Monument record 0840600000 - Land to rear of 21 and 23 Pound Street

Evaluation trial trenching carried out by Oxford Archaeology in October 2004 identified a single NE-SW aligned ditch, 1.5m wide, 0.4m deep and at least 2m long, with a fragment of bone and 2 sherds of 13th to 14th century pottery in the upper-most fill. The ditch is interpreted as the rear boundary ditch for properties fronting onto Pound Street, and may represent a medieval burgage plot. The ditch was overlain by 3 layers of post-medieval garden soils, 0.8-1.1m thick, which included 18th-20th century finds suggestive of domestic rubbish disposal. Environmental sampling of the upper ditch fill produced fragments of clinker or coal, possibly suggesting industrial activity was taking place in the vicinity; sparce charcoal (the only identifiable species was oak) and charred grains of wheat. Molluscs were common and well-preserved and indicated that scrubby vegetation was growing in the ditch. See report for detail (B1).