ARO30: Uncovering the history and archaeology of the house of the Blackfriars, at Goosecroft Road, Stirling By Bob Will With Torben Bjarke Ballin, Beverley Ballin Smith, Ewan Campbell, Morag Cross, Gemma Cruickshanks, Richard Fawcett, Dennis Gallagher, Richard Jones, Maureen C. Kilpatrick, Dorothy McLaughlin, George MacLeod, Robin Murdoch, Susan Ramsay, Catherine Smith, Nicki J. Whitehouse Illustrated by Fiona Jackson and Gillian Sneddon Archaeology Reports Online, 52 Elderpark Workspace, 100 Elderpark Street, Glasgow, G51 3TR 0141 445 8800 | [email protected] | www.archaeologyreportsonline.com ARO30: Uncovering the history and archaeology of the house of the Blackfriars, at Goosecroft Road, Stirling Published by GUARD Archaeology Ltd, www.archaeologyreportsonline.com Editor Beverley Ballin Smith Design and desktop publishing Gillian Sneddon Produced by GUARD Archaeology Ltd 2018. ISBN: 978-0-9935632-9-4 ISSN: 2052-4064 Requests for permission to reproduce material from an ARO report should be sent to the Editor of ARO, as well as to the author, illustrator, photographer or other copyright holder. Copyright in any of the ARO Reports series rests with GUARD Archaeology Ltd and the individual authors. The maps are reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. All rights reserved. GUARD Archaeology Licence number 100050699. The consent does not extend to copying for general distribution, advertising or promotional purposes, the creation of new collective works or resale. Contents Summary 7 Introduction and location 7 Short historical and archaeological background to the site 7 Methodology 8 Results 9 Modern deposits and features 9 The friary wall and a burial in the south-west corner 10 Linear stones and a ditch on the western side 13 Central area walls and drains 15 East side features and a pit 15 Southern evaluation trench 16 Watching brief results 16 Results of the post-excavation analysis 17 Human Remains 17 Radiocarbon dates 20 The material culture 20 The lithic assemblage 21 Small stone artefacts 24 Moulded stone fragments 24 The wheel-thrown pottery 28 Chemical analysis of Redwares and other medieval pottery from the site 35 Clay tobacco pipes 39 Glass bead 40 Bottle and window glass assemblages 41 The metalwork 43 The vitrified material 45 Leather 46 The environmental evidence 47 The animal bones 47 Archaeobotany 52 Fossil beetle (Coleoptera) fauna 58 Discussion 60 The early environment 60 The history of the site to the beginning of the fifteenth century 61 History of the site during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 64 Post-medieval to modern history 64 Understanding the friary 65 Acknowledgments 65 Archaeological bibliography 66 Appendix 1 72 Historical bibliography 89 Appendix 2 94 List of Figures Figure 1: Site location with outline of the excavated trenches 6 Figure 2: Survey of trench layout overlain with areas of archaeology preserved in situ 9 Figure 3: Overall plan of the medieval features across the site 11 Figure 4: Details of the main medieval features excavated 12 Figure 5: Elevations of the friary wall and its foundation trench 12 Figure 6: Plan of area of cobbling uncovered during the Fubar Access Watching Brief 17 List of Figures (continued) Figure 7: The main categories of fire-flints, fragmented fire-flints and fragments of fire-flints 21 Figure 8: Lithic artefacts: CAT 1 a proximal fragment of a piercer, CAT 3, 6 and 8 are fire-flints, 22 CAT 5 a ‘shaped’ fire-flint Figure 9: Small stone artefacts SF 62 a hone and SF 181 a possible button 24 Figure 10: SF 77 window tracery fragment 25 Figure 11: Example of Sweetheart Abbey, presbytery window (MacGibbon and Ross 1899, 27 Five Great Churches of Galloway) Figure 12: Detail of SF 77, window tracery fragment and its section 27 Figure 13: SF 76 window tracery fragment, form piece 27 Figure 14: Glasgow Cathedral, south choir aisle window (Collie 1835 Plans...of the Cathedral 28 of Glasgow) Figure 15: Examples of the pottery. Scottish Medieval Redware SF 18, 225, 269 and 303, 31 Scottish White Gritty ware SF 003 (2 rims), 2 unstratified rims and SF 176, Scottish Post-Medieval Reduced wares SF 138, 160, Siegburg rim SF 216, and a base of industrial stoneware SF 003 Figure 16: Sixteenth and seventeenth century pottery production centres in the Forth Valley 36 (Caldwell and Dean 1992, Fig. 1). Stenhouse and Throsk are highlighted; Stirling lies at the NW corner of the map Figure 17: MgO-K2O plot of the Stirling (numbered) and Stenhouse kiln (STEN) samples 37 Figure 18: PC plot of the same data set as in Figure 17 38 Figure 19: MgO-K2O plot of the Redwares (numbered +), Stirling Castle Redwares (SC black 38 inverted triangle), Stenhouse kiln (ST green ∆ this study; SK purple 0, Haggarty et al. 2011) and Throsk