Excavations at Winchester 1962–63: Second Interim Report1

Martin Biddle

doi:10.1017/S0003581500018114

Excavations at Winchester 1962–63: Second Interim Report1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011

Martin Biddle

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

One result of the excavations in Winchester in 1961 was the formation in 1962 of the Winchester Excavations Committee. The city is at present passing through a period of intensive rebuilding and development which offers many opportunities for archaeological research. Moreover, the 1961 excavations had directed attention to the problems of Winchester's Saxon minsters and the Dean and Chapter were willing to allow excavation near the cathedral. With these opportunities in view, the committee was formed to undertake excavations, both in advance of building projects, and on sites not so threatened, aimed at studying the development of Winchester as a town from its earliest origins to the establishment of the modern city. The centre of interest is the city itself, not any one period of its past, nor any one part of its remains. But we can hope that this approach will in particular throw light upon the end of the Roman city and on the establishment and development of the Saxon town, problems as vital to our understanding of urban development in this country, as they are difficult to solve. Further, it is essential to this approach that the study and interpretation of the documentary evidence should go hand in hand with archaeological research, for the existence of documentary materials greatly enhances the possibilities of interpretation inherent in the archaeological results, and vice versa.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , September 1964 , pp. 188 - 219

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500018114 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 190 note 1} The excavations were entirely financed by the Hampshire County Council. The architects for the new courts, Louis de Soissons, Peacock, Hodges, Robertson, and Fraser, through Mr. Richard Fraser and Mr. Jack Oke, have given every assistance, for which grateful thanks are due.

^{page 192 note 1} Colvin, H. M. (ed.), The History of the King's Works (1963), ii, 854–64.Google Scholar

^{page 192 note 2} Hants. County Record Office, 31 M 60/1 and 2, also File 472; Ward-Evans, S., Winchester Castle: Excavations for Extension of County Offices, 193O–1 (Portsmouth, 1931).Google Scholar

^{page 192 note 3} A considerable amount of Roman material was found in 1930–1: Ward-Evans, op. cit., pp. 5–7.

^{page 192 note 4} Wyatt, T. H., ‘On the Old Hall and New Assize Courts at Winchester’, Trans. R.I.B.A., 20 April 1874, 162Google Scholar; Hants. County Record Office, 31 M 60/1, nos. 26, 29.

^{page 192 note 5} The King's Works, ii, 860.

^{page 193 note 1} Ibid., p. 855.

^{page 193 note 2} Ibid.; pits were also found below the castle wall the east end of the Castle Hall in 1873: T. H. Wyatt, op. cit., pp. 164–5.

^{page 193 note 3} First defined by Hurst, J. G. in Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 187–90.Google Scholar

^{page 193 note 4} Ibid., p. 168.

^{page 193 note 5} Domesday Book, iv (Record Commission, ed. Sir H. Ellis, 1816), p. 541b; discussed by Round, J. H. in V.C.H., Hants, i, 527–37.Google Scholar

^{page 194 note 1} Proc. Hants. F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 57.

^{page 194 note 2} I am grateful to Mr. R. H. M. Dolley for identifying the Saxon and later coins.

^{page 194 note 3} I am grateful to Mr. Geoffrey Dannell for reporting on the samian.

^{page 194 note 4} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 151.

^{page 195 note 1} I am grateful to Father V. Laurent of the Institut Français d'Études Byzantines for identifying this seal which he has published in The Numismatic Circular, lxxii (1964), 49–50.

^{page 196 note 1} Domesday Book, iv, 541b–542a.

^{page 196 note 2} Ibid., pp. 561b–562.

^{page 196 note 3} Ibid., pp. 539a–540b: Edward the Confessor's properties.

^{page 196 note 4} In the fifty years previous to 1440, 11 streets, 17 parish churches and 987 messuages were said to have been ruined through pestilence and the withdrawal of trade: Cat. Pat. Rolls, 1436–41, p. 400; ibid., 1441–6, p. 84.

^{page 196 note 5} e.g. William Godson, Map of Winchester (1750).

^{page 196 note 6} O.S. 1:500 plan of Winchester (surveyed 1869–70), Hants. (Winchester) sheet xli. 13. 14.

^{page 196 note 7} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 155 and fig. 5.

^{page 196 note 8} Ibid., p. 157.

^{page 197 note 1} The excavations in Lower Brook Street in 1962 and 1963 were directed for the Excavations Committee by Miss Louise Millard who has contributed the following account of her work.

^{page 197 note 2} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 190–2, fig. 10.

^{page 197 note 3} Father Laurent kindly examined this seal which he has published in Tie Numismatic Circular, lxxi (1963), 93–96. The seal was issued by an official called John, a protospathary of the chamber called the Pantheon in the imperial palace at Constantinople.

