Monument record MDO18156 - Greyhound Yard, east burgage plot

The eastern plot of a series of medieval burgages running south from Durngate Street exposed during the 1984 excavations at Greyhound Yard. The west side was defined by a ditch and the south and east sides were probably destroyed by later activity. The north side lay beyond the excavated area. Within the curtilage was a series of pits, dating from the late 12th to the 14th century.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1984 prior to the redevelopment of the area of the former Greyhound Yard. (1) The results of the excavation were published together with the results of the adjacent Old Methodist Chapel excavations. (2) The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the published report (2). One of a series of burgage plots running back from Durngate Street exposed at Greyhound Yard. Only the west side of this plot was defined by a ditch [1323], which ran roughly north-south. The east and south sides of the plot are assumed to have been originally defined by ditches, with the south side on the same line as the two burgage plots to the west. Much of the stratigraphy on the east side of the site had been truncated by the terrace for the post medieval building [5523]. The precise line of the eastern side of the burgage boundary is not known, but can perhaps be extrapolated from the existing property boundaries along Durngate Street and the parish boundary between St Peter’s and All Saints. However, for the convenience of this record, the following description will include all contemporary features to the east of Ditch [1323]. The northern limit lay beyond the excavated area. During the medieval period a stone building [952] was built in the northern part of this burgage plot. A number of pits were found which dated broadly from the late 12th to the early 14th century, a number of which were earlier than the construction of Building [952]. Along the east side was a line of pits [1312, 1392, 2233, 2173, 2210, 2180, 2153, 2157, 2200, 2273]. Pits [1312], [1392] and [2233] lay beneath Building [952] and were large rounded pits about 3m across and 1.3m deep filled with dark soils and limestone rubble. Pit [2173] was a small bell-shaped pit about 0.9m deep filled with dark soil, beneath the wall of Building [952]. To the south of these pits was a large oval pit [2110] about 3m by 4m across and 1.5m deep with steep sides and flat base. It was filled with fine dark soil and chalk rubble. This pit cut and largely destroyed two earlier smaller pits [2180] and [2157]. Further south were two similar large oval pits [2200] and [2273]. Their fills contained a large quantity of flint rubble and mortar fragments from the robbing of the Roman buildings, together with quantities of 14th century pottery. To the east were a number of severely truncated pits [829, 1002/795, 1072, 1070/1690/1689, 1080, 1076, 1691, 1078, 2332, 2331, 2364, and 4175], which contained some medieval pottery.

Record last edited

May 2 2012 4:00AM