Excavations at Winchester 1964: Third Interim Report1

Martin Biddle

doi:10.1017/S0003581500052537

Excavations at Winchester 1964: Third Interim Report1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011

Martin Biddle

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In 1964 the Winchester Excavations Committee was joined by the University of North Carolina and Duke University in excavations on seven sites in the city. The work lasted thirteen weeks from the end of June to the end of September and an average of 160 people were employed for the greater part of this period, slightly under £10,000 being spent. A special debt of thanks is owed to Professor U. T. Holmes of the University of North Carolina who was responsible for the initial contacts with the American universities which have resulted in the notable contributions of the universities in finance and personnel to the 1964 and future excavation seasons. Work on this scale involved a great deal of administrative work, the brunt of which was borne by the City of Winchester and the Hampshire County Council, to whose officers and staff warmest thanks are due. We are most grateful to the Army and to the Ministry of Public Building and Works for the quarters provided at Bushfield Camp, and to the many officers who helped in these arrangements.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , September 1965 , pp. 230 - 264

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500052537 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1965

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References

^{page 231 note 1} C. F. C. Hawkes, J. N. L. Myres, and C. G. Stevens, Saint Catharine's Hill, Winchester (1930), pp. 177–80 (hereafter referred to as Saint Catharine's Hill).

^{page 231 note 2} Cunliffe, Barry, Winchester Excavations 1949— 1960, i (1964), pp. 2Google Scholar, 6, 16–17, figs. 1, 5 (hereafter referred to as Winchester 1949–1960).

^{page 231 note 3} Postscript: excavation in 1965 revealed medieval quarries in this area, but no sign of its ditch which may have turned S. below the hospital.

^{page 233 note 1} Antiq. Journ. xxxvi (1956), 4–5, pl. iv; xli (1961), 80–83, figs. 4, 5.

^{page 233 note 2} Map of Southern Britain in the Iron Age (Ordnance Survey, 1962), pp. 12–13, 35 map, where Winchester is marked as an oppidum.

^{page 233 note 3} Winchester 1949–1960, pp. 16–17, fig- 6.

^{page 233 note 4} I am greatly indebted to Mr. Derek Allen for reporting on these coins and for considering afresh all the pre-Roman coins from Winchester. His conclusion that these ‘coins are certainly no evidence for a pre-Roman settlement at Venta Belgarum itself, but… do suggest a considerable amount of activity m the Winchester area in the previous century, with people from different parts of Britain passing to and fro’, is of relevance to the present discussion.

^{page 233 note 5} St. Catharine's Hill, p. 188.

^{page 233 note 6} Conveniently in Antiquity, xxxviii (1964), 103–12Google Scholar. The later stages of the Silchester earthworks are also relevant, with the exception of the possibly Belgic stage I: Boon, G. C., Roman Silchester (1957), pp. 50–62Google Scholar, fig. 4; Proc. Hants F.C. xxi, i (1958), 9–21Google Scholar.

^{page 234 note 1} Proc. Hants F.C. xxii, 11(1962), 58–62, fig. 3.

^{page 234 note 2} Winchester 1949–1960, pp. 7–15.

^{page 234 note 3} I am most grateful to Dr. D. R. Brothwell of the British Museum (Natural History) for examining these cremations.

^{page 234 note 4} Mr. J. R. Collis who supervised the Tower Street site has kindly contributed a preliminary report on the Iron Age pottery.

^{page 234 note 5} e.g. Winchester 1949–1960, fig. 6, no. 1.

^{page 235 note 1} Oxoniensia, iv (1939), 11–15Google Scholar, fig. 5.

^{page 235 note 2} Winchester 1949–1960, pp. 4–5, 10–14, figs. 2, 6.

^{page 235 note 3} I am most grateful to Professor Sheppard Frere for discussing these defences on the site and for his helpful suggestions; also to Mr. Mark Hassall for his comments.

^{page 236 note 1} This conclusion is the opposite of that suggested as a result of the i960 trench, where the chalk bank was seen as a platform on which the wall was erected due to difficulties caused by the steep (sic) slope of the ground: Proc. Hants F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 60Google Scholar.

^{page 236 note 2} I am very grateful to Mr. Geoffrey Dannell for his report on this samian and that from the other sites in Winchester.

^{page 237 note 1} The early bank appeared on the north side of Queen Elizabeth II Court in 1955: Proc. Hants F.C. XXII, ii (1962), 57–58Google Scholar, fig. 2.

^{page 237 note 2} Civil ramparts of turf construction dating to the second century have been found at Brough-on-Humber: Antiq. Journ. xl (1960), 61–62Google Scholar.

^{page 237 note 3} e.g. at Verulamium: Frere, S. S., ‘Verulamium —Then and Now’, London Institute of Archaeology Bulletin, iv (1964), 65Google Scholar.

