was burnt by King John in 1215 and by Llwelyn ap Iorwerth in 1233; it was attacked by the Welsh twice in 1282; and burnt again by Owain Glyndywr in 1400. (Dalwood, ibid.). In the the castle was re-fortified by Royalist forces in 1643, but was captured and slighted by the Parliamentarians the following year.

The town of Oswestry developed rapidly as a regional market centre after the Norman conquest. It was granted a charter in 1189, the right to hold a fair in 1228, and a market in 1262 (Watson, 1986). There were 46 burgages in 1276 and 127 by 1301, and by the end of the 14th century the town had expanded beyond its gates. There is documentary evidence for various trades within the medieval town, but the mainstay of its economy in the late medieval and post-medieval periods was the sale of Welsh cloth. (Dalwood, ibid.)

2.2 The Town Walls The town walls were probably built in the second half of the 13th century; a murage grant was made in 1257, and there were further grants in 1277-8. Excavations in

2 A Watching Brief at English Walls, Oswestry, Shropshire

1983-4 of a stretch of the town wall and town ditch west of Chapel Street at SJ28922983 confirmed a 13th-century date for its construction; the wall was 2m wide and was seen to have been built of regular sized ashlar sandstone blocks bonded in mortar. (SMR file, SA493). The ditch was over 3m deep and is thought to have extended the full width of Chapel Street (Dalwood, ibid.). The town walls are known to have run underneath the present Pet World building, having been identified during the construction of the present building in 1973 (SA5716). The wall was seen to be 7' thick and was running northwest towards the site of the New Gate on Church Street (SMR file, SA493). The town ditch has also been excavated in English Walls, although these excavations (SMR file SA5718) have not been published (Dalwood, ibid.).

By 1602, the town walls were in a poor state of repair (Dalwood, ibid.), and they were demolished in c.1660 after the Civil War, although the gates survived until the end of the 18th century (SMR file, SA493). New Gate, on Church Street, was demolished in 1782.

2.3 The Post-medieval Town The wool trade continued to be an important element of the town's economy in the post-medieval period - in the 16th and 17th centuries it held a monopoly in the trade. Trade in cattle was also important to the town, and a number of other trades are documented. There were three major fires in the middle of the 16th century, the latest of which, in 1567, affected the area around St Oswalds's Church, and another in 1742. The turnpiking of the roads from the town in the late 18th century, and the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century led to further marked economic development.

3 A Watching Brief at English Walls, Oswestry, Shropshire

3 THE WATCHING BRIEF Outbuildings which had previously stood to the rear of the Pet World building were demolished and the site cleared prior to the commencement of the archaeological monitoring and recording exercise.

An area of ground approximately 12m long by 7.6m wide (Fig. 2) was excavated by machine to a depth of c.1m below the existing ground surface. The upper surface of the ground exposed by the prior demolition of the outbuilding and removal of floors and yard surfaces consisted of a very dark grey soil (0) 0.45m in depth, decreasing to 0.2m at western end of site.

This dark topsoil overlay a deposit of greyish-brown sandy clay silt (1) 0.5m deep, increasing to 0.8m at the western end of the site. Although this was a homogenous deposit, there appeared to be some degree of sorting of artefacts within the layer - the top 0.2m of this deposit produced finds of mainly (though not exclusively) 17th- to 18th-century date, whereas the lower 0.2m produced pottery of 13th- to 14th-century date. A number of fragments of stone roof slate were also recovered from the bottom and middle of this deposit.

When this deposit was removed, two burnt patches were revealed (Fig. 2). One of these (4), located in the eastern part of the study area, consisted of an area of burnt clay soil and charcoal about 2.6m long by 1.4m wide (Fig. 3), and included the carbonised remains of a structural timber (5). A sample was taken from this timber for possible future analysis. There were no residues present which might indicate industrial processes. However, some 13th-century pottery and stone roof slates were recovered from a thin layer of greyish-brown silty clay flecked with burnt clay and charcoal (3) which covered the burnt area. The area of burning lay immediately above the natural subsoil of pebbles and gravel in a clay matrix (2).

A second burnt patch (10), 1.5m long by 0.8m wide, also lay on the top of the natural subsoil 4m to the west. No finds associated with this feature were recovered.

4 A Watching Brief at English Walls, Oswestry, Shropshire

4 DISCUSSION It is not possible to say with any certainty the purpose of the fires which caused the burnt patches which lay on the surface of the natural subsoil. The artefactual evidence would suggest that they may date to the 13th century (although the 13th-century pottery associated with these features may well be residual). The fragment of structural timber within one of the burnt areas might suggest that the fires were the result of the clearance of buildings, but to link this with one of the deliberate burnings of the town of the medieval period or one of the post-medieval accidental fires would be stretching a point.

There was no evidence for any medieval or post-medieval structures within the study area, and the accumulation of 0.5m to 0.8m depth of what would seem to be a typical backyard deposit in the period between the 13th and 18th centuries would suggest that the study area was used as such during this period.

5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED Dalwood, H, 1996: Archaeological Assessment of Oswestry, Shropshire, Shropshire County Council & Hereford and Worcester County Council Price, W, 1815: The History of Oswestry, Oswestry Rocque, J, 1752: Actual Survey of the County of Salop Slack, W J, 1951: The Lordship of Oswestry, 1397-1607, Thorn, F and C (eds), 1986: , Shropshire, Phillimore, Chichester Watkin, I, 1920: Oswestry, Oswestry Watson, M D: Oswestry - Archaeological Appraisal (unpublished report for County SMR) Wood, J, 1833: Plan of Oswestry from Actual Survey

Abbreviations: APs Aerial Photographs OS Ordnance Survey SMR Sites and Monuments Record, Hall, Shrewsbury SRRC Shropshire Records and Research Centre, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury TSAS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society TSAHS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society VCHS Victoria County History of Shropshire

5 Castle

Town Walls

study area

Based upon the Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Shropshire County Council. LA 076821. 22/04/97

ENGLISH WALLS, OSWESTRY 1997 Fig. 1: Oswestry town centre, showing the location of the study area (1:5000 scale)