EDO4975 - Pound Lane (Site X1), Christchurch; excavation 1970

D H Hill directed a research excavation of a 27m x 2m trench at Pound Lane, Christchurch during 1970. The trench was machine excavated across the line of a bank visible as a low earthwork, spread 25m across, in the NE corner of the medieval town. At the NW end of the trench a wide shallow ditch was observed 3.8m wide and only 1.1m deep. This profile may have been necessitated by the unstable nature of the gravel subsoil. The primary fill was blck and humic, suggesting the ditch had silted up slowly whilst under water, this part of the town defences being close to the surrounding marshes. The upper fill represents a deliberate infilling followed by a v-shaped re-cut 2.60m wide and 1.2m deep. This was overlain by layers representing the destruction of the town wall. A larger ditch further to the north was postulated by geophysical survey. A berm lay to the south of the ditch between it and the bank and here a medieval barn may have been constructed. Further south the bank was shown to be 15m wide and cut by the footing for a stone wall composed of ironstone, heathstone and mortar. The v-shaped ditch re-cut may be associated with this later wall.