Volume 19 BRISTOL and AVON ARCHAEOLOGY 2004
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BRISTOL & AVON ARCHAEOLOGY Volume 19 BRISTOL AND AVON ARCHAEOLOGY 2004 CONTENTS Page Archaeological Excavations at Nos. 30-38 St. Thomas Street and No. 60 Redcliff Street, 1 Bristol, 2000. Reg Jackson Avon - An Imperial Pagus? - a Discussion Paper. 65 Keith S Gardner The Roman Town of Abona and the Anglo-Saxon Charters of Stoke Bishop 75 of AD 969 and 984. David H Higgins The Wellington Hotel (alias The Ship), Horfield, Bristol and a note on the line of 87 the ancient highway through the parish from manorial records. Denis Wright Review of Archaeology 2001-2002. 99 Edited by Bruce Williams Obituary: Rod Burchill 1945-2003 115 Cover: St. Pauls Church, Portland Square, Bristol, from Surrey Street, 1825, by Samuel Jackson. From the Braikenridge Collection, Bristol City Museum and Art Galle,y. OFFICERS (2002-3) Chairman Membership Secreta,y MEMBERS Mr Rob Iles Dr G Dorey Mr I Beckey Vice Chairman Editor, BAA Mr L Bingle Mr Andrew Smith Mr B Williams Mr J Hunt Secretary Special Publications Mrs J Newley Mr M Gwyther Prof P J Miller Meetings Secretary Publicity Officer CO-OPTED MrR Webber Mr M Baker Dr P Gardiner Treasurer and Bulletin Editor Fieldwork Adviser Mr RH Jones Mr J R Russell Mr R Jackson Dr A J Parker CONTRIBUTIONS All articles are subject to refereeing. Prospective contributors are welcome to discuss possible contributions with the Editor before submission. Statements in the journal reflect the views of the authors, and not necessarily those of the Society or Editor. Membership and Editorial Communications to Bristol and Avon Archaeological Society, c/o Bristol and Region Archaeological Services, St Nicholas Church, St Nicholas Street, Bristol, BS 1 1UE. Copyright: Authors and Bristol and Avon Archaeological Society. Typeset by Bristol and Region Archaeological Services. Design by Ann Linge. Printed by Henry Ling Limited, The Dorset Press, Dorchester DTI lHD. June, 2004. ISSN 0263 1091 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS AT NOS. 30-38 ST THOMAS STREET & NO. 60 REDCLIFF STREET, BRISTOL, 2000 by Reg Jackson SUMMARY construction of Warrens glasshouse in the early 18th The archaeological excavation concentrated on the St. century. Glass production ceased bt!fore 1774 and the Thomas Street frontage which was found to have been property subsequently became part of the Bear Inn and, occupied from at least the second quarter of the 14th later, a tobacco factory. The archaeological evidence is century. The presence of a few 12th-century sherds suggests supplemented by extensive documentary research. earlier occupation in the vicinity. Of particular interest were a number of pits cutting through the natural alluvium INTRODUCTION which had been backfilled with 14th-century pottery kiln This report deals with the history and archaeology of an area waste of a type belonging to the so-called 'Bristol/Redcliffe between St. Thomas Street and Redcliff Street in St. Mary ware 'industry. Medieval property boundaries and the rear Redcliffe parish, Bristol, known as Nos. 30-38 St Thomas wall of a house fronting St. Thomas Street were identified. Street and No. 60 Redcliff Street (Fig. I; NGR ST 5915 Following the demolition of the medieval building in the 7255; BUAD No. 3376). Until the early 20th century these 16th century the land was used as gardens until the properties were known as Nos. 88-91 St. Thomas Street and I 1 ' , <-.:,,,,,,,-,-,-,~~~:~~;;r-=~---~------Cr-~-·---/ ~:,;__ / -- - r-- ____ .....___ ..__._......, ___ -,,_ ---::- -.._ _1 _____ ,.::; :' Port Key 1 Redcliff Street 1980 2 Redcliff Street 1982 ···';r ,.·/;!,;;·i=~ ..·~-----..:_:~~,- 3 Canynges' House 1983 4 Portwall Lane 1989 \ 'LJ~crown --- --------- ___Copyright ____ -------_-_-- ----- --_- ------------ ·-- - Fig. I Location of site, area of evaluation and excavation, standing medieval wall and previous archaeological investigations, scale I: 1250. 2 Bristol and Avon Archaeology 19 properties probably survived well into the post-medieval period; a 15 metre length of medieval wall still stands to first floor height on the north side of the main entrance to 60 r·--------------..,,,.------ : , I I , Redcliff Street (Fig. l ). , I Perhaps the most significant change in the land use of I i the area was the construction of a glasshouse on part of the i interior of the St. Thomas Street properties at the beginning of the 18th century. The glasshouse continued in operation AREA 1 until the early 1770s. It has been recognised by English Heritage in its Monuments Protection Programme as being of national importance. Extensive redevelopment occurred in the 1880s with the construction of a tobacco manufactory on the Redcliff Street portion of the site and further building work continued until 1931 by which time the tobacco manufactory had been extended to cover the whole of the study area. An examination of building plans combined with an on site investigation showed that the majority