EDO5375 - Land at the rear of The Crown PH, High Street, Shaftesbury; evaluation 2003

An archaeological evaluation carried out by ASI Heritage Consultants for Hall and Woodhouse Ltd in connection with a planning application for residential development on land attached to the Crown Hotel. Site operations were conducted by Pathfinders Archaeological Reconnaissance under the supervision of ASI. Three 2m by 1m test pits were excavated by hand at locations across the 'footprint' of the proposed building. Deposits exposed were modern/post-medieval overburden and disturbances over a sequence of archaeological features and soil layers averaging 650mm thick. In the area of the garden (Trench 1 and Trench 2) the overburden consisted of topsoil and garden soil, which contained large amounts of post-medieval and early modern domestic refuse. A late post-medieval rubbish pit [F102] was revealed in Trench 1. In Swan's Yard (Trench 3) the overburden consisted of the cobbled floor of stable, now the surface of the yard. The archaeological deposits revealed were interpreted as 'backland' deposits of the sort that might be anticipated in this location. Some terracing had occurred. The range of pottery recovered dated from the tenth/eleventh centuries. The earliest securely-dated features are tenth/eleventh century in date - a post hole [F304] and narrow linear gully [F107] characteristic of medieval burgages. The author points out that the coincidence of the gully with the present plot boundary suggests strongly that it may be the original boundary of the burgage plot. Layers above represent prolonged dumping of domestic refuse at the back of the plot, interspersed with re-cutting of boundary ditches, and the spreading of building waste from the adjacent masonry building, during the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. A stratigraphic break between the early boundary ditch [F107] and its later successors suggests a period of abandonment. The uppermost layers represent later, post-medieval stabilisation and soil development augmented (in Trenches 1 and 2) by upcast from terracing, probably of the area of Swan's Yard.