Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992: From abbey cellarium and prior’s lodging to cathedral prebendal house 9781407316383, 9781407354620

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Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 From abbey cellarium and prior’s lodging to cathedral prebendal house

John Bryant BAR BRITISH SERIES 669

2021

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 From abbey cellarium and prior’s lodging to cathedral prebendal house

John Bryant BAR BRITISH SERIES 669

2021

Published in 2021 by BAR Publishing, Oxford BAR British Series 669 Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 isbn isbn doi

978 1 4073 1638 3 paperback 978 1 4073 5462 0 e-format

https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407316383

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library © John Bryant 2021 Minster House from the west, before alteration, O’Neill, 1821, BRSMG M1750 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery) cover image

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Acknowledgements Permission to carry out the excavation was given by the Dean and Chapter of Bristol Cathedral. The excavation was funded by the Bristol Cathedral Trust. Post-excavation work was jointly funded by the Trust and by Bristol and Region Archaeological Services (then part of Bristol’s museums service, later Bristol Culture). Facilities were provided at the cathedral courtesy of the Dean and Chapter, with thanks to the head verger and his staff for day to day assistance. The headmaster and governors of Bristol Cathedral Choir School and the staff of the Central Library are thanked for access to their respective buildings for the purposes of taking elevated photographs of the site. Overnight storage of valuables at the nearby Council House was enabled with the assistance of the telephonists. Doctor (now Professor) Warwick Rodwell gave advice during the course of the excavation, as also did various City Museum staff. Further advice and suggestions came from Dr Rodwell during the post-excavation phase of work, and also from Dr Kevin Blockley, the present cathedral archaeological consultant. The excavation was directed by Eric Boore, supervised by Les Good, and surveyed largely by John Bryant. Excavation was carried out by Natasha Dodwell, Sarah Fletcher, Tim Longman, Sandy Marcolini, John Minkin, Ken Sims and John Turner. Assistance with both the digging and finds processing was given by a number of volunteers, for which they are thanked. Initial post-excavation work was carried out by Eric Boore, including the phasing, summary report and commissioning of the specialist finds reports. Finds conservation was by Fiona Macalister. Plans, illustrations and report design are by Ann Linge. The plans were digitised by Jon Brett and amended by Simon Roper. Andy Cotton photographed the Braikenridge drawings, which were provided by Sheena Stoddard of the Fine Art section of Bristol Museums and Art Gallery. The oven-floor tiles were identified by Beverley Nenk (Curator, Dept of Medieval and Modern Europe, British Museum), with further information provided by Dr Sophie Wolf (then of the University of Fribourg) and Dr Oliver Kent. Information on the geology of the site was provided by Roger Clark, also of the museum service. Reports that have remained in archive include those by Julie Jones (organic inclusions in the bell moulds), Dr A J Kear (animal prints on the roof tiles), Dr J E Morgan (copper alloy analysis of the bell moulds), Dr M Q Smith (coloured window glass) and C Whittick (inscriptions on slate).

v

Contents List of Figures...................................................................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables....................................................................................................................................................................... xii List of Abbreviations.......................................................................................................................................................... xiii Abstract.............................................................................................................................................................................. xiv 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources............................................................................ 9 3. The Excavation: Period Descriptions.......................................................................................................................... 23 4. Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................... 77 5. The Finds....................................................................................................................................................................... 81 5.1 The Pottery............................................................................................................................................................... 81 5.2 Chinese Porcelain..................................................................................................................................................... 94 5.3 Ceramic Roof Tile.................................................................................................................................................... 97 5.4 Roofing Slate.......................................................................................................................................................... 100 5.5 Stone Roof Tile...................................................................................................................................................... 100 5.6 Inscribed Slate........................................................................................................................................................ 100 5.7 Floor Tile................................................................................................................................................................ 102 5.8 Brick and Tile Kiln Flooring.................................................................................................................................. 105 5.9 Clay Tobacco Pipes................................................................................................................................................ 105 5.10 Animal Bone........................................................................................................................................................ 109 5.11 Objects of Bone.................................................................................................................................................... 117 5.12 Molluscs............................................................................................................................................................... 119 5.13 Objects of Copper Alloy...................................................................................................................................... 119 5.14 Objects of Iron..................................................................................................................................................... 122 5.15 Objects of Lead.................................................................................................................................................... 122 5.16 Vessel Glass.......................................................................................................................................................... 122 5.17 Bell Founding....................................................................................................................................................... 124 5.18 Coins and Tokens................................................................................................................................................. 125 5.19 Miscellaneous Objects......................................................................................................................................... 126 5.20 Worked Stone....................................................................................................................................................... 126 6. Bibliography................................................................................................................................................................ 131 Appendix 1: Extract from the Parliamentary Survey of 1649.......................................................................................... 137 Appendix 2: John Taylor’s letter to the Athenæum, reproduced in the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post,   Monday May 15th and Saturday May 20th, 1882........................................................................................................ 139

vii

List of Figures Fig. 1. Location of the excavation and places mentioned in the text, scale 1:5000.............................................................. 2 Fig. 2. The excavation site in relation to the modern buildings, scale 1:1000...................................................................... 3 Fig. 3. The west end of the Abbey precinct and other buildings mentioned in the text (after Paul 1912)........................... 4 Fig. 4. The site in context, seen from the west before excavation commenced.................................................................... 5 Fig. 5. View of the west end early in the excavation, seen from the cathedral south-west tower ....................................... 5 Fig. 6. Excavation well advanced, looking east from the Central Library........................................................................... 6 Fig. 7. West and central areas of the excavation, seen from cathedral tower....................................................................... 6 Fig. 8. View looking north from the Cathedral School, buildings 2 and 5 in the foreground.............................................. 7 Fig. 9. Eastern area of excavation, seen from the cathedral tower, looking south................................................................ 7 Fig. 10. Millerd’s map of 1673 (detail), BRSMG R0020................................................................................................... 10 Fig. 11. Ashmead’s city survey of 1854 (detail), Bristol Archives 40860/1....................................................................... 11 Fig. 12. Ground plan of the Minster House by Roland Paul, late 19th century, Bristol Archives DC/F/9/1...................... 12 Fig. 13. Doorway in west cloister wall by Roland Paul, Bristol Archives DC/F/9/1......................................................... 13 Fig. 14. Extract from the 1883 Ordnance Survey plan (scale 1:500)................................................................................. 15 Fig. 15. Abbey Gatehouse and Minster House, Eyre, c 1776, BRSMG M940................................................................... 17 Fig. 16. Minster House from the west, before alteration, O’Neill, 1821, BRSMG M1750............................................... 17 Fig. 17. Minster House after alteration, O’Neill, 1823, BRSMG M1751.......................................................................... 17 Fig. 18. Saunders’ view of Minster House’ south front, c 1822, BRSMG M1752............................................................. 18 Fig. 19. Minster House viewed from the cloister, O’Neill, 1821, BRSMG M1893........................................................... 18 Fig. 20. Minster House from the west, Pryce c1850. From Pryce’s 1850 book................................................................. 19 Fig. 21. Photograph of Minster House from the south-west, probably in 1867, BRSMG R394.A.2................................. 20 Fig. 22. Photograph of the truncated Minster House, from College Green, probably in 1881, Bristol Archives 17563.... 21 Fig. 23. Parkman’s 1883 painting of the interior of the first-floor hall, looking west, BRSMG M4008............................ 21 Fig. 24. Plan of Period 1 features........................................................................................................................................ 24 Fig. 25. Period 1. Remains of wall 48 beneath later (period 4a) wall 26, looking north.................................................... 25 Fig. 26. Elevation of the north face of walls 5 and 33, i.e. south wall of passage.............................................................. 27 Fig. 27. Elevation of cellarium west wall and section through drains 23 and 37 .............................................................. 27 Fig. 28. Periods 1 and 3. West-facing elevation of west cellarium wall, showing the footings......................................... 28 Fig. 29. Plan showing Period 2 features ............................................................................................................................ 29 Fig. 30. Period 2. Floor 3, looking west............................................................................................................................. 30 Fig. 31. Period 2 drains, looking north, with walls 11 and 12 beyond............................................................................... 30 Fig. 32. Period 2. Drain 32, emptied of fill, looking south-west........................................................................................ 31 Fig. 33. Period 2. Drain 31 part-demolished, showing floor of reused roof tiles............................................................... 31 Fig. 34. Long (east-west) section through pit 147.............................................................................................................. 33 Fig. 35. North-south section at west end of garden, including remains of wall 16............................................................ 33

ix

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Fig. 36. Period 2. Pit 147 in the early stages of excavation, looking north........................................................................ 34 Fig. 37. Period 2. Pit 147 after excavation, looking west, showing the furnace base......................................................... 34 Fig. 38. Sections through the bell-casting furnace base, stone feature 83.......................................................................... 35 Fig. 39. Period 2. Stone feature 83 (furnace base) in pit 147, looking north...................................................................... 35 Fig. 40. Period 2. Stone feature 83 (furnace base) in pit 147, looking east from above..................................................... 36 Fig. 41. Period 2. Bell mould remains in the fill of pit 147 (1m scale).............................................................................. 36 Fig. 42. Period 2. Gullies 51, 59 and stone feature 80, with wall 31 beyond..................................................................... 37 Fig. 43. Plan showing Period 3 features............................................................................................................................. 39 Fig. 44. Medieval doorway in cloister west wall: east-facing elevation............................................................................. 40 Fig. 45. East-facing elevations of walls 30, 31, 32 and 52................................................................................................. 41 Fig. 46. Period 3. Corner of wall 30, showing stone feature 86......................................................................................... 41 Fig. 47. East-west section through buildings 2 and 5 and room 6...................................................................................... 43 Fig. 48. Period 3. Drain 20, looking south, showing stones reused as the roof.................................................................. 43 Fig. 49. Plan showing Period 4a features............................................................................................................................ 44 Fig. 50. South-facing elevation of wall 28 and section through gully 46 .......................................................................... 47 Fig. 51. North wall of passage (south-facing elevations of walls 4 and 6-8) .................................................................... 47 Fig. 52. Minster House looking eastwards, including in foreground the period 5b underfloor ventilation system outside of wall 14.................................................................................................................................................... 48 Fig. 53. East-facing elevation of wall 14 (west wall of Minster House)............................................................................ 48 Fig. 54. Plan showing Period 4b features........................................................................................................................... 50 Fig. 55. Plan showing Period 5a features............................................................................................................................ 53 Fig. 56. Plan showing Period 5b features........................................................................................................................... 60 Fig. 57. Suggested possible layout of Minster House after the 1860s truncation............................................................... 62 Fig. 58. Plan showing Period 6 features............................................................................................................................. 71 Fig. 59. West-east profile of the cellarium area, after excavation....................................................................................... 75 Fig. 60. North-south profile of the cellarium area, after excavation................................................................................... 75 Fig. 61. North-south profile west of the cellarium, after excavation.................................................................................. 76 Fig. 62. Pottery, Periods 1 & 2............................................................................................................................................ 82 Fig. 63. Pottery, Period 3.................................................................................................................................................... 82 Fig. 64. Pottery, Period 4a................................................................................................................................................... 84 Fig. 65. Pottery, Period 4b.................................................................................................................................................. 84 Fig. 66. Pottery, Period 5a................................................................................................................................................... 86 Fig. 67. Pottery, Period 5a................................................................................................................................................... 87 Fig. 68. Pottery, Period 5b.................................................................................................................................................. 88 Fig. 69. Pottery, Period 5b.................................................................................................................................................. 89 Fig. 70. Pottery, Period 6.................................................................................................................................................... 90 Fig. 71. Chinese porcelain.................................................................................................................................................. 95 Fig. 72. Ceramic roof tile.................................................................................................................................................... 99 Fig. 73. Inscribed slates.................................................................................................................................................... 101 Fig. 74. Inscribed slates.................................................................................................................................................... 103

x

List of Figures Fig. 75. Medieval floor tile............................................................................................................................................... 104 Fig. 76. Brick.................................................................................................................................................................... 106 Fig. 77. Clay tobacco pipe................................................................................................................................................ 107 Fig. 78. Relative proportions of the major food species, by period.................................................................................. 112 Fig. 79. Percentage body part representation, by period – cow........................................................................................ 113 Fig. 80. Percentage body part representation, by period – sheep/goat............................................................................. 113 Fig. 81. Percentage body part representation, by period – pig......................................................................................... 113 Fig. 82. Percentage of bones that displayed butchery marks, by period........................................................................... 116 Fig. 83. Objects of bone.................................................................................................................................................... 118 Fig. 84. Objects of copper alloy........................................................................................................................................ 120 Fig. 85. Objects of glass.................................................................................................................................................... 123 Fig. 86. Miscellaneous objects.......................................................................................................................................... 127 Fig. 87. Architectural stone............................................................................................................................................... 128 Fig. 88. Architectural stone............................................................................................................................................... 129

xi

List of Tables Table 1. Species Identified, per phase (mammals).............................................................................................................111 Table 2. Species Identified, per phase (birds)....................................................................................................................111 Table 3. Ratio of Sheep to Goat fragments identified....................................................................................................... 112 Table 4. Age estimation using fusion of long bones......................................................................................................... 114 Table 5. Ages using tooth eruption and attrition – cow.................................................................................................... 114 Table 6. Ages using tooth eruption and attrition – sheep/goat.......................................................................................... 114 Table 7. Ages using tooth eruption and attrition – pig...................................................................................................... 114 Table 8. Measurements of the sheep radius (BP).............................................................................................................. 115 Table 9. Measurements of the sheep humerus (BD)......................................................................................................... 115 Table 10. Measurements of the sheep tibia (BD).............................................................................................................. 115 Table 11. Coin and token finds in chronological order..................................................................................................... 125

xii

List of Abbreviations AD

Anno Domini

aOD

Above Ordnance Datum

BA

Bristol Archives

BPT

Bristol Pottery Type Series

BRFT

Bristol Rooftile Fabric Type Series

BRSMG

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

c

Circa

km

Kilometre

m

Metre

mm Millimetres NGR

National Grid Reference

OS

Ordnance Survey

S.F.