^{page 199 note 1} Wood, M. E., ‘Norman Domestic Architecture’, Arch. Journ. xcii (1935), 167–242Google Scholar; and Trans. Newbury District Field Club, xi, ii (1963), 5–40 for some additional material.

^{page 200 note 1} Turner, Barbara Carpenter, Churches of Medieval Winchester (Hampshire Chronicle, 1957), pp. 20–21, pl. iv.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 1} One explanation may be that the street frontage was fully built up at an early date and that Houses I and III were built in the gardens of the earlier timber houses, which were themselves subsequently rebuilt in stone as the front parts of Houses I and III.

^{page 202 note 2} Kemble, J. M., Codex Diplomatics, iii (1845), 251–3Google Scholar, no. 673, from B.M. Add. MS. 15530 (The Codex Wintoniensis), f. 107: ‘And IX. hagan on Wintancestre on Taennere stret’; dated 990, and possibly suspect in its present form, but nevertheless probably quoting a genuine charter.

^{page 202 note 3} Grateful thanks are due to the Dean and Chapter for permission to dig this trench.

^{page 202 note 4} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 161–72.

^{page 202 note 5} ‘Winchester Cathedral in the Tenth Century’, Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 28–68, esp. pp. 64–68Google Scholar; ‘Winchester New Minster and its Tenth-Century Tower’, J.B.A.A., 3rd ser., xxiv (1961), 16–54, esp. pp. 49–54Google Scholar. The conclusions of these papers to the sites of the minsters have been summarized with additional material and some consequent modifications in Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 173–82.

^{page 202 note 6} Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 66; J.B.A.A., 3rd ser., xxiv (1961), 53–54.

^{page 203 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 153–5, fig. 2.

^{page 203 note 2} Our warmest thanks are due to the Dean and Chapter for permission to excavate in 1962 and 1963 and for their constant interest and encouragement.

^{page 204 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 153–5, fig. 2.

^{page 204 note 2} Ibid., fig. 5.

^{page 206 note 1} I am grateful to Mr. John Wacher for making this point and for discussing the building.

^{page 206 note 2} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 153, n. 4.

^{page 206 note 3} Ibid., pp. 156–7, pl. viiia.

^{page 206 note 4} The Builder, 24 April 1886; The Hampshire Chronicle, 20 February, 20 March, 17 April 1886; The Hampshire Observer, 8 December, 30 December 1886, 21 May 1887.

^{page 207 note 1} Gesta Regum, cap. 124: ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1887), i, 134. This whole passage with its fuller source is quoted and its possible interpretation discussed in Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 179–80, 182.

^{page 209 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxiv (1957), 30, 44–46, 59.

^{page 209 note 2} I am greatly indebted to Mr. Willmot for permission to study these tiles in advance of his own publication.

^{page 209 note 3} Mrs. Elizabeth Eames has kindly discussed the question of these tiles with me. The St. Albans tiles were published by Ward Perkins, J. B., Arch. Journ. xciv (1937), 146, fig. 5, nos, 1, 2, 4.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 176–7, fig. 6.

^{page 210 note 2} Ibid., 182 from B. M. Cotton MS. D. IX, f. 30^v.

^{page 210 note 3} Annales … de Wintonia: Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1865), ii, 10.

^{page 211 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 159.

^{page 211 note 2} e.g. at Camerton, Somerset: Proc. Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc., 4th ser., xiv (1928), 61–70 and xix (1933), 39–63. For this and other references I am much indebted to Dr. H. R. Ellis Davidson and Mr. C. W. Phillips.

^{page 211 note 3} R. Blomqvist and A. W. Mårtensson, Thulegrävningcn 1961 (Archaeologica Lundensia, ii, 1963), pp. 53–54, 282, fig. 28. I am grateful to Dr. Mårtensson for discussing this problem during his visit to Winchester.

^{page 211 note 4} Antiq. Journ. xviii (1938), 236. I am indebted to Professor Wencke Slomann for this reference and for discussing the occurrence of charcoal in graves in Scandinavia.

^{page 212 note 1} Extensive tracing of walls took place about 1895–6, but the work was incomplete and the elucidation of the sequence of construction scarcely attempted: Nisbett, N. C. H., ‘Wolvesey Castle in the Twelfth Century’, Proc. Hants. F.C. iii (1895), 207–24.Google Scholar

^{page 212 note 2} Henry de Blois is attributed by Giraldus Cambrensis with ‘opera mira’ including ‘stagna grandia, ductus aquarum difficiles’: Opera, ed. J. F. Dimock (Rolls Series, 1877), vii, 45.

^{page 212 note 3} e.g. Gesta Stephani (ed. K. R. Potter, 1955), cap. 63–67.

^{page 212 note 4} Annales… de Wintonia: Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1865), ii, 51: ‘domum quasi palatium cum turri fortissima’.

