EDO4974 - Pound Lane (Site X1), Christchurch; excavation 1971

An excavation was conducted by D H Hill at the NE corner of the Saxon burh, Christchurch, in advance of the extension of a car park to the east of Sainsbury's during 1971. A large area was stripped by machine to the top of the Saxon defences, cleaned and recorded. The archaeology was then sampled according to three research strategies. 1. the examination of the structure of the defensive bank and any associated post-holes or beam slots. 2. to examine any evidence for a gate at the corner of the defences. 3. to examine the eastern terminus of the town wall to see if there was a return along the river bank or a terminal turret. The excavation area (32m x 28m) was laid out parallel to a trench (X1) excavated the previous year. The area of the defensive ditches in the NE quadrant of the site was waterlogged and unworkable. The ditch system was left unexcavated and work concentrated on the town wall and bank. Over 25m of rubble was exposed over a width of 4m comprising ironstone, heathstone and mortar. Some of the foundation course for the wall also survived, possibly because robbing became more difficult closer to the mill stream. The foundation course was 1.4m wide, the face mainly of ironstone, the core of heathstone, a similar choice of stone as for the castle. Elsewhere on the wall the ironstone had been selectively robbed leaving mainly heathstone. Only 5m of wall was in situ and this was waterlogged. A pit below a massive cornerstone at the eastern end contained three sherds of Saco-Norman pottery suggesting that the wall was inserted into a pre-existing Saxon bank shortly before of after the conquest period. No turret or return along the millstream was detected although it is likely that a bank survives beneath the waterlogged levels. No timber revetment or structure to the bank was identified although this may have been destroyed by the insertion of the wall. An 11m length of beam slot was found inserted into the tail of the bank may have been a structure to stabilise a short section of the rear of the bank. The bank appears to have been c. 9m wide. A considerable number of post-bank features were investigated by SWAA volunteers at the rear of the bank but time only allowed for two weekends work in which it was revealed that there was intensive occupation here from the 13th century. Only four features were excavated including an oven or kiln. Two long ditches were also found running perpendicular to and underneath the late Saxon bank. They appeared to be boundaries but there were no associated finds.