CABOT CIRCUS (BROADMEAD EXPANSION) BRISTOL OVERALL POST-EXCAVATION ASSESSMENT AND UPDATED PROJECT DESIGN CAPCA PROJECT: 9038/K1066 CAPCA REPORT: 08087 Author: Frank Meddens, Simon Cox and Martin Watts Approved: Martin Watts Signed: ……………………………………………………………. Issue: 01 Date: 22 April 2008 This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology and Pre-Construct Archaeology accept no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission. © Cotswold Archaeology Building 11, Kemble Enterprise Park, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 6BQ Tel: 01285 771022 Fax: 01285 771033 email: [email protected] © Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd Unit 54, Brockley Cross Business Centre, 96 Endwell Road, Brockley, London, SE4 2PD Tel: 0207 7323925 Fax: 0207 7327896 email: [email protected] © Cotswold Archaeology & Cabot Circus (Broadmead Expansion), Bristol: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 3 Location, topography and geology ...................................................................... 3 Archaeological and Historical background .......................................................... 5 2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 6 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 7 4. SUMMARY OF FIELDWORK RESULTS ............................................................ 7 The stratigraphic record ..................................................................................... 18 The artefactual record ........................................................................................ 20 The biological record .......................................................................................... 27 The documentary record .................................................................................... 29 5. STORAGE AND CURATION .............................................................................. 30 6. OVERALL STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL .......................................................... 30 7. UPDATED AIMS AND OBJECTIVES FOR ANALYSIS STAGE ......................... 33 8. PUBLICATION ................................................................................................... 45 Draft publication synopsis................................................................................... 45 9. PROJECT TEAM ............................................................................................... 47 10. TASK LIST ......................................................................................................... 49 10. TIMETABLE ....................................................................................................... 51 11. REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 51 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Location of Assessment Areas (1:2500) 1 © Cotswold Archaeology & Cabot Circus (Broadmead Expansion), Bristol: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd SUMMARY Site Name: Cabot Circus (Broadmead Expansion) Location: Broadmead, Bristol NGR: ST 5930 7322 Type: Evaluation, excavation, building recording and watching brief Date: November 2006 to February 2008 Location of archive: Cotswold Archaeology and Pre-Construct Archaeology; to be deposited with Bristol's Museums, Galleries and Archives Accession Number: BRSMG 2006/45 Site Code: MQB 05 Between December 2005 and February 2008 the CAPCA consortium (comprising Cotswold Archaeology [CA] and Pre-Construct Archaeology [PCA]) carried out a programme of archaeological work during the redevelopment of Cabot Circus, an extensive part of the Broadmead area of Bristol, on behalf of the Bristol Alliance Limited Partnership. The redevelopment site, which covers an area of over 12ha, comprised 20th-century commercial properties and extensive areas of car parking (essentially the post-war development of the Broadmead shopping centre), but also includes a small group of historic buildings that are protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument as well as Listed building status. For the purposes of archaeological assessment, the redevelopment site has been subdivided into 11 assessments areas, each of which is reported on in area-specific archaeological assessment reports. Additional assessment reports have been compiled regarding site-wide borehole surveys and the documentary and printed sources relating to the site. The purpose of this report is to bring together and summarise the various assessment reports relating to the redevelopment, and to present an overall quantification and assessment of the data recovered from site. The significance of the evidence is considered collectively in its local regional and national context, and the relevance of the original aims and objectives of the project is also assessed (the overall statement of potential). The report then presents an updated project design for a programme of post-excavation analysis to bring the results to appropriate publication, guided by a series of updated project aims and objectives, and provides outline details of the required resource and a projected timetable for completion. 2 © Cotswold Archaeology & Cabot Circus (Broadmead Expansion), Bristol: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Between December 2005 and February 2008 the CAPCA consortium (comprising Cotswold Archaeology [CA] and Pre-Construct Archaeology [PCA]) carried out a programme of archaeological excavation, monitoring and recording during the redevelopment of Cabot Circus, an extensive part of the Broadmead area of Bristol (centred on ST 5930 7322; Fig. 1). The redevelopment will provide new retail, residential and leisure facilities, and involves alterations to access arrangements and the highway network. 1.2 The archaeological work was undertaken, in response to a number of conditions attached to Full Planning Consent for the redevelopment (ref: 02/02929/P), and in accordance with a detailed Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by CAPCA (2005), and approved by Bristol City Council (the Local Planning Authority) acting on the advice of Mr R. Jones, City Archaeologist, Bristol City Council. The WSI drew extensively on a specification prepared for all archaeological mitigation by Dr P. Ottaway, archaeological consultant for the Bristol Alliance. Location, topography and geology 1.3 The Cabot Circus redevelopment site lies just to the east of the historic core of the City of Bristol (Fig. 1), covering an area of approximately 12.25ha. Prior to development, ground level stood at between 9m and 10m AOD. The redevelopment site is divided into two principal areas: Quakers Friars to the west, bounded by Broadmead to the north, Merchant Street to the west, Broad Weir to the south and Penn Street to the east; and Main Scheme to the east, bounded by Newfoundland Street/Way to the north, Penn Street to the west, Wellington Road to the south and Houlton Street to the east. 1.4 Pre-development land use at Quakers Friars comprised 20th-century commercial properties fronting all four roads surrounding the area, enclosing associated service roads with a small group of historic buildings at the centre, including Cutlers Hall, Bakers Hall, New Hall and the Friends Meeting House, used as the Bristol Register Office. Cutlers Hall and Bakers Hall, the surviving above-ground remains of a Dominican friary (see below), both have fine medieval roofs surviving and are protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM 102). Most of this group of buildings are also protected as Listed buildings (Meeting House: Grade I; Cutlers Hall 3 © Cotswold Archaeology & Cabot Circus (Broadmead Expansion), Bristol: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd and Bakers Hall; Grade II*; New Hall: Grade II). Pre-development land-use at Main Scheme also comprised 20th-century commercial properties with associated services yards between Penn Street and the former Bond Street, with extensive areas of car parks central to the area, and the commercial offices of Tollgate House and associated multi-storey car parking at the eastern end of the area. The underlying geology of the area is mapped as Mercia Mudstones (formerly Keuper Marl), including Butcombe sandstones of the Triassic, with overlying estuarine alluvium of the Pleistocene and Holocene (Green 1992; BGS 1984). 1.5 For the purposes of archaeological assessment, the two principal areas have been subdivided into 11 assessments areas: seven within the Quakers Friars area (including Block 7, excavated and assessed by Oxford Archaeology), and four within the Main Scheme area (Fig. 2). Some of these areas are trench-specific, for example Trench 3 in Quakers Friars, others accommodate disparate investigations within a general area, for example Quakers Friars Central. The area assessments include the archaeological data recovered during preceding