Stone Feature

xiii

Abstract In 1992 an archaeological excavation was undertaken at Bristol Cathedral in advance of construction of a visitor centre. This followed excavation of an evaluation trench in 1991. The site chosen was immediately south and south-west of the cathedral nave, measuring 625m2 in area. Fieldwork was financed by Bristol Cathedral Trust, and carried out by Bristol City Museum’s field archaeology team, led by Eric Boore. The site was known to have previously been the location of part of the western claustral range of St Augustine’s Abbey and also a building called Minster House. St Augustine’s Abbey was founded in 1140 Robert Fitzharding, on the south side of what is now named College Green, overlooking the River Avon and an area of marsh. A late Anglo-Saxon carved stone now in the cathedral suggests that there may have been previous religious activity in the immediate area, although no precise site has ever been positively identified. The abbey became the senior house in England of the Victorine branch of the Augustinians. Early construction work included the abbey church and claustral buildings, also the main gate (which still survives, although altered). The cloisters were built on the south side of the church, together with the usual ranges. A programme of rebuilding within the abbey complex ran from about 1298 until the arrival of the Black Death in the 1340s. Works recommenced in the fifteenth century, including a new lodging for the prior, situated close to the main gate where he could observe and control activities in the outer court (the modern College Square). Rebuilding of the old church nave began in the sixteenth century, but construction work had only reached to about window sill level when the abbey was suppressed in 1539. Three years later Henry VIII founded a new Bristol diocese, with the abbey church as its cathedral and other buildings appropriated as accommodation for the its various officers. The old prior’s lodge became a prebendal house, known as Minster House. For over three centuries the cathedral continued in use minus a nave, but the mid-Victorian period saw construction of a replacement, designed by George Edmund Street. He was forced to sacrifice the eastern end of Minster House, but retained the remainder even though it compromised views of his new west end. Street died before completion, and his replacement, J L Pearson, decided to demolish the remains of Minster House, despite local opposition, the site being cleared in early 1883, to form a grassed and paved forecourt outside the west entrance to the cathedral. A 1649 written survey of Minster House survives, complemented by a series of paintings, drawings and photographs, dating from the late eighteenth century until 1883, mostly views from the south-west. The excavation extended from the back wall of the west cloister walk, across the northern half of the western range, or cellarium, and westwards almost as far as the main abbey gate. The cloister range was rebuilt in the fourteenth century. At its northern end was an outer parlour, beyond which appears to have been a porch; in the angle between porch and range was a thirteenth century bell-tower, later removed. To the north from the twelfth century was a structure with a ground-floor vaulted undercroft. Further west a thirteenth century bell-casting pit was found, its backfill including the bases of three bell-moulds. Loose unusually-shaped bricks found in the pit area were identified as parts of a tile kiln floor. Flat plain ceramic roof tiles were used as a drain floor: such tiles are rarely found in Bristol. Inscribed slates were found in the abbey-period deposits, some clearly used as tallies, others carrying basic images. Towards the western end of the excavation, a two-storey block with a first-floor hall was erected in the fifteenth century as accommodation for the prior, the second most senior abbey official; later the building became known as Minster House.

xiv

Abstract Following the suppression of the abbey and its conversion into a new cathedral, Minster House found a new life as a prebendal house, and the area to its south was enclosed as a garden. One of the prebends allocated the house was Richard Hakluyt, the Elizabethan geographer, although there is no evidence that he ever stayed here. A kitchen block was built over part of the garden in the seventeenth century, with more extensions being added through to the mid-nineteenth century. Several cess pits were dug on the site and more drains laid. Evidence was found for the truncation of Minster House’s east end in the mid-Victorian period, before its final removal in 1883.

xv

1 Introduction An archaeological excavation on the site of the former Minster House at Bristol Cathedral was completed between April and July 1992. It was proposed by the Dean and Chapter to construct a new cathedral visitor centre with paved forecourt on the site (Bristol planning applications 90/03032/F and 90/03033/L). Initially, a small archaeological evaluation trench was dug immediately north of the access road to the cloister in 1991 (Boore 1991), and the positive results of that investigation prompted the more extensive excavation. Both projects were carried out by the Field Archaeology unit of the Bristol City Museums and Art Gallery, subsequently known as Bristol and Region Archaeological Services (BaRAS), under the direction of Eric Boore. Follow-up observations took place in 1992 and 1993 during construction of the visitor centre foundations and paving of the area west of the Cathedral, although little of additional interest was seen. Eric Boore also carried out the initial post-excavation work, including phasing and the commissioning of specialist reports, and produced a summary report (Boore 1992).

by hand. Topsoil and dressed stone were segregated for possible future re-use. Archaeological excavation was then done by hand. Undisturbed ground (natural) lay relatively close to the surface along the northern edge of the excavation, at a depth of about 350mm, the thickness of the stratigraphy increasing across the site to a maximum of 1300mm against the southern boundary. In the lower, eastern area of the site, the average depth of ground removed was approximately 800mm (Figs. 59-61). During the excavation, archaeological features were given alpha-numeric identifiers (e.g., W.xx for walls, S.F.xx for stone features). Contexts were identified using two-letter codes. Site notebooks were maintained by both the director and the supervisor. The site was surveyed at a scale of 1:20 using sheets of gridded polyester film, with sections and elevations at the larger scale of 1:10. Photographic recording consisted of 35mm black and white prints and colour slides, utilising single-lens reflex cameras. Elevated views of the site were obtained from the Cathedral School, the top of the cloister wall, and the roofs of the cathedral, gatehouse and Central Library. This project has been archived under the Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives Accession Number BRSMG 17/1992.

Bristol Cathedral is located in the south-west part of the central area of the city, on the southern edge of the slight knoll that is commonly known as College Green (Fig. 1) It sits on a gently sloping site immediately above a short, but steeper, drop to the south that leads to Canons Marsh, formerly the hay meadows of St. Augustine’s Abbey, predecessor to the cathedral. The cathedral site overlooks the Floating Harbour, formerly the tidal River Avon. Geologically, the site consists of Mercia Mudstone, of the Permo-Triassic, above Quartzitic Sandstone (Brandon Hill Grit) of the Upper Carboniferous. The 1992 excavation occupied an area of approximately 625 square metres, situated between the west side of the cloister and the eastern edge of College Square, along the whole of the north side of the cloister access road (Figs. 2-9). Excavation was carried right up to the south and west walls of the south-west tower of the cathedral, but stopped short of the restored late medieval abbey gatehouse. The site was centred on point NGR ST 58302 72668. Prior to excavation most of the site lay around 17.00m aOD, the eastern part against the cloister being lower at 16.20m aOD. Most of the area was laid out as grass, with a wide, curved pathway connecting College Green with College Square by way of the west porch of the cathedral, and a smaller path connecting with a doorway into the cloister; there were a few small trees, the two smallest of which were removed for the excavation. West of the cathedral, the overburden was removed by mechanical excavator, but the 7.50-metre-wide strip alongside the cloister, being at a lower level, was de-turfed 1

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 1. Location of the excavation and places mentioned in the text, scale 1:50 © Crown Copyright

2

Introduction

Fig. 2. The excavation site in relation to the modern buildings, scale 1:1000 © Crown Copyright

3

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 3. The west end of the Abbey precinct and other buildings mentioned in the text (after Paul 1912) © Roland W Paul/ Archaeologia (The Society of Antiquaries of London)

4

Introduction

Fig. 4. The site in context, seen from the west before excavation commenced © Bristol Culture

Fig. 5. View of the west end early in the excavation, seen from the cathedral south-west tower © Bristol Culture

5

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 6. Excavation well advanced, looking east from the Central Library © Bristol Culture

Fig. 7. West and central areas of the excavation, seen from cathedral tower © Bristol Culture

6

Introduction

Fig. 8. View looking north from the Cathedral School, buildings 2 and 5 in the foreground © Bristol Culture

Fig. 9. Eastern area of excavation, seen from the cathedral tower, looking south © Bristol Culture

7

2 Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources The Pre-Dissolution History

gatehouse, the last two surviving the later rebuildings. So, there was known later twelfth century building activity to either side of the site excavated in 1992.

(This first section is largely based on Dr Joseph Bettey’s 1996 Historical Association booklet, St Augustine’s Abbey, Bristol)

By the time of Abbot John de Marina (1276-86) the abbey buildings had been allowed to fall into a degree of dilapidation, as noted in a visitation by the energetic Bishop Giffard of Worcester in 1278 (Bettey 1996, 10, referring to earlier work by J W Willis Bund). Bristol (north of the Avon) was to remain a far-flung part of that diocese until 1542, although Giffard and some of his successors did reside from time to time at the episcopal palace at Henbury, only a few miles away. After six years the bishop returned to find the situation much improved.

The earliest recognisable activity on the Minster House site dates from the twelfth century, subsequent to the foundation of St Augustine’s Abbey by Robert Fitzharding in 1140. Fitzharding was a royal official and prominent Bristol merchant who established his religious foundation on the one side of the knoll that was later to be called College Green. It was situated just to the south of the brow, on a south-facing and well-drained but almost level site overlooking, but safely above, the River Avon and its marshes. The exact location may have been determined by a pre-existing religious site, but at this distance of time it is difficult to unravel fact from legend. By the time of the later Middle Ages there was certainly a chapel dedicated to St Jordan (an associate of St Augustine) close by, on the Green itself, in which he was said to be buried. What cannot be disputed is that the present cathedral contains a large carving showing the Harrowing of Hell, found beneath the chapter house after the 1831 Bristol Riots. This has been dated to the middle or third quarter of the eleventh century, and may have been used to mark the main entrance to a church, probably above the doorway. In view of the size of the slab, it may not have travelled far, and could have been in use in the vicinity of the later abbey.

Edmund Knowle’s time as sacrist (treasurer), from c 1298, and then abbot (1306-32) saw a massive programme of rebuilding, involving the eastern part of the church, the claustral buildings and other areas. Following the death of Knowle, his successor John Snow continued the work. All this building activity was to come to an abrupt halt with the arrival of the Black Death during the winter of 1348-49, by which time Ralph de Asshe was abbot. Bristol, port and large and crowded town, was badly hit by the plague, and the abbey could not have been immune: the election for a new abbot in 1352 was attended by 15 canons, whereas the community just five years previously had numbered about 25. Construction work within the precinct was to cease for almost a century, only restarting during the long abbacy (1428-73) of Walter Newbury. Abbot Hunt carried on the work for eight years, and then was succeeded by John Newland (or Nailheart, from his rebus or badge of a heart pierced by three nails), abbot from 1481 until 1515. Like Knowle before him, he was one of the great instigators of building and rebuilding work at the abbey as well as on the estates. Amongst the works associated with Newland were reconstruction of the cloister, construction of the gatehouse above the Norman gates, the dorter and frater, and the prior’s lodging to the west of the cloister (later called Minster House). He also commenced rebuilding and enlarging of the nave, work that was still a long way off completion at the time of his death.

Fitzharding’s foundation was for a community of Augustinian canons, in this case the Victorine section that owed allegiance to the house of St Victor, in Paris. Some of the early establishment came from the sister house at Wigmore in Herefordshire. In his latter days Robert Fitzharding became a canon himself, and was buried at the abbey. Initially the abbey was established at the eastern end of the knoll, on the site that was subsequently occupied by the parish church of St Augustine the Less and overlooked the marshes at the confluence of the two rivers, Avon and Frome. Work on the new church at the main site commenced soon after 1148, and part of the community was able to move in there by 1159. Eleven or so years later the church was sufficiently complete for dedication by four bishops (Dickinson 1976, 119-20). Unfortunately, very few abbey records survive, due to the twin devastations of the suppression and the firing of the chapter house (which contained the cathedral records) during the 1831 riots. However, it is known that the last decades of the twelfth century saw work not only on the church itself but also on the cloister, including the chapter house, and the abbey

Newland’s successors slowly continued the building work, but it was still far from completion when, on 9 December 1539, Abbot Morgan ap Gwilliam and eleven canons surrendered the house to the royal commissioners. The Post-Dissolution History (Figs. 10-14) Henry VIII, recognising the need for more cathedrals in England, established six new bishoprics in 1541-42. 9

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 10. Millerd’s map of 1673 (detail), BRSMG R0020 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

10

Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources

Fig. 11. Ashmead’s city survey of 1854 (detail), Bristol Archives 40860/1 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Archives)

Bristol had always been in the diocese of Worcester, a city so distant that some of the bishops had used Westburyon-Trym near Bristol as their second base. Bristol diocese was formed on 4 June 1542, but Gloucester, created the previous year, had been given most of the southern half of the old See of Worcester, and so Bristol was left with a small area to the north of the city, to which was added the south-western part of Salisbury diocese – effectively the whole county of Dorset – separated from its mother cathedral by the diocese of Bath and Wells.

in the third storie; one little garden walled about lyeing East uppon the Cloysters and west on the little greene’ Dimensions given for the house in the survey were 64 feet, east-west, and 20 feet in breadth, ‘more or lesse’. Yearly rent was £3 10s 0d, the worth to be sold being £30. Christopher Greene was the seventh holder of the position, the first having been John Gough in 1542. Immediate predecessor to Dr Greene was Richard Hakluyt, the geographer and cosmographer, who was awarded the prebendary by Elizabeth after a copy of his 1584 discourse was presented to her. He remained resident in Paris until 1588, and two years later was appointed rector of Wetheringsett in Suffolk. In May 1602 Hakluyt was made a prebendary at Westminster, becoming Archdeacon there in the following year. He died in 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It is not known when, or indeed if, Richard Hakluyt resided in his prebendal house in Bristol.

The new establishment was to be 39 strong, of whom 6 would be prebendaries or major-canons with a further 6 minor canons. Senior clergy had to be found accommodation in the vicinity of the cathedral, and for this purpose it would appear that not only the claustral ranges but also other conventual buildings were pressed into service. The prebendaries were identified by the number of their stall in the chapter house, with each allocated a specific house in the precinct. That associated with the position of prebendary of the first stall was, at least by the time of the Parliamentary survey of 1649 (Appendix 1, BRO DC/E/3/2), the house to the south-east of the former abbey gatehouse, on the north side of the lane leading to the cloisters, (i.e. the later Minster House). The survey described the building, then known as Dr Greene’s house (reproduced in Bettey 2007, 75):

Richard Towgood succeeded Christopher Greene as prebendary in 1660, but was later elevated to Dean, as were his two immediate successors. William Hart (1684) was deprived in 1690 as the result of not taking the oaths to William and Mary. John Sutton (1723) was vicar of city parishes St. Leonard, 1732-34, then of St. Augustinethe-Less until 1745. Later postholders were Henry John Ridley (1816), Edward Bankes (1832) and James Randall (1867), with John William Reeve (1875) completing the sequence to 1882. With the removal of Minster House, the prebendal accommodation was transferred elsewhere, but the succession of canons continued into modern times.

