Monument record 130/71/1 - Medieval Bakehouse & Brewhouse, The Elms

Archaeological investigation at The Elms during development identified medieval back-plot activity. The first evidence of land-use was several pits dating probably between 1150-1250. In the mid to late 13th century, a probable detached bake-house and kitchen complex with possible storage rooms was constructed and a metalled track ran from the building towards the street. Further wells and ovens were discovered during a wider watching brief. The bakehouse was demolished probably in the second half of the 14th century and its walls were partly robbed and quarried for stone. In the 1880s the whole of the Almshouse plot behind the frontage was a garden and has remained as such, including the creation of two small orchards and two small buildings, until the present.

{1} Archaeological evaluation identified at east one limestone quarry pit, waste stone from which formed a level platform for the construction of a medieval building. Several post-medieval linear boundaries were also recorded within the western part of the site.

{3}Excavation at The Elms identified an L-shaped building comprising of two wings which was built on top of some pits. The south wing contained a circular oven and a stone lined pit. The west wing was probably first used as a storage room and a central partition wall denotes the presence of two chambers. A malt oven was later inserted at the south-west end.
Room 1 had an internal width of 3.4m and was in excess of 7.25m long, the full extent was not established as the east wall lay beyond the excavation limits. The south wall was 0.6m wide and survived in parts at one course high. The west wall measured 0.7m wide and survived to a height of 0.8m. The north wall had been completely robbed, the robber trench was 0.6m wide. The walls were unmortared and well-faced with squared limestone blocks on both sides, the core of which was formed of limestone rubble.
A circular baking oven had been recessed into the wall in the north-west corner of the room, only a quarter of its lower course survived, its diameter has been calculated at 0.8m wide. The surviving part of the lining was burnt red. A soil sample showed evidence of Bread type wheats and club wheats as well as rye and barley.
The main room on the west side of the building contained no below floor internal features and therefore may have been used for storage. It was 4m wide and more than 7.5m long with the northern end destroyed by a later quarry. The west wall was 0.65m wide, the southern end was built into a hollow and here the foundation courses were six courses high, the rest of the wall was only one or two courses high.
The south wall measured 0.6m wide and the east wall was 0.7m wide, the short length of wall to the north of the doorway was slightly narrower, measuring 0.45m wide. The doorway was 1.6m wide, the larger stones on the western edge of the pathway which ran towards the High Street may have been remnants of a threshold.
A wall to the north of the quarry might be the north wall of the room, suggesting a total length of 12.8m. As the wall continues on further to the east it is more likely to have formed a boundary wall continuing on from the building.
There may have been a central partition wall in room 2. It survived as a single course of 6 square limestone blocks (0.9m long) which were faced on the north side. Despite excavation of the floor area to the natural there was no evidence of a floor surface, though a small patch of thick brown loam 2m x 1.5m in the hollow by the wall may be a remnant of the surface. A further feature comprising of a small sub-circular area of red burnt sand.
Located on the east side was a narrow room 1.5m wide and at least 1.25m long, the true extent of the building has been partially lost through later quarrying. The room was formed by a narrow limestone wall and any doorway must have been located to the N. There were fragmented remains of a limestone floor, and further limestone slabs had been used in an upstanding position to create three sides of a rectangular storage bin. The bin measured 0.8m x 0.5m adjacent to the south wall. This feature suggests the room may have been used for storage.
The malt oven was a later addition to the building, post-dating blocking of the openings between rooms. The oven was built into the hollow at the south end of Room 2. It comprised a rectangular chamber with a sunken floor measuring 1.05m x 0.8m. The stone lining of the chamber survived to 13 courses high and was battered at an angle of 75 degrees. The flue opening was 0.65m wide with stone built surrounds.
Between the oven lining and the building walls was a backfill of soil consisting of dark brown loamy clay with a 5% ratio of small stones. To the south the backfill surrounded a roughly built support stone support or buttress. The backfill was retained by a stone revetment which abutted both the oven flue surrounds and the walls of the room. There was a small rectangular opening in the revetment next to the flue surround which was probably there for drainage.
A sub rectangular area of blackened and reddened soil indicates the location of the hearth, at the front of the chamber and within the flue opening. A soil sample provided an assemblage of at least two episodes of charring.

A metalled path ran from the building towards the High Street. The path was 1.6m wide and had been built over a 0.2m thick layer of brown loamy clay soil. The metalling was comprised of tightly packed rectangular limestone blocks with a mean size of 0.1m wide by 0.15m long and 0.2m deep, in a rough herringbone pattern. To the east of the storeroom the path was up to 3.3m wide with tightly packed limestone metalling, flanking a central drain of flat-laid limestone slabs 0.6m long x 0.45m wide.

{5} An archaeological watching brief was undertaken during development. A clay lined well pit with stone lined well shaft was dated to the C13th and is probably associated with the bakehouse/brewhouse uncovered a few metres to the south in 1999. Another well and two possible ovens were uncovered in the western part of the development area. One of the possible ovens dates to the C13th. It is likely that these were associated with a building, but there was no evidence of walls or other structural features. Several small pits found across the development area dating to the C12th to late C13th. Presumed to lie within plots to the rear of domestic buildings fronting High Street and/or Halse Road. There was later quarrying after a period of abandonment. Six large quarry pits cutting the limestone bedrock. Pottery dating up to the C16th recovered from their fills. Probably opened to provide stone for the expansion of Brackley in the 16th/17th centuries. The site became a garden for the early C17th almshouses, but around the beginning of the C20th it became an ornamental garden for a large C17th house.

{6} In the 1880s the whole of the Almshouse plot behind the frontage was a garden and has remained as such, including the creation of two small orchards and two small buildings, until the present.
The Almshouse plot extended behind the tenement immediately to the south and two small buildings lay in this area, one at the back and one close to the frontage.

<1> BARBER A., 1996, The Elms, High Street, Brackley, Northants: Archaeological Evaluation, (unchecked) (Report). SNN46226.

<2> Society for Medieval Archaeology, 1997, Medieval Archaeology (41), p.280 (unchecked) (Journal). SNN107453.

<3> ATKINS R.; CHAPMAN A.; HOLMES M., 1999, Archaeological Excavation at The Elms, High Street, Brackley, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN74297.

<4> Atkins R.; Chapman A.; Holmes M., 1998-9, The Excavation of a Medieval Bake/Brewhouse at The Elms, Brackley, Northamptonshire, p.11 (checked) (Article). SNN104031.

<5> Atkins R., 2000, Archaeological Watching Brief At The Elms, High Street, Brackley, Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN100295.

<6> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Brackley, Section 3.3.4 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100499.

Record last edited

May 27 2021 9:48AM