^{page 237 note 4} Proc. Hants F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 67–69Google Scholar, fig. 10. On the west side of the city the bank related to this Colebrook Street bank in the article cited is now the ‘early bank’ thought to be of later first century date.

^{page 237 note 5} A terminus post quern of. C A.D. 145–75 is provided by a decorated samian bowl of form Drag. 37 by Cinnamvs of Lezoux from infill against the back wall face in Colebrook Street: ibid. 74.

^{page 238 note 1} John Milner, The History … of Winchester (2nd ed., 1809), ii. 188.

^{page 238 note 2} Proc. Hants F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 52Google Scholar.

^{page 238 note 3} They appear on John Speed's map of 1615, but the representation seems very schematic.

^{page 238 note 4} Cf. Proc. Hants F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 81Google Scholar.

^{page 238 note 5} I am most grateful to Mr. Richard Reece for reporting on these and the other Roman coins from the 1964 excavations.

^{page 238 note 6} I am most grateful to Mr. Michael Dolley for reporting on the Saxon and later medieval coins from the 1964 excavations.

^{page 239 note 1} Proc. Hants F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 64–66Google Scholar, 69, 71.

^{page 239 note 2} Ibid., p. 69.

^{page 239 note 3} Winchester 1949–1960, pp. 21–23, fig 8.

^{page 239 note 4} Ibid., p. 23, fig. 8.

^{page 239 note 5} Ibid., p. 23.

^{page 239 note 6} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 194Google Scholar.

^{page 239 note 7} Information from Mr. F. T. Baker.

^{page 240 note 1} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 190.

^{page 240 note 2} Ibid., p. 193.

^{page 240 note 3} Colvin, H. M. (ed.), The History of the King's Works (1963), ii, 855Google Scholar.

^{page 240 note 4} A thin base-silver coin with the obverse derived from the helmeted head of Athena, of a type known from Hengistbury Head and the Le Catillon hoard and assigned by Mr. Derek Allen to a group of South Hampshire settlers of the first century B.C.

^{page 240 note 5} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 194Google Scholar.

^{page 242 note 1} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), p. 195Google Scholar.

^{page 242 note 2} Ibid., p. 206.

^{page 242 note 3} Similar cobbling in the western part of the area appeared to belong to house floors rather than to this eastern area.

^{page 242 note 4} W. Stubbs (ed.), Memorials of St. Dunstan (Rolls Ser., 1874), pp. 14–15.

^{page 242 note 5} I am most grateful to the late Dr. John Walker for identifying this coin and to Mr. K. A. Howes of the British Museum for cleaning and repairing the coin.

^{page 242 note 6} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 215–17Google Scholar.

^{page 242 note 7} Unless the cobbled surface with the stake-holes be interpreted as a street surface, in which case the date of the street will be even earlier.

^{page 243 note 1} Godson, William, Map of Winchester (1750)Google Scholar; Gale, R. C., Map of Winchester (1836)Google Scholar.

^{page 243 note 2} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 193Google Scholar.

^{page 243 note 3} On this problem see below, p. 245.

^{page 243 note 4} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 196–202Google Scholar.

^{page 245 note 1} I am most grateful to Dr. H. H. Williams and Mr. A. W. Pike of the Bureau for their initial approach (as a result of an article on parasite eggs from the 1954 Middle Brook Street excavations published in The Veterinary Record, lxvii (1955), 216Google Scholar) and for their continuing help.

^{page 246 note 1} This line of inquiry was initiated in discussion with Dr. Williams to whom I am most grateful for his interest. Dr. M. Hughes of the Laboratory kindly offered to undertake the necessary sampling and investigation.

^{page 246 note 2} Being undertaken by Dr. G. R. Holcomb of the University of North Carolina and Dr. D. R. Brothwell of the British Museum (Natural History), to both of whom warmest thanks are due.

^{page 246 note 3} Being undertaken by Professor A. C. Barefoot of North Carolina State University at Raleigh, together with Mr. Barry Richardson and Mr. Lewis Woodhouse of Messrs. Richardson & Starling of Winchester, to all of whom most grateful thanks are due.

^{page 246 note 4} Being undertaken by the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art through Dr. M. J. Aitken and Messrs. M. S. Tite and H.N. Hawley, to all of whom l am most grateful.

^{page 246 note 5} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 199Google Scholar, 201–2.

^{page 246 note 6} For an explanation of this and other terminology relating to the study of medieval tenements see M. R. G. Conzen, Alnwick, Northumberland: A Study in Town Plan Analysis (The Institute of British Geographers, Pub. No. 27,1960), pp. 25–34, esp. 31.

^{page 247 note 1} The impossibility of excavating the early levels in 1964 has already been noted. For eleventh- and twelfth-century houses of a quite different type see p. 243, above.