‘consisting of two sellers lyeing under the great hall called the Bishopps Hall, one kitching with a loft over it, a little butterie nere the kitching, a little hall, a Parler wainscoated in the first storie; two chambers & a studdy in the second storie; a garret over the aforesaid chamber 11

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 12. Ground plan of the Minster House by Roland Paul, late 19th century, Bristol Archives DC/F/9/1 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Archives)

In general, the prebendaries were non-resident and most frequently the house was occupied by someone other than the prebendary himself. John Sutton and then Walter Chapman were listed there in the Land Tax and Poor Rate assessments from the early 1730s until 1750, and Canon Ridley on one or two occasions. Edward Banks was rated for the property from 1832 until 1867, but appeared not to have been resident. The earliest census return under the name Minster House was not made until 1881, when Sydney Collisson, Minor Canon was in occupation.

name appeared in the street directories for this building during the period 1814-19, after which Mrs Norton was listed until 1822. Canon Ridley became ‘proprietor’ of the property upon his appointment as prebendary in 1816, but was only in Bristol, ‘in residence’, for two months of the year, the directories giving his actual address as Dorking in Surrey. Edward Hodges, the organist at St Nicholas, had married in 1818 but remained at the parental home in Bridge Street until he found the ‘Prior’s Lodge’ on the Lower Green, and arranged to occupy the house for the ten months of the year that Canon Ridley was absent.

The 1696 tax return for St Augustine’s parish recorded the householder as being Elizabeth Thrupp, widow of a gentleman, together with her two daughters and two sons, plus a female servant. Mrs Thrupp continued to be taxed or rated for the house until 1728. From the second half of 1731-32 the Reverend Mr Sutton was taxed and rated, but his name was replaced by that of Walter Chapman after 1745. The Land Tax entries for much of the 1750s referred to Thomas Rothley’s house & stable(s). The 1754 Poll Book recorded Thomas Rothley as a custom-house officer. Dr. George Randolph, taxed from 1757, was a physician and was instrumental in the development of the waters at Hotwells, dying in April 1764.

The Hodges family moved in on 27 September 1822. Edward set to work on the building with vigour. Faustina, his daughter, in her biography of her father, says (p.11): ‘In the great gable, looking westward, he put in a large Gothic stained-glass church window; and here was his capacious music room. The outside was imposing, the inside arranged for music. On the apex of the gable, he put a stone cross, and up to it before long the ivy climbed. He planted many trees, and himself cultivated his sequestered garden, trained and pruned his vines, and gathered grapes plentifully – chiefly, as he says, ‘for Margaret’. Throughout his stay Edward kept a diary, quoted from by Faustina but not now traceable. By the end of 1822 the household comprised Edward and Margaret, George Frederick Handel Hodges as their son and heir, two maids, Nimrod the dog, and the cat ‘whom we

Major Tucker became liable for payments from 1764, his name appearing until c 1783, after which Mrs Tucker was listed at the house until the early 1810s. John Norton’s 12

Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources

Fig. 13. Doorway in west cloister wall by Roland Paul, Bristol Archives DC/F/9/1 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Archives)

brought from Bridge St., and who seems to relish her new quarters very much.’ Edward’s musical friends regularly gathered at the house, where he had assembled an organ for his own use, and gave a succession of concerts in his music room, which he styled the Nailheart Concerts. His residence at the premises was short-lived, however, and in September 1824 the family removed across the cloisters to the prebendal house on the south side (incorporating the remains of the old abbey frater) belonging to Lord William Somerset, another Canon.

The Consolidated Rate entry for 1825 described the property recently vacated by the Hodges family as ‘Dwellinghouse, Coach Ho. & Stable’. The Rate entries continued to describe the property as including a coach house and stable, and did so until 1838. Canon Ridley was given as occupier in 1831, but thereafter the Reverend Edward Bankes was taxed and rated, until his death on 24 May, 1867. After 1838 the premises were listed only as dwellinghouse and stable, with the final reference to the latter feature in 1849. 13

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Since the Dissolution the remaining parts of the medieval abbey church had functioned as a somewhat cramped cathedral, and over the years various attempts had been made to make the best use of the restricted space available. By the second half of the nineteenth century the situation could be tolerated no more, and plans were made to once again erect a nave, one that would be of the same dimensions as its uncompleted sixteenth century predecessor. In order to construct the new south-west tower it was deemed necessary to remove part of the Minster House. George Wood (assistant to George Edmund Street, the architect of the new nave) refers to ‘Canon Randall’s Bedroom – and the new wall it would be necessary to build across it . . . so as to enable Canon Randall at once to finish the decoration of his house . . .’ (BRO DC/A/8/8/p211 – letter of 2 September 1867). A short time later Archdeacon Randall (possibly a relative) consented ‘to the removal of that portion of the house and the application of the site thereof to the proposed nave’ (ibid, p212). Street recorded the necessary works to Minster House as `Day Work’ in his measurement of additions and omissions upon Mr Booth’s contract:

Saturday 21 May 1881). A fresh appeal was organised to enable completion of the works, and as part of this work the final laying out of a western enclosure between the church and the abbey gatehouse was planned. Not only was Minster House within this area but it also obstructed views of the new West Front from the south-west (Fig. 22). G E Street, the cathedral architect, died on 18 December 1881. John Loughborough Pearson (1817-97), then the recently-appointed architect for the new cathedral at Truro, was made Street’s successor. In his report of February 1882, entitled ‘Bristol Cathedral Western Enclosure’, Pearson advocated the demolition of Minster House, with the possibility of constructing a replacement, to serve as a new deanery or canon’s residence, to be built south of the line of the SouthWest Tower, at right-angles to the West Front. A printed broadsheet issued by the Cathedral Completion Fund, dated the following April, stated that the chapter office (immediately east of the Georgian house adjacent to the gatehouse – i.e. No.10, College Green) had already been removed (1881), and ‘As to the Minster House, because of its overlapping the western facade and partly obscuring one of its windows, it was equally obvious that it ought to be removed. . .’. It was proposed to remove the building as soon as convenient after its tenure by the present tenant was concluded in the following September. John Taylor, librarian of the Bristol Museum Library and well-known local historian, wrote a letter to the Athenæum in April, reproduced in The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post on 15 and 20 May 1882 (Appendix 2). The Chapter Minutes for 4 July, 1882, record that it was ordered that £10 be paid Mr Collisson for fixtures in the Minster House’ (BRO DC/A/8/8/p48). Two weeks later Pearson wrote a letter to Dean Elliott, in which he reported that he had again examined the case of ‘the old house called the Minster House’ but had come to the same conclusion (BRO DC/F/1/3). He went on ‘The only feature of any interest is a small bay window of two stories (sic) the lower part of which is modern and is an imperfect copy of the original work and the upper part is so decayed and cut about. . .’ Also ‘The old walls have at various times been much altered, and the remains of them (some of which are of considerable thickness) are not well built and are, I am afraid, honey combed by rats. Here and there are little bits of the old masonry indicating the date of the building as belonging to the 15th century, but of no other value.’ He had looked at the possibility of re-arranging the building, but that would have involved adding another storey, and in any case would still have restricted the view of the West Front. And so Minster House was demolished, although not without criticism, the London Athenæum recording the event as ‘quite without excuse’ (Hodges 1896, 12).

‘. . . cutting away for partition of Canons old House, and clearing away old office, repairing partitions of House and floors of same and making good up to new work. Building up end Wall of House & Buttresses & making good to return side wall, Building retaining wall of Garden. (BRO DC/F/1/3, February 1870) Robert and William Ross were resident in the nowtruncated house in 1871 (Consolidated Rates), while the 1872 directory gave their address as ‘Minster House, Lower College green’. Ellen Ann Hicks was rated for the house in 1875, and Alfred Rosser two years later. The Chapter Minute Book, entry for 7 October 1880, in the paragraph ‘Minster House Repairs’, recorded that ‘A letter from Mr. Collisson having been read Resolved that the Chapter pay £3.10. towards the repairs of the Minster House’ (BRO DC/A/8/8/p.27). This may represent work carried out when he took up residence. The following April’s census recorded Sydney G Collisson, minor canon of the cathedral, resident at ‘Minster House, Lower College Green’, together with his wife Sophia, and one-month-old daughter, M B, also a general servant and a nurse. Sydney Collisson had the privilege of being the last resident of the house – he was listed there by the 1882 directory, but the following year was at ‘Abbey Gate’ (presumably the old gatehouse), and thereafter at ‘Abbey House’ in Lower College Green. Although the new cathedral nave was completed in 1877, the twin western towers remained only partly built. By early 1881 the north-west tower had risen as far as two full stages and the western end of the nave was complete. At that point it was decided to remove the chapter office on College Green to permit a north-western view of the partly-complete end, the old structure being demolished in early May of 1881 (Bristol Mercury and Daily Post,

According to a letter of April 1883 addressed to the Mayor by the Dean (reproduced in The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post on Saturday, 21 April), the Chapter had decided to pull down the house in January, and that had now been done. Parkman says on his drawing that the building 14

Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources was removed in 1883, although 1884 is sometimes given as the date of demolition (e.g., Hodges, op.cit.). The 1883-surveyed OS 1:500 plan shows the site as cleared, although with the old boundary walls to the Lower Green still in-situ and the western enclosure yet to be laid out (Fig. 14). One old window was saved by the Chapter Clerk, Walter Hughes, who removed it to the garden of his house at Downfield Road, Clifton (ibid.), but it failed to survive later redevelopment of that site. Pearson had hoped to lower the area of the western enclosure in order to create a more impressive approach to the west door of the cathedral by the ascent of a flight of steps, but examination of Street’s foundations on the West Front revealed that this was not feasible. The revised plan was to see the enclosure would be made nearly level, with a curving carriage

road that only dropped down to the Lower Green (Little Green) at its western end. Writing in April 1883 (and in a manner that suggests that the Minster House was already removed), Pearson proposed pulling down the wall ‘dividing the Lane’ (i.e. that on the north side of the way to the cloister), replacing it with ‘a low wall with good coping on it, and on the top an iron railing’. The new wall would run westwards to the gatehouse and, in the opposite direction, as far as the old doorway in the cloister wall. As for this doorway, he would ‘restore with its inside arch’. A flight of steps would link the upper (western enclosure) and lower (cloister area) parts of the site. Two months later, on 21 June, Pearson wrote a specification for the western enclosure works, which would include the restoration of ‘a portion of the inside Arch of the doorway marked X which

Fig. 14. Extract from the 1883 Ordnance Survey plan (scale 1:500) © Crown Copyright

15

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 is now wanting’, presumably the same cloister doorway, and would put a new string course and coping to the thick wall over the same (BRO DC/F/1/3).

The house was aligned east-west, its eastern end against a further building of similar alignment that in turn met the north-west angle of the cloister. At its western end the house stopped a short distance south-east of the abbey gatehouse. The gable-end wall was supported by a pair of two-stage buttresses that reached almost to eaves level. Two of the earlier illustrations (by Edward Eyre, c 1776, and L. Ashford, c 1825) showed a change in the external appearance of the wall above the buttresses, but it does seem to have been rendered to its full height. At the ground floor was a pair of sash windows (probably 6/6-pane) with segmental heads within squared-off lintels, with a single central 6/6-pane sash window at the first-floor. In the gable was a mullioned attic window of three lights under a hoodmould. At the apex of the gable was a finial base, perhaps once topped with a cross. There appears to have been a single-storey block running north from this elevation to link with the south-east corner of the precentor’s house.

Work to complete the western facade involved construction of the third and final stage of each twin tower. At the same time, the western enclosure was not forgotten, and the precentor’s house, on the eastern side of the gatehouse, was removed in May 1885, and the gatehouse itself restored. The masons’ sheds associated with the works were situated in the space between cathedral and gatehouse, as evidenced in a Francis Frith photograph of 1887 (Hardy 1999, 24-25). June 1888 saw the laying of the capstone to the pinnacle of the western towers, with a service to mark completion of the cathedral held on the seventh of that same month. A photo-tint published in the Building News on 2 November showed the completed structure, the sheds removed but some piles of rubble remaining, the open space of the western enclosure presumably being laid out shortly afterwards. The 1902 revision of the OS 1:2500 plan showed the sweeping path that led from Deanery Road past the great west door and around to Lower College Green, which survived until removal in 1992-93, but did not show the side path leading directly to the cloister through the medieval doorway in the wall, recorded by the 1912 OS revision. Both paths were visible on a photograph of Edward, Prince of Wales, inspecting men of the British Legion outside the cathedral during a visit to the city, 6 November 1936 (Winstone 1986, plate 200). The 1883-surveyed OS 1:500 plan showed the boundary walling to the western enclosure’s southern and western sides and that stretch of the west cloister wall south of the medieval doorway as still to be reconstructed (Fig. 14). Also shown on the 1883 plan was the small yard to the rear of the precentor’s house, with a privy in its south-eastern corner and a street entrance in its west wall. The 1883 plan did not show any obvious change of level across the area, whereas in 1902 the north-south wall demarcating the change of level was recorded, as also were two small unroofed structures against the south side of the south-western tower.

