EDO4944 - Rear of Old Town Hall (W8), Christchurch; excavation 1981

The Wessex Archaeological Committee excavated an area some 10m x 21m, lying to the rear of the Old Town Hall, Christchurch, during 1981. The excavation revealed an 18th century gully with a pit at one end and six post-medieval post-holes. Medieval features comprised a thin scatter of post-holes, stakeholes, small ditches or gullies and pits. No coherent structure could be postulated from the scatter of 68 post-holes, although various alignments were suggested, where dateable they tended to be 12th-13th century. Four 12th-13th gullies were identified running approximately N-S or E-W, possibly representing boundary or property markers. There were also two pit complexes, one in the SW corner of the site and the other running under the northern baulk at the east end, of indeterminate function but dating from the 11th-12th century. A broad hollow in the SE corner of the site may possibly represent a trackway. The density of Saxon and medieval features on this site is less than the southern part of the medieval town. This rather suggests that the northern part of the town was thinly occupied during the medieval period.