Monument record MDO21908 - Land Adjacent to Gillingham School, Gillingham; Medieval Occupation

Evidence for medieval occupation was excavated during an archaeological trench evaluation on land adjacent to Gillingham School, Gillingham, Dorset in June 2005. The site is located in the Newbury area of the town, which is considered to represent a late 13th century suburban expansion of the town.

The evaluation comprised the machine-excavation of ten trenches, totalling 177.5m in length, with each trench 1.5m wide. The work revealed extensive evidence for medieval activity, including a series of occupation layers that in some instances masked archaeological features. In other areas features were either sealed by colluvial layers or were visible when natural subsoil was exposed. Features recorded comprised the normal range associated with domestic settlement, including a probable hearth and other linear and discrete features. A significant quantity of pottery was recovered, which derives from many different production centres. The assemblage indicates that the main period of settlement is the 12th to 13th centuries, with a probability that earlier (10th to 11th century) and later (14th century) activity is also represented. Archaeological deposits were located in the southern two thirds of the site, with the remaining area to the north containing some modern disturbance with no archaeological deposits. [1] A subsequent watching brief noted that groundworks for the construction of a new car park on the site did not penetrate the medieval layers. However, the excavation of a balancing pond in the southernmost part of the site revealed archaeological features likely to be associated with the medieval occupation. [2]

Record last edited

Oct 20 2020 11:18AM