NHER 66626 (Monument record) - Post-medieval cellar incorporating elements of medieval town wall

February-September 2013. Photographic Survey and Watching Brief.
Work undertaken prior to and during the conversion of 4a Deneside into four residential units. This building had formerly served as commercial premises and had been constructed directly on the line of the medieval town wall (NHER 4294).
An initial photographic survey of this section of the town wall and the later post-medieval building above was undertaken as a condition for Scheduled Monument Consent.
A watching brief maintained during subsequent groundworks recorded the top of the surviving fabric of the medieval town wall, which was exposed along the full length of the building. The rear wall of the 19th-century building was shown to have been built along the line of the northern side of this thick flint and mortar wall. A surprise discovery was a 19th-century cellar that had been constructed around an intact medieval brick arch and embrasure in the town wall. Neighbouring arches appeared to retain their 16th-century infilling, suggesting this particular arch had been emptied to form part of the cellar. The brick arch could be seen to be moderately well constructed, although it was not entirely symmetrical and the estuarine clay bricks were set with wide mortar joints to reduce the impact of irregularities in their form and placement. The arch was set c.1.1m into the wall (which was c.1.85m thick at this point) and there was a centrally positioned blocked embrasure for an arrow loop. Modifications to the medieval fabric included the scar of a possible coal chute and an iron drainage pipe entering the wall just below the arch apex. The embrasure was blocked with bricks of late 19th- to early 20th-century type. The exposed medieval fabric was preserved in situ – being covered with a barrier of geotextile and the void filled with clean sand.
Inside the building and sealing the remains of the town wall was an extensive make-up deposit of redeposited sandy soil. The excavation of new drainage runs within the yard area exposed the footings of a 19th-century structure of uncertain function and an intact brick vaulted grey-water tank of probable 19th- to early 20th-century date. No earlier remains were observed in this area.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 19 December 2022.