of the area below 60 Redcliff Street had been cellared to a depth that would have destroyed all archaeological deposits. It was also evident that parts of Nos. 30-38 St. Thomas Street had been cellared, although as some of these cellars had been backfilled and sealed below modem floors their extent was uncertain. Following the desktop study an archaeological evaluation was carried out in I 999. That involved the excavation of five trial trenches within the St. Thomas Street properties and demonstrated the survival of well preserved r------ ""'------7 medieval and post-medieval archaeological deposits and /----- ----~-...... i ! i structures including part of the foundations of the cone of t AREA 2 + the 18th-century glasshouse (BaRAS 1999). I I [ The design of the proposed new development for Nos. ___ 1 ....; L_________ / r./J 30-38 St. Thomas Street involved using a large part of the r---=-~1~c=-=~is-;;-s~~- interior of the site as an open courtyard thus ensuring 0 10m Fig. 2 Site plan. Nos. 57-64 Redcliff Street. In 1998 a planning application was submitted for the area involving partial demolition, internal alteration and rebuilding with the purpose of providing residential accommodation. As part of the planning process an archaeological desk1op study was carried out on the properties which indicated that development had probably commenced on the . Trench 4 street frontages during the 12th or 13th centuries (BaRAS ____, • Q) 1998). It revealed that a large drain, formerly an open ditch QJ b of medieval origin, ran north/south through the middle of l VJ the site. This was one of a number of such ditches, known CSl"' Trench 3 I E as 'Law Ditches', draining the marshy areas ofRedcliffe, St. 0 r ..c Thomas and Temple parishes and also serving as property :L c-=i E- _; and parish boundaries. Between the tenements and the Law l [/') Ditch were large plots of land used as gardens and orchards 0 20m and for small scale industrial activities. Many of the medieval buildings and the general layout of the medieval Fig.3 Plan showing evaluation trenches 3, 4 & 5. JACKSON: ST. THOMAS STREET EXCAVATIONS 3 preservation of the surviving archaeology. It was only on the St. Thomas Street frontage that rebuilding involving piling and groundwork operations would cause serious damage to the archaeological resource and it was decided that two areas just behind the frontage should be completely excavated. The need to underpin and shore the retained St. Thomas Street fas;ade would have rendered excavation following the demolition of the main structures impossible, making it necessary to carry out the excavation within the existing buildings. Safety and engineering constraints restricted the areas available for excavation due to the need to avoid weakening wall foundations and floor supports. Area 1, which incorporated Evaluation Trench 1, measured at most 16m north/south by 1Om east/west, while Area 2, incorporating Evaluation Trench 2, measured at most 5.2m north/south by 10.4m east/west (Fig.2). The archaeological excavation was conducted between March and May 2000. Where appropriate the following report incorporates the findings made in Trenches 3, 4 and 5 of the 1999 archaeological evaluation (Fig.3). The writer is grateful to: Crown Dilmun pie, the landowners, for financing the work Fig.4 Millerd's plan of 1673. and to Steve Baker of Helios Project Management for his assistance before and during the course of the excavation. Bruce Williams of Bristol and Region Archaeological Services for managing the project. Bob Jones, the City Archaeologist, for monitoring the work and his advice during the course of the project. Kate Edwards, Heather Hirons, Dave New, Lee Newton, Pat Powell, John Roberts, Sam Smith, Dave Stevens, Kim Watkins, Stuart Whatley and Chris Zukowski for their hard work as Site Assistants in dark, damp and often difficult conditions. Ann Linge for her work on the illustrations. Rod Burchill, Rosie Clarke, Lorrain Higbee, Julie Jones, Katherine Knowles, Roger Leech, Heather Tinsley, Bruce Williams and Claire Wilson of Terra Nova for their specialist reports. Dr Mark Redknap for refereeing the report. OWNERS AND TENANTS - THE HISTORICAL Fig. 5 Millerd 'splan of cl 715. DOCUMENTATION FOR NOS. 57-64 REDCLIFF STREET AND NOS 88-91 ST THOMAS STREET Thomas Street, were gifts to the church of St. Mary Redcliff by Dr Roger H. Leech in the mid 14th century. The deeds, leases, accounts, plan books and other documents belonging to this church have Introduction been a rich source of information for the history of these The properties investigated for this report are of properties. In Redcliff Street no 58 belonged to St. considerable interest for their history and archaeology. First Augustine's Abbey, which became in 1542 the cathedral of they are well documented from the medieval period Bristol, one of the four such monastic houses re-utilised at onwards. Secondly the documents offer many insights into the order of Henry VIII for the founding of a new cathedral.