Edward Hodges substantially altered the west end of the house after taking up residence in 1822. The windows at first and second floors were replaced by a large traceried Gothic window of 3 lights, possibly removed from the east end of the north aisle at St Augustine the Less, which was undergoing works at about this time and received new end windows to the chancel and south aisle if not also the north side. Although Hugh O’Neill (1784-1824) also showed the old ground-floor windows in 1823 (Fig. 17), they were replaced by a deep Perpendicular-style 3-light window with heavy moulding before Samuel Tovey (1808-73) made his drawing in 1843. Extending southwards from the south-west corner of the house was one wall of the garden. At the north end was a doorway with rusticated jambs and a segmental arch with an enlarged keystone. The wall was probably constructed with courses of either Pennant Sandstone or White Lias, topped by coping stones, as also was that defining the southern limit of the garden against the north side of the lane leading to the cloister. Eyre’s painting (Fig. 15) showed a Lower Green that then extended right up to the west garden wall, with, about halfway between the garden door and the south-west corner, a small structure somewhat akin to a sentry-box, possibly a watchman’s box, on the outer face of the wall, its arched opening facing westward. Henry (Hendrik) de Cort (1742-1810) also illustrated this feature in 1794. Eyre recorded a small fenced area between the house and the gatehouse, a feature also noted by de Cort but best illustrated in 1792 by George Samuel (fl.1785 – c 1823). This was a rectangular enclosure running for a short distance west from the southwest corner of Minster House before returning to the north parallel to the building. Railings were mounted upon a low wall, with, against the corner buttress, what appears to have been a gate. (George Samuel was later to come to a sad end, crushed by a falling wall whilst out sketching). Ashford showed a picket fence running from the southwest corner of the garden as far as the gatehouse, and a gate opposite the garden door, with part of this area shown in more detail by O’Neill in 1821 & 1823 (Figs. 16-17).

Historic Drawings, Paintings and Photographs (Figs. 12-13 and 15-23) Fortunately, there are quite a large number of contemporary illustrations of Minster House, starting from the later eighteenth century and continuing until shortly before demolition, in the form of drawings, paintings and photographs. Most views of Minster House are from the Lower Green and show the west gable end and the south elevation, also the western and southern garden walls. All record the fact that the main building was rectangular in plan, of two and a half storeys, with a raised section east of centre. There was a one and a half storey gabled structure to the south of the eastern end of the house, but its detail is mostly hidden behind the tall garden walls. These walls ran firstly southward from the south-west corner of the house, then turned along the northern side of the lane that still leads into the cloister. 16

Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources

Fig. 15. Abbey Gatehouse and Minster House, Eyre, c 1776, BRSMG M940 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Fig. 17. Minster House after alteration, O’Neill, 1823, BRSMG M1751 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

buttress of the west wall was a downpipe capped with a rainwater-head. Either a short distance east of the buttress or immediately adjacent, was a two-storey three-sided oriel with a tripartite hipped roof. O’Neill’s watercolours of the building from the south-west show the first-floor of the oriel with cinquefoil-headed lights in a square frame with hollowed spandrels. An (undated) photograph taken from the garden records cinquefoil-headed lights at the lower storey, but they appear fresh and sharp, and were in fact Victorian replacements. Almost adjacent was a large chimney-breast, consisting of several stages, the stack stepping in on the east side above eaves level. A photograph of the early 1860s showed two chimney pots above an uppermost section consisting of brickwork, as also did another of c 1867 (Fig. 21; Winstone 1972, plate 60 and 1966, plate 56).

Fig. 16. Minster House from the west, before alteration, O’Neill, 1821, BRSMG M1750 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

The south garden wall, where illustrated, was shown as tall, and apparently uninterrupted: Roland Paul’s plan recorded its eastern end as about two feet thick. The main elevation of the house appears to have been that facing south onto the garden. It was a busy elevation. At the western end was a full-height single-stage buttress, its lower part forming the northern jamb of the doorway in the west garden wall. In the angle with the southern 17

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Beyond the chimney-breast were a two-light window and a taller single-light transomed window, both with square heads and hood-moulds. Above the latter was a first floor 6/6-pane sash window. There was then a two-stage buttress with moulded copings. On the eastern side of the buttress was the main entrance to the house. ‘Mr. Saunders of Bath’ in his garden view of c 1822 (Fig. 18) recorded a square trelliswork porch with arched openings to west and south, the entrance into the house possibly under a four-centred arch. (It is not clear whether the artist was John Sanders (1750-1825), or his son, John Arnold Saunders (b 1793) who was a teacher of drawing at Bath from 1810 until his emigration to Canada in 1832). Above the entrance was another sash window, again 6/6-pane, beyond which there was a vertical mark or change in the rendering, this point also being the angle with the west wall of the south wing. Just beyond this line lay a downpipe with a square hopper, and a window of two square-headed lights with a hoodmould, at least one light having an opening casement. Saunders’ illustration indicated a change from smooth render to a rougher finish almost immediately beyond the window. After a short distance the rougher wall rose in height, although with no windows in the uppermost part of the wall, there being a single first floor window of three lights at roughly the same level as elsewhere. At the eastern end of the raised roof was another downpipe. This marked the end of the prebendary house according to the dimensions given in the 1649 survey. However, there was a further building continuing on the same line, reaching as far as the north-west angle of the cloister. O’Neill, in his view from the east (Fig. 19), recorded this as being a little lower than the section to the west and with no southfacing windows for the upper storey(s). In the east-facing gable end was a 2-light mullioned window with hoodmould. The gable itself was asymmetric, the lower part of the northern slope being absent, possibly indicating that it had been built against a pre-existing structure, since demolished. This slightly odd-looking building survived long enough to be photographed, but by then the attic window had been blocked and a large buttress added to its north-east corner (Winstone 1968, plate 36).

Fig. 18. Saunders’ view of Minster House’ south front, c 1822, BRSMG M1752 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

For the western half of the main east-west building the eaves sat just above the lintels of the first-floor windows. There was then a section, amounting to about half of the remaining length, where the whole roof including the eaves was raised, before the more usual height was resumed at the eastern end. The roof pitch of the raised section was slightly less than that for the main roof. A small cross-ridge roof connected with the north side of the large chimney stack that sat towards the western end of the building. At the east end of the western roof, against the end of the raised section, was a cross-stack topped by three pots – possibly just off the centre line of the roof. A third stack was located at the far end of the easternmost roof. Photographs show that the western roof was laid with pantiles. On the south side of the western roof, to the east of the large stack, O’Neill showed a possible skylight in 1821, but two years later he recorded a dormer window with pitched roof instead, visible also in later photographs.

Fig. 19. Minster House viewed from the cloister, O’Neill, 1821, BRSMG M1893 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Saunders’ view showed a lean-to block against Minster House beyond the trelliswork porch, possibly with a window into the porch. To the south of this block lay a small building of one and a half storeys, perhaps once a kitchen block. There was a gable to the garden elevation and a cross-gable connecting with the large stack at the southern end of the building. Facing the garden at ground floor level were twin 8/8-pane sash windows and above, in the gable, a rectangular window of one light containing leaded glass with lozenge-shaped quarrels. In the angle between the west wall and the trelliswork porch was a short downpipe. 18

Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources The chimney stack appears to have been largely of stone rubble construction but with its upper works in brick. Other artists’ views confirm the roof and stack details.

the large chimney breast, at the west end of the south elevation. A path ran from the garden door on the left as far as a porch on the right. North of the path was a narrow border from which several climbers ascended the walls. On the left, against the west garden wall, a narrow bed, then a rough path before a further bed with rounded end, and then another path, this time of the same standard as the main one. Small edging plants defined the borders of the beds. On the far right of the photograph were the branches of, apparently, a rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)

Hugh O’Neill’s later illustration from the south-west (Fig. 17) recorded the upper part of the south wing after rebuilding. There was now a single pitched roof aligned north-south, abutting the main building immediately east of the second downpipe. At the northern end was a brick stack; on the southern gable end was a (brick?) breast. Tudor-style mullioned windows with hood moulds, apparently two in number, were inserted in the west wall. A later photograph (BRSMG Ma.3830) showed a southern window of three lights in the wing’s west wall. The roof appears to have been laid with clay Double Roman tiles.

O’Neill’s 1821 view from the cloister depicted the northern half of the west cloister wall much as it survives today, a rubble construction finished with coping and a doorway with two-centred arch and drip moulding, above which is a carved head or corbel. The six-panelled Gothic door has not survived, however. Immediately adjacent to the south was another doorway, this time beneath a shallow segmental arch, possibly of brick, with a plank and batten door. The remainder of the wall was not illustrated. No useful illustrations exist of the area between the cloister and the south wing of Minster House, although in the background of a photograph taken in the later 1880s a couple of single-storey sheds may be seen.

The only general view of the garden is by Saunders, who must have been positioned right in the south-west corner when he made his drawing. There was a path leading from the gate in the west garden wall as far as the porch, and another running from the south side of the porch towards the lane. Beyond each path were shallow beds, with climbing plants growing against both Minster House and the south wing. The majority of the garden, however, was laid out as lawn – Saunders even showed the garden roller.

Between the time of O’Neill’s illustrations and publication of George Pryce’s drawing in 1850, a small two-storey addition was erected in the angle between the main house and the south wing (Fig. 20). This structure had a

One photograph of part the garden is known (Hodges 1896, opposite p166; Winstone 1983, plate 215). This pictured the area immediately in front of the oriel and

Fig. 20. Minster House from the west, Pryce c1850. From Pryce’s 1850 book

19

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 west-facing square-headed window of two lights at upper level, above which was a parapet. Beneath the window was a doorway or porch, the edge of which is seen in the photograph of the garden. The earliest photograph of the building (early 1860s – BRSMG Ma.3830; Winstone 1972, plate 60) confirmed most of Pryce’s view, as did one of c 1867 (BRSMG R394.A.2; Fig. 21). Another addition post-1823 was a tall brick chimney stack on the south side of the main house, apparently immediately east of the dormer window. By the early 1860s the picket fence separating Minster House from the Lower Green had been superseded by iron spear fencing mounted on a low wall (ibid). In not too many years this would be rearranged to increase the enclosed area to the west of the garden wall (Winstone 1984, plate 43), and the latter fence-line was recorded on the OS 1:500 plan. The line of the modern boundary wall is based on that existing at the time of demolition although probably a later rebuild contemporary with the carriage road.

floor plan of the building taken either shortly before or during demolition, complete with lines of construction and perhaps not fully perfect. No staircase can be identified. Some walls are apparently shown as part-removed. Where comparison is possible then there is agreement with the various drawings and photographs of the building. In addition, there is recorded a small room to the east of the south wing, with an external doorway in its east wall. Between the northern part of the same room and the said wing the wall is shown to be about 4 feet 6 inches (1.37m) in thickness, and, to the north again, at the eastern end of the area beneath the lean-to roof, it is 5 feet (1.52m) thick. At this point is what may be a heavily-moulded embrasure, most likely a doorway, with a 5-foot width opening, and, to its immediate south, a small squint-like window with an angled embrasure, the two features in the west wall of a building. Paul’s plan also shows the west cloister wall from the medieval doorway northwards to be of 4 feet (1.22m) in thickness but the wall to the south to be much thinner.

Two references from c 1912 mentioned a plan of Minster House as then surviving. It has not proved possible to locate this document, although it may still exist amongst those Cathedral records as yet to be catalogued. However, a plan by Roland Paul, possibly a copy of it, has been found (BRO DC/F/9/1; Fig. 12). This is a basic ground

The only illustration of the Minster House interior is Parkman’s possibly slightly fanciful c 1883 view of the first-floor hall, looking westwards to the traceried window, only installed in the 1820s (Fig. 23).

Fig. 21. Photograph of Minster House from the south-west, probably in 1867, BRSMG R394.A.2 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

20

Minster House: Documentary and Contemporary Visual Sources

Fig. 22. Photograph of the truncated Minster House, from College Green, probably in 1881, Bristol Archives 17563© Bristol Culture (Bristol Archives)

Fig. 23. Parkman’s 1883 painting of the interior of the first-floor hall, looking west, BRSMG M4008 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

21

3 The Excavation: Period Descriptions Period 1 – The Twelfth Century (Fig. 24)

Pennant Sandstone as the predominant building stone from about the thirteenth century, but the fact that the earlier material was being quarried on the Abbey’s own land and only a short distance away from the precinct may have been a factor extending its period of use on the site. Due to its nature, being a lumpy sort of rock that was difficult – if not impossible – to work into sensible shape, the stone required the provision of rather thicker walls than was the case with Pennant Sandstone.

Despite the attractions of the site (south-facing, welldrained, above the marsh yet within easy distance of a water supply), there is no evidence that this particular spot was occupied prior to the establishment of the abbey. However, there does appear to have been activity elsewhere in the College Green area – at least in the later pre-Conquest era. Just a short distance to the east, within the chapter house, was found in the 1830s the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ relief, a carving that pre-dates the foundation of the abbey by almost a century. By that time the College Green area was probably already known as Bilswick (literally Bill’s dairyfarm), although surviving references to it only date from the twelfth century (Walker 1998, 17 and 23).

Wall 33 was a substantial construction, 1.20m in width, Brandon Hill Grit bonded with a brownish-red sandy silt (Fig. 26). It ran westward from beneath the line of the present west cloister wall for a distance of 16m before turning to the north. A single sherd of Ham Green coarse ware (in production c 1120-1300) was found within the mortar of the wall. Running parallel to the north side of the wall was a 700 to 800mm-wide gully with a southwarddipping bottom (G.54/G.61), which was interpreted as a wide foundation trench. Within the gully, on the north side of the wall, were three silty contexts, one with crushed oolite (MN, SB & TL). The foundation trenches contained pottery whose known date ranges are not inconsistent with a construction date of the later twelfth century. At a point on the north, or inner, side of W.33, 4m eastwards of the likely inner south-west corner of the building, was a protruding stone feature, S.F.69. This occupied 1.05m of the face of the wall and projected 750mm (i.e. to the northern edge of G.54). It consisted mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, with some Pennant and heat-affected oolite, the rubble core bonded in a dark red-brown sandy soil with pea gravel. Beyond the gully edge the feature continued as a shallower, narrower feature (W.42) for a further 400mm. The combined feature S.F.69/ W.42 sat in a discreet foundation trench, G.33, whose fill (KC) contained just two sherds, of no later than twelfth century date.