^{page 247 note 2} Individual house plans have not been published at this stage. The type of stone house shown in Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), pl. l, is standard. As regards timber houses the plan is similar, but due to the widening of the southern part of Lower Brook Street in 1963, the front walls of the timber houses so far excavated have been inaccessible. It is hoped that a series of comparative plans will be published in the next interim report.

^{page 247 note 3} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 200Google Scholar, pl. l.

^{page 248 note 1} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), p. 201Google Scholar.

^{page 248 note 2} I am indebted to Mr. S. E. Rigold for reporting on this and other jettons from the 1964 excavation.

^{page 249 note 1} In 1963, when the timbers of House VI were first seen (Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 201Google Scholar), they were dated to the eleventh to twelfth centuries due to the large quantity of residual early material in the wall-trenches. The recovery of greater quantities of pottery, and the associated floor levels, corrects the previous dating.

^{page 249 note 2} Ibid., 202–11.

^{page 251 note 1} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 204–6Google Scholar, fig. 6.

^{page 251 note 2} Ibid., p. 204, pl. LVIII, Wall A.

^{page 251 note 3} For the documentary history of the Old Minster and an architectural interpretation of the written sources see Quirk, R. N., ‘Winchester Cathedral in the Tenth Century’, Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 28–68Google Scholar.

^{page 251 note 4} In fig. 5 the lines of the bottoms of the robber-trenches have been shown, for as in robber-trench C it is clear that they can preserve the outlines even of individual foundation blocks now robbed away. It is true that the bottoms of the foundations may have been wider, or even narrower (see below, p. 253), than the walls themselves, but they are nevertheless probably better evidence for the plan than the sides and upper margins of the robber-trenches, which are often most irregular, bearing little relation to their plan below.

^{page 253 note 1} I am most grateful to Mr. Clark for the great amount of work he has undertaken, and to the Distillers Company for allowing him to carry out the survey in their time.

^{page 253 note 2} Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 48–56Google Scholar.

^{page 254 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 61–62Google Scholar.

^{page 254 note 2} Arch. Journ. xliv (1964), 207–8Google Scholar, pl. lviii A–B.

^{page 254 note 3} A close examination of the lie of the rubble particles below the floor at this point showed that they were mostly horizontal, thus indicating a deliberate levelling of the make-up material. Had the lie of the particles been haphazard, chance might have accounted for the broad sweeps noted in the section. I am most grateful to Professor E. M. Jope for suggesting this line of inquiry.

^{page 254 note 4} Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 59–61Google Scholar.

^{page 254 note 5} Earle, J., Gloucester Fragments (1861), pp. 2–3Google Scholar, 11. 2–4: ‘of Þaere stænenan Þryh. Þe stent nú wiðinnan Þam níwan ge weorce. ‘For the date see Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 32–33Google Scholar, 56.

^{page 254 note 6} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 208Google Scholar, pls. LII a and b.

^{page 254 note 7} Cf. F. Wormald, The Benedictional of St. Ethelwold (1959), p. 31, pl. 8.

^{page 255 note 1} I am most grateful to Mr. L. Biek for arranging meetings on the site to discuss the problems involved and to Dr. R. F. Tylecote, Mr. D. W. Brown (Morgan Crucible Company), Mr. D. Hughes (Mears and Stainbank), Mr. W. R. Lewis (Tin Research Institute), and Mr. F. Sharpe, F.S.A. (Society of Campanologists) for their help. A report on the meetings has appeared in the Foundry Trade Journal, 8 October 1964, pp. 460–2.

^{page 255 note 2} I am indebted to Mr. Barry Richardson for measuring these fragments with a spherometer he designed especially for the purpose.

^{page 255 note 3} For the processes involved in bell-casting in the twelfth century see Theophilus, , De Diversis Artibus (ed. Dodwell, C. R., Nelson's Medieval Texts, 1961), pp. 150–8Google Scholar. For a translation with useful notes and illustrations see Hawthorne, J. G. and Smith, C. S., On Divers Arts, The Treatise of Theophilus (Chicago, 1963), pp. 167–76Google Scholar.

^{page 255 note 4} Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 43–64Google Scholar.

^{page 255 note 5} Ibid., p. 63, pl. vii b.

^{page 255 note 6} F. Wormald, The Benedictional of St. Ethelwold (1959), p. 31, pl. 8.

^{page 255 note 7} The practice of casting bells within a church is now quite well known and has been observed at Cheddar (Med. Arch, vi-vii (1962–3), 65Google Scholar), in the Netherlands (Berichten van de rijksdienst voor het oudheidkundig bodemonderzoek, vii (1956), 31–34Google Scholar, fig. 2, M-N 6, fig. 4), and took place in Canterbury Cathedral in the eighteenth century.

