medieval pits and pottery at Williams & Griffin

Today (18th June), Trust director Philip made a site visit to our excavation inside the Williams & Griffin store in the High Street in Colchester. There, site supervisor Adam Wightman briefed him on our progress on the site.

We have just started excavating a complex of intercutting medieval pits in what was the backyard of K D Radcliffe Ltd’s shop (no 150 High Street). These pits pre-date the Radcliffe building, because the ancient plot boundaries along the High Street survived for centuries. This is a feature which we have observed on other sites in the High Street, when we have excavated medieval pits in the yards behind the post-medieval, modern buildings which now front onto the High Street. These medieval pits were dug down through the Roman deposits. The deposits above the medieval pits on our current site have already produced a large quantity of post-medieval pottery fragments. This morning, our excavators were excavating medieval deposits within the pits which produced some fragments of late medieval pottery (probably 14th century) and also, which is rare in Colchester, fragments of medieval slate.

Fragments of slate which we excavate in the town centre usually indicate an 18th-century or later date. Slates for roofing were brought here from Wales in bulk from the mid 19th century, by rail. Before the 19th century, slate roofs in the town indicate a high-status building, such as Easthill House. Medieval roof slates indicate a very high-status building; for example, the castle keep seems to have originally been roofed with slates, before about 1100. This part of the High Street – the upper, western end – was the administrative and commercial centre of the medieval town. It was the site of several Norman stone buildings, one of which was the town’s Moot Hall, and another which was referred to as ‘Hamo’s house’ on the OS 1876  map (Hamo de St Clare of Lexden Manor inherited the Colchester properties of Eudo Dapifer, William the Conqueror’s representative in Colchester – including, perhaps, this stone house). Perhaps one of the high-status stone buildings in this part of the medieval High Street was roofed with slate. Medieval roof slates were shaped and used like wooden shingles.

The complex of pits on our site at Williams & Griffin includes a sub-square cess-pit with sloping sides. The function of the other pits is still uncertain. We would expect them to be rubbish-pits, being in a yard behind a house, but these may have been quarry-pits dug to extract the gravel from the underlying Roman street on the site.

The material from the deposits sealing the pits includes fragments of clay tobacco-pipes, post-medieval pottery, and some fragments of Roman building materials. The post-medieval pottery from these deposits is hand-made, heavily glazed ‘post-medieval red earthenware’ and represents kitchen debris; it is a normal group of post-medieval pottery from the town centre, although it has some interesting elements. Senior Trust archaeologist Howard Brooks had a quick look at the post-medieval pottery while it was being processed today, and identified some very interesting fragments of local ‘Metropolitan slipware’ imitation pottery. ‘Metropolitan slipware’ pottery was popular in the 18th century in the City of London, where it was made, and so a local Essex pottery must have produced some trendy imitation pottery for the Colchester market.

The Trust’s excavations in the Williams & Griffin store are being funded by Fenwick Ltd.

The images show the complex of pits, and some of the post-medieval pottery which was being processed by volunteers at Roman Circus House today, including two joining fragments of ‘Metropolitan slipware’ imitation pottery. [Image to follow.]

.