Monument record 13012 - Medieval Sandstone Post Pads and Pit, 87-89 Foregate Street

<1> Kathryn Sather & Associates, 2020, Mount Pleasant and Well Bank House: Significance Assessment, R4517 (Client Report). SCH9052.

Medieval sandstone post pads for a timber superstructure, also a pit containing debris from bronze casting, were recorded during an archaeological evaluation (Trench 6) at 87-89 Foregate Street, in 2020. The Medieval archaeology was encountered at 0.5m (bgl) (21.010m OD).

The large pit [feature 622] lay at the southern end of Trench 6. Sub-circular in shape, it measured at least 1.4m wide and 0.4m deep. The upper fill (607) was a charcoal-rich dark grey/brown clay silt up to 0.4m thick containing lumps of biscuit-fired red clay. Beneath (607) was a fill of dark red/brown sandy clay (608) containing lumps of biscuit-fired red clay and frequent fragments of ceramic mould from the casting of bronze items such as cauldrons. The only dating evidence from fill (608) was residual Roman pottery.

To the north the pit, two discrete stone-packed features were recorded. The most southerly of these was a sub-rectangular arrangement of sandstone blocks (626) measuring 0.7m east-west by 0.4m north-south; the feature was dominated by one significantly larger and level rectangular block. Approximately 2m north of (626) was a second sub-rectangular arrangement of sandstone blocks (629) measuring 0.45m east-west by 0.9m north-south; again the feature was dominated by one significantly larger and level sub- rectangular block. These features have been interpreted as post-pads for a timber structure.