NHER 63574 (Monument record) - Site of possible medieval cellar and 16th century rubbish pit, Blackfriars Road and Coburg Street

Previously recorded under NHER 5486.

February 2001. Trial Trenching.
A single trench on the Blackfriars Road frontage revealed evidence for deposition of rubbish, and possibly a pre-16th century cellar.
The upper layers were rich in building rubble and suggested a building with a tiled roof had stood somewhere in the vicinity. The lower layers contained considerable quantities of domestic waste and pottery of 16th century date and the recurrence of this material for a depth of at least 1.5m suggested that the trench was located over a large negative feature such as a pit. The presence of a quantity of horn cores initially suggested to the excavator that this may have been a tanning pit but the environmental samples did not support this theory. It seems instead that this pit was used for the disposal of general waste including faecal matter and possibly sweepings from a stable. The primary function of the feature remains unknown but the excavator suggested its proximity to the street frontage may suggest that it was a cellar that pre-dates the 16th century.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the King's Lynn Museum (KILLM : 2003.43).
D. Gurney (NLA), 12 December 2001.