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Trial Excavations in the East Suburb of Old Sarum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

John F. S. Stone  and
John Charlton
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Extract

About 1540 John Leland wrote of the ruins of Old Sarum: ‘Ther was a paroch of the Holy Rode beside in Old-Saresbyri; and an other over the est gate whereof yet some tokens remayne. I do not perceyve that ther wer any mo gates in Old-Saresbyri than 2: one by est, and an other by west. Withoute eche of these gates was a fair suburbe. And in the est suburbe was a paroch chirch of S. John: and ther yet is a chapelle standinge. … Ther hath bene houses in tyme of mind inhabited in the est suburbe of Old-Saresbyri: but now ther is not one house neither within Old-Saresbyri, nor without it, inhabited.’ Since that date much work has been expended on Old Sarum itself, but it may be said with truth that the suburbs have received but scant, if any, attention.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 1935 , pp. 174 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1935

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References

page 174 note 1 See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 1910–1916, xxiii–xxviii.Google Scholar

page 174 note 2 Wilts. Arch. Mag. 1933, xlvi, 261.Google Scholar

page 174 note 3 Ibid. 1932, xlvi, 98.

page 175 note 1 Salisbury and Winchester Journal, April 7, 1834Google Scholar: ‘Within these few days, several skeletons have been discovered by a party of labourers engaged in widening a path at Old Sarum, a little to the left of the Amesbury road. Notwithstanding the great length of time during which they must have lain there, owing to the dry nature of the soil and the situation of the place, they were in a fine state of preservation.’

Ibid., July 16, 1881: ‘On Thursday evening, while some excavations were in progress in the Recreation Ground near Old Sarum, a skeleton–believed to be that of a man about 30 years of age–was discovered. Some tiles lay near the feet. The grave where it was deposited had been cut out of the chalk. The skeleton, which is perfect except that several of the teeth have disappeared, is 5 ft. 7½ in. long. It… was left untouched in the grave. The skeleton … has no appearance inconsistent with natural death.’ An element of romance attends the recording of this last burial. It was apparently photographed at the time, since the only extant copy known was discovered many years later in Guernsey by Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, F.S.A., to whom we must express our thanks for bringing it to our notice. A copy has now been deposited in the Salisbury Museum.

page 181 note 1 We are indebted to Dr. H. H. Thomas for the identification of certain of the building materials found.

page 182 note 1 The 6 in. O.S. Map (Wilts. LXVI, N.E., 1926 edn.) marks the positions of both a Hospital of St. John and a Church of the Holy Cross outside the East Gate, but inquiry at the Ordnance Survey Office has elicited the information that no reasons are known for these attributions.

page 182 note 2 Yet there are certain historical allusions to a House of Lepers in the vicinity. Richard de Otterbourne in 1361 left a bequest of twelve pence to a House of Lepers at Harnham as well as to that of St. John at Old Sarum (Hatcher, H., History of Salisbury, 1843, p. 92).Google Scholar Canon Jackson, J. E., in his paper on ‘Ancient Chapels of Wilts.’ (Wilts. Arch. Mag. x, 304)Google Scholar, was of the opinion that the Hospital or Free Chapel of St. John near Old Sarum had a House of Lepers attached to it.

page 183 note 1 Chantry Certificate XXVII, Wilts. Arch. Mag. xii, 376.

page 185 note 1 It should, however, be mentioned that the majority of the surface finds were of a different fabric, wheel turned, and 50 per cent, of them glazed as against 8 per cent, in the case of the cesspit sherds.

page 185 note 2 Parallels exist in the following museums: Bristol, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Devizes.

page 185 note 3 Inventorium Sepulchrale, pl. xx, 3, 4a; British Museum Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, 1923, fig. 55Google Scholar.

page 185 note 4 Antiq. Journ. iv, 371 ff.

page 185 note 5 Ibid. xi, pl. xxxiv, c.

page 185 note 6 Perhaps pre-Norman: the two vessels referred to bear a marked resemblance to the Ely jug.

page 185 note 7 The decoration here consisted of four rows of impressed squares; the sherds were found with objects dated c. 1200.

page 185 note 8 Salisbury Museum, and illustrated in Wilts. Arch. Mag. xlvi, 265, pl. v, 1. Parallels may also be noted from the Low Countries: Annales de la Société d'Archéologie de Bruxelles, vii, pl. 111, 1, 2, 5, 7, and pl. v, 6, 7.

page 186 note 1 Archaeologia, lxxxiii, 109.

page 186 note 2 Wilts. Arch. Mag. xlv, 433.

page 186 note 3 We have here to thank Dr. T. Borenius for permission to note this fact and for allowing us to illustrate a sherd (no. 8).

page 186 note 4 Only in the case of no. 2 was any quantity of the base of a cooking pot found; this is no doubt attributable to the fact that bases and sides are virtually indistinguishable.

page 186 note 5 The Roman numeral after each sherd indicates the cesspit from which it was obtained.

page 187 note 1 Essex Arch. Soc. Trans. n.s. xii, fig. 9. Rayleigh Castle ‘ceased to be used (at least as a fortress) early in the thirteenth century’ (ibid. p. 171).

page 187 note 2 The coin series runs from Rudolf II to Otto I (E. Bahrfeldt and W. Reinecke: Der Bardewicker Münzerfund).

page 189 note 1 On the development of the bridge spout see Sir C. Fox, Archaeologia, lxxxiii, 116 ff.