ENN104524 - St. Andrew's Priory, 1970 (Trial trench)

{1} Trial excavations on part of the Priory site took place for ten days in October 1970, prompted by the clearance of houses from the eastern part of the Priory area and proposed development in 1971. The aim of the excavation was to try and isolate the Priory buildings and to discover whether there was any occupation of the area earlier or later than the Priory. Most of the excavation was effected with a mechanical excavator which dug trial trenches 1m wide along the line of the back gardens of the former private houses. In all a total length of 364.5m was excavated. The area available was throughly examined and no evidence of any Priory buildings was found; nor was there any sign of any earlier or later occupation. The Priory burial ground was located on the east side of Francis Street and in the Priory Street, Harding Street area. {2} Trench 1- burials found at north end. Further south, there was a possible buried soil and undisturbed natural below that. Trench depth was 2.5m. Trench 2- Natural observed at c1m at west end. Further east was modern overburden of c2m. At east end was a wide ditch- 5m wide and 2m deep, but with no dating evidence. Trench 3- Natural c1.2m deep. Trench 4- Natural found at an average depth of 3m bgl (the ground level had been built up). There was a wall aligned N-S at the north of the trench, 1m bgl continuing to 3m bgl. A E-W aligned wall, 1m wide, was also observed. A layer on the north contained pottery 13th century pottery. Trench 5- 2.8m deep, no further information Trench 6- 2.4m deep, no further information Trench 7- 2.1m deep, no further information Trench 8- at north end, the ground was disturbed to a depth of 2.8m onto natural. Trench 9- Natural at c1m. Trench 10- Natural at c2m. Considerable number of burials at N end, cut through by the machine.