EDO4951 - Sainsburys Car Park (site X15), Christchurch; excavation 1977

K.S. Jarvis excavated a trench (site X15) within Sainsbury's car park during 1977 in order to investigate the burh defences. Unfortunately 0.2-0.5m of natural gravel had been removed in grading for the car park and only ditch 1 survived with a width of 3.8m and depth of 1.8m and rounded v-profile. The fill was sandy brown loam with lenses of gravel. The only finds were 10 sherds of late Saxon pottery, burnt flint and a stone bead. Later a machine section was cut 1m away from the SW side of the trench in an area which had not been graded. This revealed the 0.3m deep natural dune formation scarped to form the burh bank below 1.0m of topsoil. The bank was found to be at least 6m wide, continuing beyond the excavation.