Roland Paul (1912, 232 and plate XXXIV), utilising both the measurements made by William Worcestre and archaeological evidence uncovered during the nineteenth century restoration showed that the Norman nave would have been smaller than at present, likewise also the early sixteenth century nave that was commenced but never completed and upon which the Victorian plan was based. Abutting the south side of the Norman south-west tower Paul shows a twelfth century work, as recorded on Godwin’s plan (1863, plate 1). This structure included at its eastern part two thick, parallel east-west walls, the southernmost containing a narrow stair in its thickness. Other walls ran to the west and north of this part of the building. The earliest features recorded in the 1992 excavation were located in the north-east of the area investigated and included part of the structure noted by Godwin (the remainder having been destroyed by construction of the Victorian south-west tower). Immediately to the south of the tower buttresses was a line that ran westwards from the cloister wall for 16m before turning to the north. This was marked by the wall W.33 and gully G.54, and the later robber trench of the eastern half of the wall, G.32, and the north-south length by pit P.97. After 6.10m the line returned to the east (Wall 48), to be cut by the west wall of the same Victorian tower (Fig. 25). On the inside of the southern line was a square projection (Stone Feature 69 and Wall 42, in Gully 33), matched to the north by a pit of similar shape (P.102). These lines defined Building 1. Structurally, the building was typical of the Norman period, consisting of substantial walls built of Brandon Hill Grit and bonded in a reddish mortar. There were internally projecting footings, as seen in the twelfth century chancel at nearby St Augustine the Less and also at the Norman house excavated at Tower Lane (Boore 1985, 25 and 1984, 11). In most of Bristol, Brandon Hill Grit was replaced by

At its southern end the north-running wall had later been robbed out totally (Pit 97 in Period 2, Fig. 29), and throughout had also been damaged by later construction. It is possible that Gully 40, excavated on the west side of Room 10 beneath the later Gully 39, was part of the foundation trench for this wall. The eastern edge of the gully was in line with the eastern side of Pit 97 to the south. This length of wall was not described in the site records, however the fill of the pit included ‘rubble with red-brown silty soil’, thought to have been some of the demolished wall redeposited. Due to the severe damage it was not possible to ascertain whether the wall had been buttressed. No certain evidence for the western end of the north wall of Building 1 was forthcoming, although it is possible that 23

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 24. Plan of Period 1 features © Bristol Culture

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The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 25. Period 1. Remains of wall 48 beneath later (period 4a) wall 26, looking north © Bristol Culture

the northern side of Wall 27, which was bonded in a redbrown ‘silt’, incorporated part. It was revealed closer to the Victorian south-west tower, however, as a fragmentary wall, W.48, but with only the inner face visible (Fig. 25), the remainder obscured by the later, Period 4a, Wall 26 (Fig. 49). Here it again consisted of Brandon Hill Grit, bonded with dark orange-red gritty silt, with tiny fragments of oolitic limestone and occasional charcoal flecks. On the inside of the wall, its footings sat upon a layer of sandy/gritty soil. The outer face of the wall was probably flush with the bottom of the later wall. Against the inside of the Norman wall and in a position opposite that of S.F.69 on the south wall was a pit, P.102, which was about 1.20m square. At the northern edge of the pit the wall was destroyed, the possible indicator of the removal of a bonded feature such as S.F.69. A short stretch of shallow gully (G.60) against W.48 to the west of the pit was seen as the equivalent to G.54 on the south wall.

supported the responds of a vaulted structure. There is no evidence that they were connected, so that they were unlikely to have been the ends of a cross-wall. Immediately to the east was a 20mm-deep layer of freestone (oolitic limestone) chips with a worn/rounded surface, possibly a floor (context MK), above which lay a 50mm silty layer (MJ). In the south-east corner of Building 1, beneath Floor 4, were the remains of a layer of dark red/purple sandy clay containing many lumps of Brandon Hill Grit (context WA), also four sherds of BPT 32 (in the broad range c 1120-1300), in this instance post-dating the construction of Building 1, although probably not by very long. Below this was a further layer (WB), a gritty soil with stone fragments, but containing no finds. This appeared to extend westwards as far as the south-west buttress of the Victorian tower but was not fully investigated during the excavation. Only 20mm or so thick, this may have represented the bottommost fill of an inner foundation trench, the equivalent of Gully 54/61 further to the west.

Perhaps because most of the eastern half of W.33 had been robbed out, there was no evidence of the narrow staircase shown within its thickness by Godwin. He also recorded a doorway in the same wall, a short distance to the west, and, although no direct evidence for this was found, its existence was inferred by the position of a later stone drain, D.25, of Period 5a (Fig. 55). There was no opportunity to confirm whether either feature shown by Godwin was contemporary with the construction of Building 1.

As excavated, Building 1 appears to have been a long, narrow structure, but there remains the possibility that it may originally have extended further to the north. Most of its east end has been lost – probably permanently – beneath the Victorian tower. It was a substantial and well-built structure. Boore (1992, 44) provisionally interpreted the building as a first-floor hall, probably originally the abbot’s house and guest house. The date of construction is thought to have been about 1170.

The feature S.F.69/ W.42/ G.33 and that in the opposite pit, P.102, may have been the bases of internal buttresses, although a more likely explanation may be that they

In most medieval monasteries it was usual for the western side of the cloister to be closed off by a full-length range, 25

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 often containing two storeys. Generally, this housed the cellarium, or main storehouse, on the ground floor with, on the upper floor, accommodation for guests or the more senior officers of the establishment. Having the main storehouse on the western side of the cloister made sense, since this was convenient for the outer court beyond, where goods would be delivered from the house’s own estates and, when occasion demanded, from outside suppliers. In addition, the kitchen was usually close by, in or near the angle between the western and southern cloister ranges.

side of the Norman hall and the west cloister range. This building (Building 2), initially interpreted as a workshop, is now considered more likely to have been a detached bell tower. A bell-casting pit was discovered 6.0m to the west of the workshop and measured 6.60m x 2.20m x 1.16m. It contained at its west end a circular stone base divided into quadrants, the diameter of the whole being 1.30m. Many fragments of bell mould were recovered. This feature was thought to be late thirteenth century in date, although could be slightly younger. A bell dated to c 1300 still hangs in the central tower of the Cathedral (pers comm M. Smith).

Erection of the western range at St Augustine’s may not have been the highest priority when it came to the construction of permanent buildings, but nevertheless it should have risen within a reasonable time. Paul (1912) suggested that the original cloister was smaller than in late medieval period, but if that was the case then some evidence of an outer wall to the western range might have been expected during the 1992 excavation, which was not the case. The only alternative is that the fourteenth century rebuilding of the cellarium followed the footprint of the original west range. Examination of the outer wall of the rebuilt range (Wall 3) shows that not only was a different stone used in the footings to that in the main wall (Brandon Hill Grit with Pennant Sandstone, as opposed to Old Red Sandstone) but it was laid differently and the mortars were different too (Figs. 27-28). The lower mortar, described as ‘orange/brown sandy/gritty soil’, was more akin to the Period 1 mortars than those in use in the fourteenth century when the cellarium was rebuilt. Further evidence is that the foundations for the buttresses on the west wall of the range as later rebuilt were separate from the main wall foundations. In the north-west corner of Wall 3 was a small area where Wall 33 projected southwards beyond its usual line, evidence of either a buttress or, more likely, a more substantial addition to the south side of the Norman Building 1, in this case where the west claustral range projected southwards.

Major rebuilding of the eastern end of the church commenced towards the close of the thirteenth century and continued into the following one. Abbot Edmund Knowle (1306-32) was responsible for much of the new work, which began in 1298 with the Eastern Lady Chapel and culminated in the construction of the hall church where chancel and aisles were of equal height. Building 2 may have been in use at the start of this renewal process. Many features and layers have been assigned to this period purely on grounds of stratigraphy or relationship. In other cases there is dating evidence available in the form of pottery with known date ranges, although this is only useful where there is no reason to suspect the presence of undue amounts of residual pottery from the earlier period. In the south-east corner of the Norman hall (Building 1), lay a floor of off-white, slightly pinkish mortar containing black and white flecks (Floor 4, context TS). This was up to 10mm in thickness and when excavated produced four sherds, including two of BPT 118 (c 1250-1350), the others being a little earlier. Building 2 was approximately square and was attached by one wall (the northern part of W.34) to the south-west corner of Building 1. After only a short distance W.34 turned eastwards to run parallel to W.33, another wall (W.46) now forming the west side of the building until it, too, turned to the east, as W.43. All three walls were of similar construction but of differing and inconsistent thicknesses, at least at foundation level. Wall 34 was mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, with some Pennant Sandstone, bonded in an orangey mortar that was particularly limeflecked towards its eastern end. It was 850-950mm thick, with footings extending for another 300-350mm southwards. A single sherd of pottery (BPT 118, c12501350) was found within the wall. Wall 46 continued as the west wall of Building 2 for a further 5.70m southwards, but it had survived less well. Neither its thickness could be measured nor its exact relationship with the easterly return determined. Pennant Sandstone, Brandon Hill Grit and some oolitic limestone had been used in its construction, all bonded in a reddish-orange mortar. The easterly return was Wall 43, built of Pennant Sandstone and Brandon Hill Grit in a bright orange/red sandy mortar, varying between 900 and 1100mm in thickness, its eastern end truncated, possibly for an entrance. There was no evidence for a separate eastern wall to the building, which on this side

All features in the area to the east of Wall 3 – in either Period 1 or 2 – could be interpreted as being internal. The indications are that the west wall of the original north-south range sat central to its footings, and was similar in thickness to the surviving fragment of standing west cloister wall. A short distance beyond the west end wall of Building 1 lay Pit 103, with a fill of rubble with red-brown silty soil and lumps of pinkish-grey mortar. Unfortunately, its relationship with the building could not be determined due to the damage caused by later drains. Inside the west cloister range were two small circular pits, P.143 and P.145, the first of which (context SR) produced three sherds, all potentially dating from the twelfth century (BPT 32, 46 and 114). No dating evidence was forthcoming from Pit 145. Two postholes and a small gully (P.H.74 and 75, and G.58) adjacent to the smaller Pit 143 may have been of a similar date. Period 2 – The Thirteenth Century (Fig. 29) In the thirteenth century a smaller stone building (about 7.50m x 6.40m) was built in the angle between the south 26

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 26. Elevation of the north face of walls 5 and 33, i.e. south wall of passage © Bristol Culture

Fig. 27. Elevation of cellarium west wall and section through drains 23 and 37 © Bristol Culture

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Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 28. Periods 1 and 3. West-facing elevation of west cellarium wall, showing the footings © Bristol Culture

probably simply abutted Wall 3, the outer wall of the west cloister range.

Pennant Sandstone chips were the main material, with 0olitic limestone being used along the northern edge. The floor (context TO) produced eight sherds, of which six were of BPT 118 (c 1250-1350) and two of BPT 27 (c 1170-1225). From a point not far south of Wall 51 a gully (G.50) ran directly southwards, passing the end of Wall 43 and continuing beyond the building for at least 1.50m. This gully was 300mm wide and dipped towards the south by an average angle of about 12per cent. The fill was an orange-brown gritty sandy silt (context TM).

Dividing the interior was a 750mm-thick east-west wall (W.51), constructed of Brandon Hill Grit in a darkish orange mortar and set in a wider foundation trench (G.63). The wall had subsequently been largely robbed out, but not before two floors had been laid up against its southern edge. Beneath the lower floor lay a pit of irregular shape (P.154, fill context TW), with, at the southern end of the room, another pit (P.152) that may have been part of the Wall 43 foundation trench. The lower floor (Floor 5 – context TV) occupied an area of about 2m square against the west side of the building and consisted of chips of oolitic limestone and fragments of Pennant Sandstone, with no pottery present. Into this were cut two rows of post-holes and three pits, all with similar fills of orangebrown silt and small stones. The northernmost row of post-holes (P.H. 76-78) lay a metre south of Wall 51; the second row (P.H. 79-80) was immediately north of Wall 43. A small oval pit (P.151) sat between the two postholes of the southern line, and a similar feature (P.149) adjacent to P.H.78 in the northern row. Pit 150 (fill TQ), of more irregular shape, lay between, and to the south of, the central and eastern post-holes, and may have incorporated a fourth example.

Virtually all of the archaeological features, of whatever period, were aligned on the cardinal points of the compass. An exception to this was found south of Building 2, where there was a group of narrow drain-like constructions, the true function of which has yet to be successfully explained (Fig. 31). Drain 32 commenced at a point 2m south of Wall 46 as a small freestone trough (S.F.77) that fed, via a small drop, into a narrow north-east-running drain (Fig. 32). The drain proper was built of small stones with a 100mmwide channel. Not all the capstones had survived. Blue/ grey clay was found in part of the drain, the fill of the remainder not being recorded at the time (as was also the case with the base). Beyond a later disturbance the drain was again recorded – as Drain 34 – but here there were two fills. Context QL was a red-brown gritty silt, 300mm wide, extending across the south-east wall of the original drain. The lower fill, SQ, a dark orange-brown sandy silt, occupied only the narrow channel. Only one small capstone

Floor 3 sat immediately above the earlier floor but, in contrast, occupied the whole of the room (Fig. 30). 28

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 29. Plan showing Period 2 features © Bristol Culture

29

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 survived along the 1.50m stretch. Later disturbance had destroyed the remainder of the drain, although it did align with the north-western end of Drain 37. Within SQ were two sherds of BPT 27 (c 1170-1225). In the upper deposit were eight sherds of Ham Green ‘A’ fabric (BPT 26, c 1120-1170) and three of Bristol/Redcliffe manufacture (BPT 118, mid-thirteenth to mid-fourteenth century). A second drain ran in a north-easterly direction towards Drain 37, in a line south-east of, and almost parallel to, Drain 32/34, but at a slightly lower level. This was Drain 31 (context RF), of similar dimensions but with all its capstones intact. Two fills were recorded, but as a single context, PT, the upper part a red-brown silt, the lower a gritty orange-brown soil. Complete rectangular ceramic roof, or peg, tiles, some part-glazed (of Bristol Rooftile Fabric Type 6), had been utilised for the drain floor (Fig. 33). At the south-western end of the exposed drain was a small inlet on its north-western side, possibly a ‘hopper’ fed by a gutter or downpipe (Drain 35). The lower end of Drain 31 was truncated by a fourteenth century buttress, and it was impossible to be certain whether it ever met Drain 37. The head of Drain 37 was in the form of a freestone trough, similar to that at the top of Drain 32. It sat below the projection of the line of Drain 34. There was a U-shaped channel, 60mm wide, which dropped about 90mm to the floor of the main drain. The drain ran in a south-easterly direction, through the lower part of Wall 3, but evidence

