Archaeological investigations at St Austin's Friars and Bridge Street, Shrewsbury 2007

Archaeological Investigations at St Austin's Friars and Bridge Street, Shrewsbury, 2007

In 2007 work was carried out to erect a two-storey office extension following the demolition of a former school house building at Bridge Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and to relocate the school house building on land at St Austin’s Friars, Shrewsbury. The development site lay within the historic core of the medieval town and continued to be developed throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods. A desk-based assessment by R K Morriss in 1996 and a field evaluation by the Archaeology Service, SCC, in 1997 had identified archaeological features within the development area. These included the line of the 13th century town wall and part of the town's Augustinian Friary lay within the development areas.

A programme of archaeological work was included as part of the 2007 development to record these and any other archaeological features that might be revealed. The work was carried out by the Archaeology Service, SCC, in April and May 2007.

On the Bridge Street site the only potential remains of the town wall seen in the evaluation was a section of red sandstone wall incorporated into the lower courses of the rear (south) wall of the existing Morris headquarters building. The alignment of the town wall here was consistent with a section seen a little to the west in 1997 investigations. There was no sign of the town defences elsewhere in the Bridge Street evaluation trench – indeed the level of the natural subsoil was consistent with the wall lying along the northern boundary of the study area. Medieval occupation of the area was attested by a single cess pit containing 12th- to 14th-century pottery.

Later activity took the form of a number of post-medieval (18th-century) clay-lined pits possibly associated with one of the tanning industries that operated in this area.

A fine sandstone-lined well was also revealed on the western edge of the site. The study area was redeveloped in 19th- century as part of the St Chad's School.

On the St Austin's Friars site there was nothing to distinguish occupation on the site as belonging to a religious house. The earliest evidence for occupation was a truncated gully of unknown function cut into the natural subsoil and a pit – probably a cess pit - containing 12th- to 13th-century pottery. These features were sealed by yard surfaces and stratified soil deposits containing a significant assemblage of pottery dating from the 12th to 14th centuries. A thin pebble layer along the southern side of these deposits might have marked the edge of a roadway on the same alignment as the modern street (St Austin's Friars).

The medieval yard surfaces were sealed by a layer containing crushed red sandstone, probably construction debris. A red sandstone wall of late medieval or early post-medieval date was seen to underlie the foundations of the 18th-century cottage 3 St Austin's Friars. Further sandstone foundations along the street frontage appeared to be of post-medieval date (although they did incorporate a block of masonry which may have been slightly earlier).

Most of the post-medieval and later deposits on the site had been removed by landscaping operations in the 1970s or 1990s. However, along the northern edge of the site were the brick and sandstone footings of the White House, and at the northeastern corner, the steps down into its cellar. The cellar walls were of red sandstone and it had been filled with brick and timber rubble left from the demolition of the White House in 1978.

The archaeological investigations on these sites were funded by Morris Property.