kiln (T yellow p) Figure 20: PC plot of the compositions of 370, 372, 375 (shown as yellow squares) and 38 WG from Stirling Tolbooth (ST) and Baker Street (SB). All elements except P, Zn and Zr, normalised to the Al content Figure 21: PC plot of the compositions of 370, 372 and 375 (yellow squares) and WG from 39 Stirling olboothT (ST) and Baker Street (SB) and from Leith Burgess Street (LB). All elements except P, Zn and Zr, normalised to the Al content Figure 22: Clay tobacco pipe bowl SF 352, with a basal stamp 40 Figure 23: Leather sole fragment 46 Figure 24: Indicator packages and groups and taxa for the identification of cess pits 60 Figure 25: Distribution of medieval features in the excavation trench and surrounding area 62 Figure 26: Location of Kubiena tins within Monolith 2, with radiocarbon dates highlighted 100 List of Plates Plate 1: Preliminary cleaning of the site prior to the excavation 10 Plate 2: The friary wall being cleaned and recorded 10 Plate 3: Friary wall-buttress, wall face and foundation trench 13 Plate 4: Feature 055 boundary ditch 14 Plate 5: Rubble drains on the east side of the site 15 Plate 6: Feature 027, part of a possible stone building, from the south 15 Plate 7: Wall 108 in the southern evaluation trench 16 Plate 8: SF 77 window tracery fragment (a-d): springer at the junction of two arches 25 Plate 9: Window tracery fragment (a-c): form-piece 28 Plate 10: Pottery handles (left to right), SF 259 strap handle with thumbed decoration, 30 SF 361 a ribbed rod handle and SF 58 a spiral rod handle Plate 11: Pottery (clockwise from top left) SF 111 Beauvais ware, SF 216 rim of Seigburg 30 stoneware, SF 262 (2 sherds) of decorated Scottish White Gritty ware, SF 203 tubular bridge spout, and SF 214 crudely decorated sherd of Scottish Medieval Redware List of Plates (continued) Plate 12: Pottery (left to right) all SF 361 Scottish Medieval Redware barley twist handle 30 fragment, English piece with ear of wheat, Scottish Medieval Redware decorated sherd, and Scottish Post medieval reduced ware with simple design Plate 13: Medieval tile fragments, SF 183 (two fragments) with pale yellow glaze over a 35 white slip, and SF 224, with dark green glaze Plate 14: Analysed sherds SF 363, 364, 365, 367, 368 (top); 369, 370, 371, 373, 375 (bottom) 36 Plate 15: Analysed sherds SF 366, 372, 374, 376, 377, 378 (top); 379, 380, 381, 382, 383 36 (middle); 384, 385, 386 (bottom) Plate 16: Stenhouse kilns SF 2, 11, 12 (top); 13, 14 and 16 (bottom) 36 Plate 17: SF 352 a) bowl, b) basal stamp detail 40 Plate 18: Glass bead found in Monolith 1 40 Plate 19: Copper-alloy annular brooch or buckle SF 9 43 List of Tables Table 1: Age categories from Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994) 18 Table 2: Summary of data obtained from Skeleton 1 18 Table 3: Radiocarbon dates 20 Table 4: General flint artefact list 23 Table 5: The numbers of the different pottery fabric types 29 Table 6: The number of pieces and weight of items identified as building materials 34 Table 7: The pottery and other samples from Goosecroft Road, Stirling and Stenhouse kiln site 37 Table 8: Window glass samples 42 Table 9: Summary of the metalwork assemblage 43 Table 10: Summary of the vitrified material assemblage 45 Table 11: Number of animal bone fragments by species and date grouping 48 Table 12: Weight of animal bone in grams, by species 49 Table 13: Minimum numbers of cattle, sheep/goats and pigs (based on most frequently 49 occurring elements Table 14: Ages of cattle at death, based on epiphyseal fusion of long bones 49 Table 15: Ages of sheep/goats at death, based on epiphyseal fusion of long bones 49 Table 16: Long bone size range summary (cattle, sheep/goat, pig and horse) 51 Table 16 (Continued): Long bone size range summary (cattle, sheep/goat, pig and horse) 52 Table 17: Description of the sample processed. 58 Table 18: Description of the monolith samples processed 97 ARO30: Uncovering the history and archaeology of the house of the Blackfriars, at Goosecroft Road, Stirling A9 A923 A822 A93 Tyndrum R Earn Dalmally A85 A94 (Comrie to St Fillans) A90 Crianlarich A85 Perth Lochearnhead L Earn 11 Firth of Tay Crieff 10 Newburgh LOCH LOMOND & R Earn M90 9 A82 THE TROSSACHS A913 Loch 2 A92 2 Auchtermuchty Katrine 8 A823 A Auchterarder A912 Callander A9 A83 A821 A84 Loch A91 A914 R Teith Leven 8 7 Falkland Loch A873 6 A911 A81 Site LocationKinross 11 Dunblane R Forth A91 M90 5 Long Lomond A823 Glenrothes 10 Alloa Kelty A811 A977 4 A907 A92 A817 Stirling Dunfermline A909 Kirkcaldy 9 A985 3 A875 M876 M9 2a 3 A921 Inverness Helensburgh A809 8 7 2 A81 M80 Kincardine Burntisland Aberdeen A814 A811 2 1 Denny 1 Br 8 6 Rosyth Forth Rd Br Kilsyth 7 5 4 3 A90 Greenock A891 2 Dumbarton 6 EDINBURGH Falkirk A801 A82 A803