Fig. 30. Period 2. Floor 3, looking west © Bristol Culture

Fig. 31. Period 2 drains, looking north, with walls 11 and 12 beyond © Bristol Culture

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The Excavation: Period Descriptions of it on the far side had been removed by a post-medieval cess pit, S.F.38 (Fig. 56). Beyond that a length of 2.20m did survive, in the bottom of Gully 46 beneath the west cloister range, before disappearing in the direction of the lane leading to the cloister. Drain 37 was built with drybonded sides of Brandon Hill Grit but without base stones, and no capping survived. The south-eastern portion was divided into segments by stones that appeared to have been part of the original construction, forming a set of ‘steps’ or miniature weirs that any water would have flowed over, and creating a series of small, narrow pools in-between. How this functioned in practice and why it was necessary is at present unclear, although possibly in this way it helped to cool the cellar (suggestion from Dr K Blockley). The fill of Drain 37 was described as a fine orange-brown sand with occasional charcoal flecks. Against the stone trough at the head of Drain 32 was a stone construction (S.F.79). This abutted to the west and south. It appeared to be aligned north-south with a small turn to the east to meet the drain head. The edges were not too clear, but the width of S.F.79 was about 800mm, the feature built mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, bonded in green/brown clay. To the north, the clay continued as far as S.F.78, a small irregular construction of Pennant Sandstone in an orange mortar on the north-west side of Drain 32. West of this lay S.F.82, a small feature built of Brandon Hill Grit with dark red silt between the blocks. The sides were not parallel, but nevertheless this had the appearance of a small wall. Stone Feature 79 was possibly also a wall,

Fig. 32. Period 2. Drain 32, emptied of fill, looking southwest © Bristol Culture

Fig. 33. Period 2. Drain 31 part-demolished, showing floor of reused roof tiles © Bristol Culture

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Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 although may alternatively been a base, perhaps for a cistern adjacent to the head of Drain 32. The function of S.F.78 was not clear. In common with drains D.31, 32 and 35, it was sealed by context OS, a dark red-brown clayey soil with many small stones. Within OS were a number of sherds of pottery, predominantly of Ham Green wares, of which there were 21 sherds of BPT 27 (late twelfth to early thirteenth century) and six of the earlier BPT 26. To the north, in the area immediately south of Wall 43, several layers were excavated, including SP, a patch of green clay in the area between drains D.31 and D.34. Below SP was SW, an orange gritty sandy silt that included a lead jetton (small find no.207). Although the jetton was identified as possibly being late medieval, the context itself appeared to be somewhat earlier, including eleven sherds of Ham Green ware of the twelfth-thirteenth century (BPT 26 and 27), with the sealing layer, SP, containing five sherds of Ham Green cookpot (BPT 32, c 1120-1300) as well as further examples of the two fabrics.

TY extended throughout the pit. Above TY was layer TF, comprising lumps of fired clay mould with dark red silt and occasional stones, lenses of brown sand and gritty clay, and dark red/purple clay with much charcoal and much burnt lias and Brandon Hill Grit. Included within the layer were three large circular clay mould bases, laid in a row, of which two were excavated in full (Fig. 41). Layer WC, excavated to the west of the later garden wall (Wall 16), was a combination fill the same as TF/TY. Above TF was layer OQ, of smaller extent, approximately 3m x 2m in size, comprising a dark red clay-silt with stones, lumps of fired clay and some charcoal flecks, the fired clay being restricted to the southern part, the remainder being very rubbly. Pit 147 was clearly associated with the manufacture of bells, a process that would of necessity be carried out as close as possible to the bells’ intended home. The entire feature, pit and stonework, were not unlike tenth and thirteenth century bell-casting pits excavated at Winchester, and the pit only of a twelfth century example there also (Davies and Ovenden 1990, 102-112), although here at Minster House with a stone base of smaller diameter stone base and cross-flues. The circular stone construction within the pit, S.F.83, had been subjected to considerable heat, necessary in the creation of the clay bell moulds and also a factor in the casting process. Provision of cross-flues in addition to the main flue would have ensured a more even firing whilst continuing to provide adequate support for the bell mould. The number of surviving mould bases present in the backfill of the pit indicates that at least three bells were cast at the same time: the plan made of Pit 147 prior to the removal of context TY showed one complete mould base, a second about 50 per cent complete, and two other large fragments, apparently from a third and larger base. Perhaps a complete peal was produced. One bell of c 1300 still hangs in the central tower and, with the evidence suggesting a date in the later thirteenth century for the bellcasting activity in this corner of the precinct (see report by R. Burchill), then this may have been its exact birthplace.

Six metres west of Building 2 lay a large pit, its larger dimension aligned east-west. The pit (P.147) was 6.60m in length and 2.20m wide, with a slight reduction in width for the easternmost 2.70m (Figs. 34-37). This eastern end formed a long ramp down to the main area of the pit. In the bottom of the pit sat a circular stone construction (S.F.83), 1.30-1.40m in diameter, divided into four quadrants by a larger east-west flue and a smaller north-south cross-flue (Figs. 38-40). Lumps of Brandon Hill Grit and Pennant Sandstone were set in a mixed matrix of soft black marl, burnt clay and charcoal, with a raised outer rim in an orange-brown sandy stone, all set in a pinkish-red clay. Fragments of Lias Limestone were also recorded. Many of the stones showed evidence of burning. Around the outside of the circumference were deposits of a yellow-brown silty sand which showed signs of burning or heating. The larger flue was 400mm wide, the smaller flue 150-200mm. A short extension at the eastern end of the larger flue was noted, with the pit bottom beginning to climb before it ended. In the eastern part of Pit 147 and running up to the circular stone construction was context WH, depth about 400mm. This consisted of a yellow-brown silty and clayey sand, orange sand, much charcoal, pieces of Pennant, Brandon Hill Grit and lias, and fragments of bell mould. Within the cruciform-plan flues was context WG. About 300mm in depth, it was similar to the layer above (WF), but a clean dark red-purple very sandy clay with charcoal and yellowbrown sand. Throughout most of the pit was layer WF, 300-400mm deep, a dark red-purple gritty clayey soil with small lumps of Brandon Hill Grit, orange/yellow compact (burnt) sandy silt, black ash, charcoal, bell mould, and some yellow lias. This overlay the south-east quadrant of S.F.83 and the outer areas of hard-packed yellow silty sand. Layers WF and WG sealed WH but were in turn beneath TY, a layer of 300-400mm of black ashy silty soil, charcoal, Brandon Hill Grit, orange-brown burnt clay, some grey/green clay mixed with red-brown gritty clay and some lias, and lumps of bronze and clinker. Context

Within the pit, the lower three fills were all aceramic, the fourth (TF) containing just two sherds, both of which (in Ham Green ‘A’ or ‘B’ fabric) were in poor condition. It should be noted that layer OQ, effectively the uppermost fill of Pit 147, contained almost 80 pottery sherds (including 70 of Ham Green ‘A’), but none could, with certainty, be dated to beyond about the late twelfth century, although five could have been from as late as the mid-thirteenth century. However, it is possible that the uppermost fill of the pit was brought in from elsewhere due to the large amount of material required to fill such a large hole. It is conceivable that the bell-casting feature could even date from the early fourteenth century. West of the line of the later, Period 4b, garden wall (Wall 16, see Fig. 54), an area of approximately 6.25 m2 was removed during the excavation in order to facilitate investigation of the far end of the bell-casting area. Some 300mm was removed down to natural. This layer (TX) 32

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 34. Long (east-west) section through pit 147 © Bristol Culture

Fig. 35. North-south section at west end of garden, including remains of wall 16 © Bristol Culture

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Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 36. Period 2. Pit 147 in the early stages of excavation, looking north © Bristol Culture

consisted of red-brown clayey and silty soil, many lumps of Brandon Hill Grit (and some of Pennant Sandstone), some fragments of bell mould, oolite fragments and charcoal flecks. Just three pottery sherds were recovered, two of BPT 32 and one of BPT 27, produced in c 1120-1300 and c 1170-1225 respectively. Apart from the extreme western end of Pit 147, five smaller features (Pits 155 to 159) were sealed by TX. The first three, beneath the northern edge of TX, all had similar fills, yellow-brown sandy clay and redbrown clayey soil with small stones (the fill of Pit 156 was context WD). They may have been post-holes. Pit 158, to the south, was another possible post-hole, the fill being loose brown and red-brown sandy silt and red-brown clay. Below the southern edge of TX, and running beyond it, was Pit 159, a double cut with brown and red-brown sandy clay, charcoal flecks, oolite fragments and small Brandon Hill Grit pieces. None of the features could be dated, so could have been from an earlier period. On the north side of Pit 147 lay a large but shallower pit of irregular shape, P.138 (context RZ; Fig. 35). This contained a number of sherds, including nine of BPT 26 (c 1120-1170) and eight of BPT 46 (c 1150-1250), with the remaining two also of twelfth century date. Fragments of brick or tile of unusual form were also present (Fig. 76): these have been identified elsewhere as elements of the flooring of tile kilns (Riall 1994, 80-81), the products there being flat peg tile and possibly crested ridge-tile from around the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. However,

Fig. 37. Period 2. Pit 147 after excavation, looking west, showing the furnace base © Bristol Culture

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The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 38. Sections through the bell-casting furnace base, stone feature 83 © Bristol Culture

Fig. 39. Period 2. Stone feature 83 (furnace base) in pit 147, looking north © Bristol Culture

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Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 40. Period 2. Stone feature 83 (furnace base) in pit 147, looking east from above © Bristol Culture

Fig. 41. Period 2. Bell mould remains in the fill of pit 147 (1m scale) © Bristol Culture

36

The Excavation: Period Descriptions at least one of the larger fragments had been fired during manufacture but then never subjected to any noticeable degree of heat, suggesting that it had remained unused. Immediately north of Pit 138 and 3m to the north of the bell-casting area was a group of post-holes and small pits, P.H.71-73 and P.139-140, all sealed by context RA. The two pits and P.H.72 were all of similar size (about 500mm diameter) and arranged in a close triangular shape. Contexts SC and SD were the fills of the two pits, SG and SM those of the latter two post-holes. Slightly off-centre within the triangle was P.H.71, a stakehole. A lone posthole 2m north of the east end of Pit 147 (P.H.68) may have belonged to this period. Within SD was a pierced oyster shell, one of a number found in contexts belonging to this and later periods, perhaps copies of the scallop shell badges associated with pilgrimages to the tomb of St James at Santiago de Compostella in Spain.

and smaller ones of oolite, were just two sherds, one each from the eleventh and twelfth centuries (BPT 114 and 115). It is possible that the stonework in Pit 102 was removed during this period, although, alternatively, that could have occurred later. The sole dateable find in the pit fill (context NR) was a single sherd of BPT 118, with a date range of c 1250-1350. Cut into the natural inside the west cloister range were three intermittent gullies and an associated small pit. No dating evidence was available, but they seem to best belong to this period. Two parallel gullies (G.51 and G.52/59) ran southwards from a point a little over 2m south of Building 1 (Fig. 42). After 6.50m the westernmost of the pair continued as a small pit (P.141) while its companion turned to the east, as Gully 49. The gullies were more a series of slots, in line and sometimes joined end to end, sometimes slightly separated. In several places vertical stones of Pennant Sandstone still survived in the slots, standing proud of the surrounding surface (Stone Features 80 and 81). The latter, in Pit 141, consisted of a vertical piece of Pennant set in buff mortar, together with Brandon Hill Grit with green clay, also a small circular patch of grey silty soil. Gully 49 ran eastwards for more than 2m before exiting the excavated area. The gullies and slots varied in width from 30-220mm. On average the two rows were 320mm apart, centre to centre, but the distance

In the area immediately west of the end of Building 1 were the fragments of three walls. They had been largely destroyed or obscured by subsequent development, so that their original form and function was mostly lost. Wall 50 ran in a north-south direction for a short distance, visible only between the positions of two later, Period 4a walls, W.19 and W.41 (see Fig. 49). A short stretch of walling (Wall 49) abutted the east side of Wall 50 at its southern end, but had later been destroyed to the east by Gully 47. Wall 47, a wide wall of more than a metre across, survived a short distance west of the north-west corner of Building 1, and may have abutted it. Robbed out to the east by the later Pit 82, it had been removed to the west of Wall 10 by the lowering of the interior in the nineteenth century. Wall 50 was built of Brandon Hill Grit with some Pennant Sandstone, bonded in an orangey mortar. It was of unknown thickness: possibly it supported one side of a staircase (suggestion from K Blockley). Against the east face was Wall 49, surviving as a length of only 430mm, again of unknown width, and possibly not a wall as such. This was mainly of Pennant and Brandon Hill Grit with some oolite, in a bonding of dark red clay. Against the visible faces of Walls 49 and 50 was context SN (Pit 142), brownishorange fine sand/silt with stones of Brandon Hill Grit and fragments of oolitic limestone. The two walls lay beneath the fourteenth century layer PW, as also did the deposit QO that included two sherds of later Bristol/Redcliffe ware. Wall 47 was constructed solely of Brandon Hill Grit with a dark orange-red silty mortar. Immediately south of Wall 47, and partly below the later Wall 10, was Post-hole 67, cut into layer RL and sealed by MX. Context RL consisted of orange sand with patches of dark red clay-silt, with no dating evidence, whereas MX, dark orange mortar with stones, contained two sherds of Bristol/Redcliffe ware of c 1250-1350 (BPT 118). The two fills of Pit 97 (LL above MH) may date from this period, but could just as easily be later: LL is sealed by the seventeenth/eighteenth century layer HS. Gully 33, the opposing feature to Pit 102, may also have been backfilled during this period. Within the fill (KC), a reddish orange soil with fragments of Brandon Hill Grit

Fig. 42. Period 2. Gullies 51, 59 and stone feature 80, with wall 31 beyond © Bristol Culture

37

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 between them reduced from 240 to 200mm towards the south. It is possible that the pair of gullies had originally extended further to the north, but later disturbance made it impossible to confirm this. The general level in this area was almost half a metre below that within Building 1 immediately to the north, and had clearly been terraced in. Only at the southern end did the original sloping ground surface survive. The slots may indicate the positions of packing either side of wooden sills for internal partitions.

half of the cellarium. The outside area to the west of the range appears to have been used for gardening. Many fragments of inscribed slate were found in contemporary association with the cellarium. This substantial new range erected on the west side of the cloister utilised the remains of the original building as the basis of its western foundations (Figs. 27-28). Paul (1912, 235 and Plate XXXIV) suggested that the original western cloister walk was further east, but it now appears that the cloister had already reached its present width before the fourteenth century.

