Monument record MDO2427 - Brecon House, Long street, Sherborne; medieval occupation

Evidence for medieval occupation was revealed during a watching brief at Brecon House, Long Street, Sherborne in 2000. This comprised a line of 4-5 rubbish pits immediately behind the modern street frontage and small contemporary E-W aligned boundary ditch approximately 4m to the south of them.

Terrain Archaeology conducted an archaeological watching brief on the south side of Long Street, Sherborne during the construction of a new building in February 2000 (1). This followed on from an evaluation conducted by AC Archaeology in 1997 in which buried medieval soil layers were identified (2).

A line of 4 to 5 12th century rubbish pits was recorded immediately behind the present street frontage. A small contemporary boundary ditch, aligned approximately E-W, ran about 4m to the south of them. The position of rubbish pits on the street frontage is unusual and may indicate a shift in road alignment. Previous research has suggested that the original line of Long Street lay 20m to the south and that the present course was laid out in the 12th century. The watching brief provides some evidence to support this theory.

Bellamy, P, 2000, Sherborne, Brecon House, Long Street; Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO10413.

<1> Terrain Archaeology, 2000, Brecon House, Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset. Archaeological observations (Unpublished document). SDO10381.

<2> McMahon, P and Cox, P, 1997, An archaeological evaluation of the proposed development of land adjacent to Brecon House, Sherborne, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO10380.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 1:10PM