NHER 68156 (Monument record) - Post-medieval deposits and late post-medieval garden wall built from reused medieval architectural limestone

April 2019. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new studio building in garden of No 61 The Close.
The excavation of the footing trenches for this building revealed no archaeologically-significant remains, with only post-medieval deposits disturbed. Hand auguring encountered a wet, mid grey silty sand at c.1.65m below the present ground surface, which became increasingly cleaner and more yellow with depth. This probable riverine deposit was overlain by a thick soil layer that contained a few pieces of late brick. This was sealed by a gravel surface which was in turn overlain by a thin layer of chalk lumps and mortar pieces that probably represented demolition or construction debris. Above these layers was a thick probable make-up deposit that also contained fragments of late brick. Prior to the late 19th century this site has been part of the cathedral’s masonry works yard and store, which accounted for the frequent lenses of mortar and limestone waste present within the topsoil.
The small number of finds recovered are all of 19th- to early 20th-centuty date.
The clearance of vegetation from the site of this new building fully exposed the eastern garden wall, which is built from reused ashlar pieces separated into three bays/panels of unequal width by vertical brick banding and capped with full length brick headers. The footings for the wall were also uncovered, which were shown to comprise a rough mix of hard mortar with flints and occasional brick fragments. Cartographic evidence suggests that this wall is contemporary with No 61 itself, being built at some time between 1885 and 1907. The ashlar is predominantly of Barnack stone and Caen stone, with six pieces having the well-defined diagonal axe tooling that is characteristic of Romanesque work in the cathedral. Numerous reused shaft stones could also be identified. Although the bulk of the ashlar is medieval, one Bath stone shaft section was probable from the 19th-century works on the cathedral. It is likely that much of the other stone represents material removed from the fabric of the cathedral during restoration work during the 18th and 19th centuries.
For further details see report (S1) and rectified photograph of garden wall (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 9 March 2024.