Natural was much higher at the northern extremity of the excavation than elsewhere, an average of only about half a metre below modern ground surface in the areas to the east and south-east of the abbey gatehouse. Running beneath the north section was a wide, shallow depression containing context JJ, a red gravelly sandy layer with some oolite chips, and a single sherd (BPT 118). This, in turn, was overlain by layer EG, also with chips of oolite and containing eight sherds, of which six were of late twelfth/ early thirteenth century manufacture (BPT 27). Context CC in the west of the area was the equivalent of EG.

The western range would have performed the function of cellarium or abbey storehouse on its ground floor, the upper storey probably utilised as guest accommodation. Incorporating the south wall of the existing Norman hall meant that no separate north end wall was required. The oldest part of the present cloister west wall, at 1.12m (44 inches) wide, may well match the size of its earlier, twelfth century, predecessor. Almost at the mid-way point of today’s wall is a fourteenth century doorway facing into the cloister (Stone feature 20; Fig. 44). Out of plain chamfered jambs rises a two-centred moulded arch, the moulding continuing onto a hood-mould. The label stops to the latter are now missing but O’Neill (BRSMG M.1893) shows them, although not well enough to ascertain whether they were in the form of human heads. Above the arch, now as in 1821, is a corbel in the form of a man’s head, but it appears to have been repositioned from elsewhere on site. In the western face of the cloister wall is a shallow segmental rear arch with a plain chamfer that continues the full depth of the jambs. This arch has been reconstructed at some time in the past, probably when the southern half of the cloister wall was rebuilt in the 1880s, since that work continues a short distance north of the doorway also. However, the main doorway itself appears undisturbed, and may therefore be contemporary with the cellarium. To the west of this doorway and occupying the northern end of the ground floor of the range was probably the outer parlour, where the canons would meet those visiting from the secular world outside the confines of the abbey. The term ‘parlour’ indicates the function of this space as a place where conversations could be held.

Period 3 – The Fourteenth Century (Fig. 43) Later in the fourteenth century a new, buttressed, stone building was constructed to replace the original west cloister range, while the (possible) bell tower to its west was probably removed. Only the northern half of the rebuilt range (approximately 11.40m x 11m) was exposed during the excavation, the remainder now being buried beneath the road leading to the cloister and the Cathedral School premises beyond. The overall dimensions of this western claustral range, representing the abbey cellarium, the main storehouse of the establishment, would have been about 29m in length by 11m in width. The rebuilt east wall, still standing to the north of the cloister access road, includes a much-weathered moulded doorway with a corbel above in the form of a man’s face. The west wall of the rebuilt cellarium, first uncovered in the 1991 evaluation, measured 10.30m by 1.34m as excavated and included three external buttresses on its west side. Associated were contemporary stone-built drains, which included re-used stonework such as window tracery in their construction. At the junction of the north end of the cellarium west wall and the Norman hall south wall, there was a substantial structure, possibly a heavily moulded entrance porch to an Outer Parlour at the northern end of the ground floor.

In 1992 the west wall of the cellarium (Wall 3) still survived to a level not far below the modern ground surface. This was of massive construction, an average 1.30m (51 inches) in thickness, well founded with outer footings of a further 0.25m (10 inches), the inner footings being somewhat slimmer (Figs. 7, 9, 27 and 28). A foundation trench (Gully 56 – fill context SX) survived outside the wall for the stretch between the northernmost buttress and Wall 38. Further to the south, near to the third buttress, it was again recorded (context PE). At its northern end the west face of the wall was built out to a rougher edge on the line of the outer extent of the footings, where it met the (truncated) end of the earlier, Period 2, Wall 34 (Fig. 29) and the newer walls to either side, W.38 and W.39 (see below). At a distance of 2.50m south of the wider wall/

The ground floor of the cellarium revealed two phases. The earlier phase was defined by two rectangular stone bases placed across the central axis of the building. One corner of the southern plinth was built incorporating a block with moulding of plain chamfer with a roll and bar stop in Old Red Sandstone. These plinths may have carried a large staircase to the upper floor (cf. the west claustral range at Fountains Abbey, for instance). The north plinth was subsequently replaced in the late medieval period by an east-west wall that completely sub-divided the northern 38

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 43. Plan showing Period 3 features © Bristol Culture

39

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 44. Medieval doorway in cloister west wall: east-facing elevation © Bristol Culture

south side of Wall 38 was a buttress (BT.2), 820mm long by 690mm in width, followed after an interval of 1.92m by a second example (BT.1), and, after a similar distance, by a third (BT.3). Buttress 1 had been partially uncovered during the 1991 evaluation, when it was recorded as ‘wall 2’. All three buttresses were of similar size, at intervals of about 2.65m, centre-to-centre, and this layout probably continued southwards beneath the road and school. Lower portions of Buttress 3 survive by virtue of having been utilised for part of the foundation of the Victorian south boundary wall, W.35. The footings for these buttresses were generally wider than those for the main wall proper.

range, were mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, with Pennant packing, bonded in an orange/brown sandy/gritty soil. Old Red Sandstone measures outcrop in Abbots Leigh, near Bristol, north-westwards of Church Road/Manor Road, and, the manor then being part of the abbey estate, this was probably the source of the stone. As a building material it is not commonly found in medieval Bristol, but does occur in various abbey buildings, also at St. Mark’s on the far side of College Green, and is later found in use in the area in the nineteenth century (e.g., at No 30 on the Green). At its northern end the west cellarium wall partly abutted the earlier wall of the Norman hall (Wall 33, Fig. 24), but was also partly bonded into it, returning eastwards for a short distance. Within the wall, between Buttresses 1 and 2, was a small drain (Drain 23) that crossed it from east to west, discharging beyond the western side of the footings, presumably into Drain 37 (Figs. 27-28). Most of the area immediately inside the cellarium had been destroyed by later walls and two substantial cess pits, but at the southern end of the excavation a narrow drain-like feature (Drain 38, context RR) survived against the footings. At the bottom of a shallow gully (G.53) lay a line of ceramic roof tiles (BRF type 6), used in a similar manner to those in the floor

On the footings, in the southern angle between Buttress 1 and Wall 3 was the head of a small drain, D.29, its sides converging towards the outlet. This probably acted as a hopper or sump collecting the rainwater draining from the roof. The drain proper was incorporated into the body of the later Wall 11, indicating that it was then probably still in use (Fig. 43). Wall 3 was predominantly built of Old Red Sandstone with packing of Brandon Hill Grit and Pennant Sandstone, bonded with an orange-pink mortar. Some blocks of freestone were noted in the buttresses. The footings, the remains of the west wall of the original 40

The Excavation: Period Descriptions of the earlier drain, D.31, a little to the west. The main fill of the gully was a brown gritty sandy soil with many chips of Pennant Sandstone (RN). This feature may have served to drain the interior of the storerooms, although it should be noted that its base lay at a lower level than the bottom of the nearby drain described above. There were no signs of original flooring surviving inside the building. However, the fills of the Period 2 gullies (contexts RC, RG, TC and TD) may date from this time, although only one dateable item was recovered from all four – a sherd of BPT 118 (of c 1250-1350).

piece of re-used Old Red Sandstone (Stone Feature 86) that carried a roll and bar stop and plain chamfer similar to those of c 1320 still surviving at the entrances to the Berkeley Chapel and its anteroom or sacristy on the south side of the south choir aisle, and thus dating this feature to not much before this date (Fig. 46). There were no matching piers either to north or south, nor did the pair correspond with the buttresses in the west wall. It therefore seems unlikely that these carried columns, for which in any case they might have been nearer to square. The most likely explanation is that the two piers supported a staircase leading to the upper storey. Bradenstoke Priory (Wilts.) had a staircase in a similar position, while Fountains Abbey possessed a feature similar to the Bristol one in construction, though, being the lay brothers’ night stairs, it ran from inside the church. Between the piers lay an area of pale buff mortar (context SO). This continued up to the pier faces but not the west face of the later Wall 32.

Two rectangular piers were positioned across the centre line of the cellarium (Walls 30 & 52) at 2.60m centres (Fig. 45). Each was 2m in length by 0.85m in width, constructed of Brandon Hill Grit with some Pennant Sandstone and Old Red Sandstone, bonded in a dull orange-brown mortar. At the south-west corner of the southern pier, W.30, was a

Fig. 45. East-facing elevations of walls 30, 31, 32 and 52 © Bristol Culture

Fig. 46. Period 3. Corner of wall 30, showing stone feature 86 © Bristol Culture

41

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Within the area of the cellarium were several pits and two post-holes, none of them necessarily related. Pit 128, in the centre of the building at its northern end, and Pit 132 (fill context RH), against the eastern end of the southern pier, contained no dating evidence. To the south-east of the latter was the circular pit, P.131, that cut the earlier, Period 2, east-west gully, G.49, and the fill of which (QX) included four sherds of BPT 118 (c 1250-1350). Three metres to the north lay Post-hole 69 (fill RW), also containing one sherd of the same fabric. Still further to the north, but obstructing access to the doorway in the west cloister wall, was Pit 146 (fill TE), containing five sherds of BPT 118 but partially destroyed by the cut for a later drain (D.25, Period 5a). To the north-east of the pit was Post-hole 70, only 300mm from the inside of the cloister wall. The full diameter was 220mm, but the fill included a 120mm-diameter central ‘post’ that was filled with lumps of charcoal with some pale brown clayey silt (context SA). It should be noted that in the cases of both Pit 146 and Post-hole 70 there is no firm dating evidence for placing them in this period, and so they could belong to a later phase.

side of Wall 38 was a possible floor level, comprising fragments of Pennant Sandstone slab, being large roof tiles reused (S.F.75, context SE), below which was a silty layer (context ST). The feature did not relate comfortably with the wall to its north and may have pre-dated it. To the south, most of Wall 51 had been robbed out, the fill of the resultant trench, Gully 57, containing a number of sherds of pre-1350 date (context SY). In the southern part of this area was layer PP, an orangey sandy layer, possibly mortary, and this was continued beyond the line of Wall 43, which was still upstanding to a degree, as context QC. Together, these two layers contained a number of pottery sherds from the first half of the fourteenth century, mainly of BPT 118 and 121, as well as a number from earlier dates. Beneath QC was context QE, which produced, close to the southern edge of Wall 43, a penny of Henry III, dated to 1248 (small find no.187). Occupying much of the area between Wall 3 and the east end of Wall 43 was Pit 137, above the upper end of the earlier, Period 2, Drain 37. The pit fill (context RY) consisted of orange-brown sandy silt, many stones (some mortared) and lumps of orangey mortar. This may represent demolition rubble from part of the postulated bell tower (Building 2). Within the pit were in excess of 30 sherds, including two of BPT 126 (c 1300-1400) and nineteen of BPT 118 (c 1250-1350), also earlier fabrics.

The Period 2 bell tower structure (Building 2) must have been removed prior to construction of the cellarium. In one place Wall 34 was destroyed down to its footings by the excavation of two pits, P.115 and P.113. Just to the east of these the lower part of the wall was left in-situ, and indeed was extended to north and south by the addition of Walls 38 and 39, thus extending the slightly wider northern section of Wall 3 in a westerly direction by a further 2.85m. Wall 38 was built over the footings of the earlier wall. While the function of this large mass of masonry is not entirely certain, it does appear to have formed the approach to a wide opening at the northern end of Wall 3. Paul’s plan of Minster House indicates that this may have been a deeply moulded doorway (BRO DC/F/9/1). This would not be unreasonable, since in many religious houses this position in the west range was occupied by an outer parlour, a place where the religious and secular worlds interfaced. Here, in the space between the cloister and the outer court, the canons of St Augustine’s Abbey could meet their benefactors and other lay persons. The access from this room to the cloister would have been through the doorway in Wall 2 (see above). From the south side of the room led the also aforementioned staircase to the first floor lodgings. It is possible that the masonry base beyond the outer doorway supported a porch. Paul recorded a squintlike window immediately to the south of the doorway.

Sealing the western end of Pit 137 and flowing southwards through the eastern half of this area just west of the cellarium was the drain, D.20, commencing probably on the north side of Buttress 2 (its northern end was destroyed, so its point of origin could not be precisely determined). Initially running a little west of south, its line turned to due south beyond the point where it had been destroyed later by the post-medieval Wall 11 (Period 5a), and it ran on to the excavation boundary as Drain 36. The principal remains lay between Buttress 2 and Wall 11, where it was seen to have stone sides bonded in a pinkish mortar, about 400mm apart (Fig. 47). Mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, there was also some Pennant in the walls, with odd pieces of slate, perhaps to pack the capstones, which themselves were of both Pennant and freestone, including part of a square head to a window of multiple trefoil-headed lights of probably later fourteenth century date (Fig. 48; moulded stonework fragment no.M77). One of the slate fragments was a slate tally marker reused (small find no.176 – Fig. 73.2). The fill of Drain 20 (context PB) was a mid-brown loamy silt, darker and more loamy towards the top, generally charcoal-free but with occasional patches, and including a few pot sherds from the first half of the fourteenth century. Further to the north-west, Drain 24, of which only a short stretch remained, appeared to flow south-east in the general direction of Drain 20. To the east of Drain 20 and cut by it, layer RM included nine sherds of BPT 118 (c 1250-1350).