^{page 256 note 1} The demolition levels of the Old Minster produced many sherds of tripod-pitcher fabric together with Winchester Ware, thus demonstrating the existence of the true tripod-pitcher fabrics in Winchester as early as 1093–4: cf. Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 190–2Google Scholar.

^{page 256 note 2} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 209–10Google Scholar, pls. liv, lviii a–b, c–d, marked by ‘T ’.

^{page 257 note 1} Ibid., pp. 210–11, pl. lvii.

^{page 257 note 2} Conveniently in Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 179–80Google Scholar, 182. For the documentary sources for the New Minster and their architectural interpretation see Quirk, R. N., ‘Winchester New Minster and its Tenth-Century Tower’, J.B.A.A., 3rd. ser., xxiv (1961), 16–54Google Scholar.

^{page 257 note 3} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 211Google Scholar.

^{page 258 note 1} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 212–14Google Scholar, fig 7.

^{page 258 note 2} Ibid., p. 214.

^{page 258 note 3} Ibid., p. 214, fig. 7, pl. lvi.

^{page 258 note 4} In 1963 the foundation between Rooms 9 and 10 w a s incorrectly thought to be part of the south wall of the oval building: ibid., fig. 7.

^{page 258 note 5} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 161–5Google Scholar, fig. 3.

^{page 260 note 1} A few post-holes and a gully in the surface of the Roman street probably belong to this period rather than to any immediately post-Roman occupation: Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 214Google Scholar.

^{page 260 note 2} Ibid., pp. 212–14.

^{page 260 note 3} I am most grateful to Dr. George Zarnecki and Dr. Peter Kidson for discussing this problem and for suggesting the parallel with Cluny and La Charité.

^{page 260 note 4} The writer is at present working on a paper on Tournai marble left unfinished by Mr. Roger Quirk, where these points will be dealt with in detail.

^{page 260 note 5} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 214–15.

^{page 261 note 1} Shown on fig. I just north of the‘S’ of ‘L.B.S.’.

^{page 261 note 2} Winchester 1949–1960, p. 167. Shown on fig. i east of and level with ‘T.S.’.

^{page 261 note 3} We are most grateful to the Dean, to Canon Maundrell at no. 1 The Close, to Mr. Edward Cooper at no. 7, and to Mrs. M. V. Willan at no. 8 Dome Alley, for allowing these surveys to be made in their gardens.

^{page 261 note 4} Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 197Google Scholar.

^{page 262 note 1} Cf. Wilson, D. M., Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork, 700–1100, in the British Museum, London, 1964, no. 148Google Scholar; Kendrick, T. D., ‘An Anglo-Saxon Cruet’, Antiq. Journ., xviii (1938)Google Scholar, pl. lxxiv, 2 and 3 (these have a slightly modified contour); Brøndsted, J., Early English Ornament, London/Copenhagen, 1924Google Scholar, figs. 132 and 133.

^{page 262 note 2} e.g. Arbman, H., Schweden und das karolingische Reich, Stockholm, 1937Google Scholar, pls. 45, 50, 51, 52, 58 (these are usually larger).

^{page 262 note 3} e.g. Petersen, J., Vikingetidens Smykker, Stavanger, 1928Google Scholar, figs. 136 and 137; Wilson, D. M. and Klindt-Jensen, O., Viking Art, London, 1965Google Scholar, pl. xxxiii d.

^{page 262 note 4} Petersen, op. cit., fig. 137.

^{page 262 note 5} Cf. British Museum Royal 7 D. xxiv, f. 9b. Kendrick, T. D., Late Saxon and Viking Art, London, 1949Google Scholar, pl. xxviii, 5.

^{page 262 note 6} Cf., for example, Bexhill, Sussex (Kendrick, op. cit., pl. lvi) and Ramsbury, Wilts. (Kendrick, T. D., Anglo-Saxon Art to A.D. 900, London, 1938Google Scholar, pl. c).

^{page 263 note 1} D. M. Wilson, op. cit., 1964, pl. xii (particularly in the gable end, bottom right).

^{page 263 note 2} C. F. Battiscombe, The Relics of St. Cuthbert, Durham, 1956, pl. xxxiii, above the head of Laurentius diaconus.

^{page 263 note 3} Wilson, D. M., ‘An Early Viking Grave from Källby, Lund’, Meddelanden frän Lands Universitets Historiska Museum, 1955, fig. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 263 note 4} Cf., for example, A. W. Brøgger, Borrefundet og Vestfoldkongernes graver, Kristiania, 1916 (Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, II. Hist.–Filos.Klasse, i), fig. 14.

^{page 264 note 1} Wilson, op. cit., 1964, pl. xxxvi, 93.

^{page 264 note 2} The form is discussed shortly in Wilson, op. cit., 1964, 64.

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