Current Research: Great Britian and Ireland
Reported by James Symonds
j.symonds@sheffield.ac.uk
(Spring 2008 SHA Newsletter 40[4])
England
Grand Arcade, Cambridge (reported by Craig Cessford): During 2005 and 2006 a team from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit led by Craig Cessford excavated a 1.5-hectare site in Cambridge city center on behalf of the Grand Arcade Partnership in advance of redevelopment. The main occupation of the site began in the 11th century AD and the excavations uncovered large areas of the medieval town boundary, known as the King’s Ditch, and a suburb outside the boundary, where substantial elements of a dozen properties were excavated. The site has been continually occupied since the 11th century.
Building foundations at the Grand Arcade site, Cambridge.
A range of 16th- and 17th- century features were investigated including stone- lined wells and cess pits, some constructed from reused medieval moulded stone, whose backfills contained a wide range of material including a leather jug.
Eighteenth- to 20th- century features were examined in detail and a full program of standing building recording was undertaken. Large quantities of 18th- to 20th- century material were recovered, including nearly 500 kg of pottery and 180 kg of vessel glass; waterlogging meant that organic material such as wood and leather also survived. The majority of this material came from around 40 substantial assemblages probably representing a variety of clearance-type events often apparently linked to household succession. The properties investigated were mainly of mixed domestic and commercial occupancy: those that produced significant archaeological remains included several public houses, a department store, a china and glass retailers, an auctioneers, a builders yard, a chemists, a grocers, premises occupied by several college servants including a butler and a cook, a Turkish baths, several areas of dense slum-type housing development, gardens, a stables and a decorators. Several types of distinctive material culture linked to the university were recovered, including plates marked with the names of colleges and college cooks.
Between 2004 and 2007 a range of other excavations were undertaken by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit in Cambridge. Those that have produced significant 16th- to 20th-century deposits include Hostel Yard, Bradwell’s Court, and St. John’s Triangle. Discoveries have included relatively large groups of 16th-century glass, a deposit of late-16th- or early-17th-century prepared imported cod, a mid-18th-century inn group and a late-18th-century assemblage associated with a coffee house. The latter is particularly important; it contains some pieces marked with the proprietor’s name and a large number of vessels, the majority forms related to coffee and tea consumption.
