EDO4961 - Town Hall Car Park (Site X10), Christchurch; excavation 1974

During the course of levelling operations by Christchurch Corporation in preparation for a new car park evidence of extensive late Saxon occupation was revealed. The corporation halted work for a period of 9 days in January 1974 to allow archaeological excavation of the site. (1) Area 1 was a rectangular trench approximately 17m x 12m, although the western half was not fully excavated. Area 2, adjacent to and SW of area 1, had been partially excavated by the South Wessex Archaeological Association (2). The site lay immediately behind the NE defences of the Saxon town (1). Excavation revealed two late Bronze Age pits and an oven lined with Roman tiles. Also excavated were two probably early medieval ditch alignments, and many undated post-holes. One of the post-holes contained two late Bronze Age sherds and another a sherd of Roman grey ware. No definite structures could be identified although seven of them were adjacent to the oven and may indicate a dubious structure. The oven was ab irrugular oval in plan, 2.1m wide, 0.5m deep, extending 5.4m into the excavation area. This oven was partially lined with small pieces of Roman tile set in yellow clay. Over 20kg of roman tile fragments were recovered from the oven, mainly form the filling and may represent a collapsed superstructure. The stoke hole was indicated by an area of soot and charcoal. Finds from the oven included burnt flints and several fragments of furnace bottom and bloomery tap slag. It is probably mid-late Saxon in date and is cut by a Saxo-Norman ditch. Its function is not certain as there were only small amounts of charred cereal grains and metal working residues. It is similar in plan to Roman and Saxon corn drying ovens. Area 2 contained a 13th-14th century pit and later features (2). A further machine trench was used to investigate the defences near the site X2 excavation. This revealed the defensive ditch 1 and the edge of a second defensive ditch, so confirming the site X2 results. The trench was located a few metres NE of site X2.