^{page 212 note 5} Matthew Paris, s.a. 1155, following Robert de Monte (1128–86), says that three of Henry de Blois's castles were destroyed: Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1872), ii, 210. Ralph de Diceto, also a contemporary (c. 1120/30-c. 1202), alters this to six: Imagines historiarum, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1876), i, 301. Since six castles are said by the Annales … de Wintonia to have been built by Henry de Blois (Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1865), ii, 51), this would necessarily include Wolvesey. Since three of these castles were in Hampshire (Wolvesey, Waltham, and Merdon), the reference under Hampshire in the Pipe Roll for 1155–6 to the expenditure of £6. 12s. ‘in prosternendo castelli Episcopi Wintoniensis’ cannot be taken necessarily to refer to Wolvesey rather than to Waltham or Merdon (The Great Rolls of the Pipe … A.D. 1155…, ed. J. Hunter (1844), p. 54; cf. The Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. H. Hall (Rolls Series, 1897), ii, 662).

^{page 214 note 1} Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 160–5, fig. 3.

^{page 214 note 2} Giraldus Cambrensis, Vita S. Remigii, cap. xxvii: in Opera, ed. J. F. Dimock (Rolls Series, 1877), vii, 46.

^{page 215 note 1} These observations were made by Mr. F. Cottrill who kindly provided me with full details.

^{page 215 note 2} Proc. Hants. F.C. xix, i (1955) 5; I am indebted to Mr. Barry Cunliffe for providing a plan of this site with additional discoveries.

^{page 215 note 3} The Square may not be a part of this line, the area having been occupied by the Norman royal palace (Arch. Journ. cxix (1962), 178–9). Market Lane is of seventeenth-century date and was laid down on the line of the medieval Temple Ditch (a contemporary observation by John Trussell, recorded in his manuscript Origin of Cities, Winchester City Archives, S. 2: I am grateful to Mr. Tom Atkinson, City Archivist, for this reference).

^{page 216 note 1} Domesday Book (ed. Sir H. Ellis, 1816), iv, 533b, 534a, b.

^{page 216 note 2} Goodman, A. W., The Manor of Goodbegot (1923), pp. 2–5.Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 3} Kemble, J. M., Codex Diplomaticus, vi (1848), pp. 134–5Google Scholar, no. 1291. I am grateful to Mr. Nicholas Brooks for considering this charter, the genuineness of which he accepts.

^{page 216 note 4} Ibid. iii (1845), 251–3, no. 673. See above, n. 2 on p. 202.

^{page 216 note 5} Conveniently in Ekwall, E., The Street-Names of London (1954), pp. 41–42Google Scholar, where the chronology of Winchester street-names is discussed.

^{page 216 note 6} Domesday Book (ed. Sir H. Ellis, 1816), iv, 531–42.

^{page 216 note 7} Robertson, A. J., Anglo-Saxon Charters (1939), Appendix II, no. i.Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 8} This appears to be 3,240 yards as based on Mr. Barry Cunliffe's recent work on the Roman city wall (Proc. Hants. F.C. xxii, ii (1962), 51–81), rather than 3,280 as quoted in Blair, P. Hunter, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (1956), p. 293Google Scholar and Loyn, H. R., Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest (1962), p. 135Google Scholar, but the comparison is still ‘astonishing’.

^{page 216 note 9} Med. Arch. iii (1959), 120–38.

^{page 216 note 10} Information from Mr. C. A. Ralegh Radford. Also in Wilts. Arch. Mag. lvi (1955), 162–6.

^{page 217 note 1} Mr. Radford informs me that there seems to have been a similar situation at Cricklade.

^{page 217 note 2} For as Sir Frank Stenton has shown (Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed., 1947), pp. 262–3) the burghal fortresses were already in existence by 892.

^{page 217 note 3} Guillaume de Poitiers: Histoire de Guillaume le Conquéant, ed. and trans, by Raymonde Foreville, Les Classiques de l'histoire de France au moyen age (1952), 238.

^{page 217 note 1} Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, lib. III, cap. vii, ‘in civitate Venta, quae a gente Saxonum Vintancaestir appellatur’. Cf. ibid., para. 168; lib. IV, cap. xv; lib. V, caps, xviii, xxiii. See also Vita Oswaldi in Symeonis monachi opera omnia, ed. Thos. Arnold (Rolls Ser.), i. 343; Symeon, Historia Regum, ibid., ii, 42.

^{page 217 note 2} Wolter, Hans, Ordericus Vitalis (Wiesbaden, 1955), P. 96.Google Scholar

^{page 217 note 3} The History of the Norman Conquest of England, iv (1871), 67, n. 3; cf. p. 72.

^{page 217 note 4} Chronique des dues de Normandie par Benoit, ed. Carin Fahlin, Bibliotheca Ekmaniana (Uppsala), ii(1954), 519, line 40183.

Article contents

Excavations at Winchester 1962–63: Second Interim Report1

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests