A Watching Brief at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire by H R Hannaford Archaeology Service Archaeology Service Report Number 164 © Shropshire County Council July 1999 A WATCHING BRIEF AT ABBEY FOREGATE, SHREWSBURY, SHROPSHIRE by H R HANNAFORD A Report for SHREWSBURY AND ATCHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL Archaeology Service Winston Churchill Building, Radbrook Centre, Radbrook Road,Shrewsbury, SY3 9BJ Tel: (01743) 254018 Fax: (01743) 254047 TELFORD & WREKIN COUNCIL A Watching Brief at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire 1 INTRODUCTION In 1999, new security measures were installed in the temporary car park off Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Part of the area affected by these works lay within the scheduled area of Shrewsbury Abbey (Scheduled Monument No.: Shropshire 359), and scheduled monument consent had been obtained for the works. In the light of a number of recent investigations in the immediate vicinity (Carver, 1975 and 1985; Hannaford, 1991, 1995, and 1996; Watson, 1992), archaeological deposits were known to exist at a depth of 0.7m below ground level on the Abbey Foregate street frontage, extending to a depth of at least 1.8m in the car park at the rear of the pulpit enclosure. It was considered that an appropriate level of archaeological provision would be for the works to be monitored and carried out under archaeological supervision. The Archaeology Service, Shropshire County Council, was commissioned by the site owners, Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, to undertake the archaeological monitoring of the works, which were carried out in April and May 1999. 2 HISTORY OF THE SITE The area to the south of Abbey Foregate opposite Shrewsbury Abbey in the medieval period lay within the precinct of the Benedictine monastery; the ground to the south, between the monastic precinct and the Rea Brook, was occupied by a large fishpond. Many of the monastic buildings on the south side of the abbey survived the Dissolution only to fall victim to the creation of the present Abbey Foregate road by Thomas Telford in c1836 and a major redevelopment of the land to the south in the third quarter of the 19th century. The only monastic buildings to survive these developments were the so-called "Old Infirmary" building to the west of the study area (now part of the Shrewsbury Quest Centre) and the refectory pulpit. The refectory pulpit (SMR No. SA1093), the only surviving above ground remains of the former refectory building of Shrewsbury Abbey, is thought to date to the very early 14th century (Morriss and Stamper, 1995). In the 18th century, the pulpit effectively became a piece of garden architecture within the gardens of Abbey House. Despite the major redevelopment in the mid-19th century of the land to the south of Abbey Foregate, the pulpit survived and remained as the centre-piece of a small enclosed garden. The northern part of this garden was used as a builder's yard towards the end of the 19th century, being restored as a garden probably in 1944 when the Borough Council took over care of the monument. In the first half of the 19th century, the land to the south of Abbey Foregate belonged to one James Hiles; James Hiles was found dead under the water-wheel of the Abbey Mill in 1851 (Hannaford, in Baker, forthcoming) and in the mid 1860s the Hiles' property on Abbey Foregate was acquired by Richard Samuel France, promoter of the Potteries, Shrewsbury, and North Wales Railway (later the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway Company). France was responsible for the demolition of the Abbott's Lodgings and the clearance of the Abbey Gardens to make way for railway yards, sidings, and the Abbey Station (Morriss and Stamper, op.cit.). 1 A Watching Brief at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire During the First World War the land to the west of the Abbey Station was used as a prisoner of war camp, and then mostly lay derelict until its later 20th-century use as a car-park. A small garage was sited on the street frontage immediately to the west of the pulpit enclosure, and an oil storage depot was also built on the street frontage between the garage and the Queen Anne House in the 1960s, relocating to a new site in c1990. The Abbey Station was closed to passengers in 1911 and goods in 1933 (Morriss, 1985), although the line was used to deliver oil to the oil storage depot until c1990. The station site was in use as a builders' yard until 1987, and then lay derelict and unoccupied until it was acquired by the Borough Council and included in the improved temporary car-park. 3 THE WATCHING BRIEF The existing planting and kerbs were removed with a JCB from the northeastern part of the car park under close archaeological supervision. The underlying deposits, which consisted entirely of recently made ground of brick and other building rubble, cinders, and chippings were excavated by machine to a maximum depth of 400mm; the new kerb was then laid in concrete bedding. The posts for the new parking bay barrier were set into two holes c. 400mm diameter by c. 750mm deep. As far as could be seen, these also cut through similar made ground. 4 CONCLUSIONS No significant archaeological features or deposits were disturbed by the alterations to the layout of the corpark or the installation of the new barriers. 2 A Watching Brief at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED Baker, N J, (ed) (forthcoming): "The Archaeology of Shrewsbury Abbey", TSAHS Carver, M O H, 1978: "Early Shrewsbury: an Archaeological Definition in 1975", TSAS vol LIX Part III, 1973-4, pp225-263 Carver, M O H, 1985: Shrewsbury Heritage Project 1985, Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit report No. 2 Hannaford, H R, 1991: Level 2 archive of watching brief at Abbey Station site, Shrewsbury; Site Code: AS91, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service archive report Hannaford, H R, 1995: A Watching Brief at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Archaeology Service report No. 83, Shropshire County Council Hannaford, H R, 1996: A Watching Brief at the Abbey Pulpit, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service report no. 100 Morriss, R K, 1983: Railways of Shropshire, Shropshire Books, Shrewsbury Morriss, R K, 1985: "A Gazetteer of Passenger Railway Stations in Shropshire", TSAS vol LXIV, 1983-4, pp89-105 Morriss, R K, and Stamper, P, 1995: A Structural Survey and Documentary History of the Abbey Pulpit, Shrewsbury, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service report No. 77, Watson, M D, 1992: Archaeological Supervision of Groundworks at Shrewsbury Abbey, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service report No. 13, Watson, M D, 1993: A Watching Brief at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service report No. 30 Abbreviations OS Ordnance Survey SMR Shropshire County Sites and Monuments Record 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 3.