Pit 115, cut slightly into Wall 34 but also extending to the south of it, contained sherds of BPT 118 (c 1250-1350). The larger Pit 113 subsequently cut Pit 115 at its northern end, also more of the remains of Wall 34 (extending up to its northerly return and the southern face of Wall 33), and cut the small Pit 119. Within the pit fill (context NV) were found a larger number of sherds, both of the same fabric and of the later BPT 118L (c 1350 onwards). A fragment of slate found within NV was inscribed with an anthropomorphic figure on one side, with crude lettering on the reverse (small find no.134 – Fig. 73.1). On the south

Pit 130, a possible post-hole of 400mm diameter, lay 750mm south of the south-west corner of the former 42

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 47. East-west section through buildings 2 and 5 and room 6 © Bristol Culture

soil, containing a few sherds of fourteenth century pottery (context LX). Further to the west, above the line of the supposed west wall of the building, lay a deposit of stones bonded in pink mortar (PX). These, lying directly north of Pit 97, did not have a face and were possibly a pit fill. Above this was a 100mm-deep layer comprising dark red silty sandy soil with stones (MP). Neither of these two deposits contained any direct dating evidence. In the area to the north-west of Building 1 was a hardpacked layer of dark red clay-silt and stones (context OP), including five sherds of late thirteenth to early fourteenth century pottery, and earlier, twelfth century ceramics, but no later finds. The later Drain 30 sealed this deposit. In the western part of the site lay an area of disturbed natural. An arbitrary spit of this was removed during the excavation (context ME), producing five pottery sherds of potentially mid-thirteenth to mid-fourteenth century date. Period 4a – The Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries (Fig. 49) In this period the nave together with much of the monastic quarters including the frater along the south range of the main cloister and the lesser cloister further south, were under reconstruction. Today the frater or refectory still survives within the Cathedral School. During this period the western end of the Norman hall building was demolished, and the Minster House or Prior’s Lodgings range was then constructed incorporating the remains. The principal part of Minster House was a two-storey structure with a first-floor hall, 10.50m x 8.0m with additions on the east. West of the cloister, internal walls divided the cellarium building into three rooms. The new buildings were provided with a well-constructed drainage system.

Fig. 48. Period 3. Drain 20, looking south, showing stones reused as the roof © Bristol Culture

Building 2. Its fill (QT) contained three sherds, two of twelfth-thirteenth century date, the third of BPT 118. Over in the south-west corner of the garden area, Pit 118, a wide but not particularly deep feature, partly overlay the filled in bell-founding pit, P.147. Apart from several earlier sherds there were half a dozen examples of BPT 118, also three of BPT 120 and one of BPT 121, these last two fabrics dated to around 1300-50 (context PA).

Within the cellarium the northern stair pier (wall 52) was reduced, most of its thickness overlain by a full-width east-west wall, W.31. The new wall, 800mm thick, was constructed mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, in a dull orange mortar. Paul’s plan (Fig. 12) shows a skew window in Wall 3 immediately north of Wall 31. This would have provided the only source of direct light in the outer parlour when

Within the area of Building 1 (the Norman hall), was a layer, 50-100mm deep, of mixed orange-brown mortary 43

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 49. Plan showing Period 4a features © Bristol Culture

44

The Excavation: Period Descriptions the main door was shut. There is a possibility that the original window embrasure was contemporary with the construction of Wall 3 and was of conventional shape, but was then altered to take account of the new cross-wall. Just east of the end of the remains of wall 52 there may have been a doorway – a subsequent layer, QB, partly overlay the wall at this point. One sherd found within this layer was Malvernian, dating to no earlier than the fifteenth century. This layer was noted as being delimited westwards by walls 29 and 32. Wall 32 had been built between the eastern ends of the stair piers subsequent to deposition of the mortar layer, SO. Mainly of Brandon Hill Grit, bonded in a pinkish-orange mortar, the wall was only a little over 1.60m in length, but was 600-650mm in width. Wall 29 ran for an even shorter distance from the southwest corner of the southern pier (Wall 30) before turning to the west as Wall 28 (Fig. 50), which latter reached to the inner face of Wall 3. Although using similar materials to Wall 32, Walls 28 and 29 were narrower, at 500mm. wide.

construction, S.F.73, function unknown. This consisted of pieces of Pennant Sandstone bonded with a grey-buff mortar. A short distance to the east, against the south side of the eastern end of Wall 38, was S.F.50. An area of crushed freestone was bounded to the west by a line of small flat pennants. On its northern side was plaster against the face of Wall 38. In the southern part of the area, Pit 117 (context PD) overlay the line of Drain 20. Two metres to the west lay Pit 107 (context NN), later to be cut by the footings of Wall 11. West of that pit, and partly below the position of the later Pit 80, was Pit 114. Running north to south a short distance west of the site of Building 2 was Drain 8, the southwards continuation of Drain 15 in Minster House (Figs. 7-8). It appears to have had a long life, and some of the length excavated in 1992 may represent later repairs or rebuilding rather than the original construction. There must have been a need to open up and clean out periodically, as this sort of drain would have become blocked on a relatively frequent basis. Pennant Sandstone was utilised for the flooring and cap-stones and most of the walling, this last being bonded in orange-pink mortar. The channel was approximately 300mm in width and depth. It ran into the site south section, after which its course is unknown, although a change to a westerly direction is most likely.

Layer QB also sealed two pits, Pit 127 and Pit 129 (fills QJ & QQ). The latter included a Tournai token (small find no.188, fl.1415-97), also four sherds of fifteenth or sixteenth century Malvern ware and one of ‘Tudor Green’ ware of post-1420. Pit 123, cut into the southern end of this pit, apparently from a higher level, may have constituted merely another element of the fill of Pit 129. In pockets across the area between Walls 2 and 32 lay context QP, a brownish red silt. To the south of Wall 28, and cut by it, was the earlier Gully 46, at the bottom of which was Drain 37. However, the fill of the gully (QM) included no less than eleven sherds of ‘Tudor Green’ ware (BPT 182, c 1420-1500) and nine of Malvern (BPT 197, fifteenthsixteenth century), also a single example of Falfield ware. The presence of this later pottery indicated, as must so often have been the case with stone drains, that this length had been uncovered for repair or, perhaps more likely, for cleaning. A fragment of slate from the gully fill was scratched with a doodle (small find no.234 – Fig. 74.6). Above the gully and towards Wall 3 to the south-west were contexts PJ and PK, the upper of which produced two further sherds of BPT 197 and one of Falfield ware (BPT 266). Drain 23, flowing westwards through Wall 3, contained three fills, the lowest of which (TJ) included three sherds of BPT 197 and two of BPT 266, dating that deposit to probably the sixteenth century.

Close to the west side of Drain 8, at the southern side of the site, was a single post-hole, P.H.62. The fill of this (context OD) contained but one sherd, of post-1400 date, although the feature was cut into an area that produced only sherds of earlier in c 1350 in date (contexts QR and QS). At this time the only other evidence for activity in this part of the site is the large, but not particularly deep, Pit 122 (fill QA), its northern half destroyed by the building of Minster House. Although none of the finds from the fill were later than mid-fourteenth century in date, the pit cut context PN, which contained four pottery sherds of no earlier than c 1400 (BPT 197). In a band of about 2m in width running east-west immediately south of Minster House, PN consisted of a dark red clay-silt with some small stones and lay directly upon natural. Layer GT, further east, may have been associated. The fifteenth century saw construction of the principal part of what would become known as Minster House. However, as both the archaeology and the illustrations of the standing building show, Minster House was not erected as a single entity, rather it was the combination of a series of rebuildings and new build. At the eastern end of this part of the site the Norman hall was partially reconstructed. To the west, a new first-floor hall was built. The end result was a lengthy east-west range, the eastern end of its south wall incorporating the north end of the cellarium range. As late as the nineteenth century, the southern elevation of this composite range remained inconsistent, with variations in both eaves heights and the finish of the wall renderings.

Adjacent to the northern side of Wall 31 was a narrow gully, G.55 (fill context SH), probably representing the robbing of the north side of the Period 3 Wall 52 (see Fig. 43). There was no evidence of the gully much beyond the ends of Wall 52. Cut by the gully and also running parallel to the wall was an area of brownish yellow silt (SJ), 2030mm in depth, extending eastwards from where it was cut by the later Period 5b cess pit, Stone Feature 56, for almost 1.50m and about 600mm in width. Relatively few features dating to this period were located in the area immediately to the west of the cellarium. Over the west end of Stone Feature 75 was placed a small

Virtually the whole of the extreme eastern end of the range 45

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 was removed during construction of the Victorian nave, although there may have been earlier destruction here as part of the abortive attempt to rebuild the west end of the church in the early sixteenth century. Illustrations from the early nineteenth century show a block that was, even then, still largely windowless for part of its south elevation, a hang-over from the time when the cellarium range was still standing against that area of wall. Immediately to the west lay the one part of the Minster House range that stood out – literally, as its roof was somewhat higher than the remainder. There was the one south-facing window, at the first floor, but this was a 3-light mullioned example that could easily date from after the Dissolution. The Norman wall continued in use, but its northern face was rebuilt at the west end, as Wall 19 (Fig. 26). Brandon Hill Grit was utilised for the majority, bonded with a pink mortar. At the western end was a freestone jamb with a plain chamfer and broach stop, forming the southern side of a doorway (Stone Feature 2). A passage ran eastwards from here, alongside the north face of Wall 5. Beyond the passage was Room 1. The presence of the cellarium, on the south, and Room 1, on the north, prevented the direct lighting of the eastern end of the passage. The problem appears to have been solved by the provision of a skew window that took its light from the outside of Wall 33 at its junction with Wall 3. While the eastern side of the (full height) embrasure ran at an angle of 45 degrees (S.F.60), the inner part of the west side was at right angles to Wall 5 (S.F.36). t is likely that the outer part of the west side again lay at 45 degrees, but this, together with the opposite side, would have been at more conventional window level, and therefore did not survive.

being the east wall (Wall 10), which was still over 600mm deep. Possibly this last-mentioned wall was not contemporary, since it consisted of red sandstone (Old Red Sandstone?) and Pennant Sandstone rather than the Brandon Hill Grit that was the predominant material in the walls. In terms of the mortar used, it was Wall 14, the western end, that was the exception, being an orange-pink rather than just pink (Fig. 53). Even the lowest levels of all four walls were heavily damaged during demolition in 1883, with the result that the excavated evidence has had to be augmented by information from Paul’s drawing in order to calculate wall thicknesses. Buttresses were provided at both ends of the south and west elevations, but no evidence for these on the other walls was forthcoming. In fact, the eastern end of Wall 15 (the north wall of the building) was of such shallow foundation that none of it had survived the 1883 demolition. More than half the length of the south wall (Wall 13) had its footings expanded southwards in order to support a large chimney breast in the centre of the wall and a canted bay further west. The slight remains of a foundation trench (Gully 48, context QZ) were noted, containing but one sherd of earlier date (c 1250-1350). No archaeological evidence for the ground-floor fireplace survived and only slightly more, of much later date, for the bay. Illustrations show that the bay had windows on all three sides at both ground and first floors, each window with a cinquefoil head and hollow spandrels within a square frame. At the south-east corner of the building the base of the buttress consisted of a large block of reused moulded freestone, Stone Feature 28, whose underside was carved as part of a scalloped capital (of Norman date). No direct archaeological dating evidence survived for this building, however the two-storey bay suggests a fifteenth century date. Saunders drawing (c 1822) shows two windows of fifteenth or sixteenth century date between the breast and south-east buttress (Fig. 18). The floor of the bottom storey had been lowered at a later date, destroying anything that might have survived there. This part of Minster House is probably that described in the 1649 Parliamentary survey as ‘two cellers lyeing under the greate hall calld the Bishopps Hall’ (BRO DC/E/3/2).

Wall 4 divided the passage from Room 1, and was similar in build to Wall 5 but including some Pennant Sandstone, thickness 640mm (Fig. 51). Alongside the north face of the wall was a shallow foundation trench, Gully 37. At its western end was another, internal, doorway, again with freestone jambs with plain chamfers, but with only halfbroach stops (S.F.1). Beyond lay Wall 6, 750mm thick, running north from S.F.2 for 3.25m before returning to the east as Wall 26 (Fig. 25). Wall 6 was bonded in a similar mortar to Walls 4 and 5 and composed of Brandon Hill Grit, but the mortar used in Wall 26 was an orange-pink. The latter wall was neatly faced on the inside and on part of the outside, but at its western end was less regular facing north where it was cut back into the natural slope. A small extension at the junction of Walls 6 and 26 may have been the base of a buttress. The room defined by Walls 4, 6 and 26 extended for an indeterminate distance eastwards, its eastern end later being cut by the foundations of the Victorian south-west tower. It appears to have been the room described in the 1649 survey as ‘little hall’ (BRO DC/E/3/2; Bettey 2007, 75).

Wall 13 continued east as Wall 19, to the end of Wall 5. A wide doorway was incorporated into Wall 19 only a short distance to the east of Wall 10 and Stone Feature 28. This opening was evidently about 1.45m wide but was later to be reduced in width. For some of its length Wall 19 incorporated part of Wall 33, rebuilt in a pink mortar with its northern face cut back. At the eastern end of Wall 19 there was, at least in later times, a doorway (Stone Feature 14) connecting Room 11, on the south, with Room 3, part of the passage. From the outside of Wall 10, at a short distance from its north end, a wall ran eastwards. After 2.75m it turned to the south, returning to meet Wall 10 after another 2.50m. The three walls, 9, 8 and 41, respectively, were of similar build, two of Brandon Hill Grit and the third also with Pennant Sandstone, and all bonded in a pink mortar. Walls 8 and 41 were faced on both sides, being

What was to later become the principal and best-known part of Minster House lay a little over 5m to the west of Wall 6 (Figs. 6, 7 and 52). This was rectangular in plan, a substantially-built structure with walls of, in three instances, more than 750mm in thickness, the exception 46

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 50. South-facing elevation of wall 28 and section through gully 46 © Bristol Culture

Fig. 51. North wall of passage (south-facing elevations of walls 4 and 6-8) © Bristol Culture

47

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 52. Minster House looking eastwards, including in foreground the period 5b underfloor ventilation system outside of wall 14 © Bristol Culture

Fig. 53. East-facing elevation of wall 14 (west wall of Minster House) © Bristol Culture

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The Excavation: Period Descriptions each 500mm thick. A foundation trench, Gully 39 (context NJ), was noted along the eastern side of Wall 8. On the north side, Wall 9 was faced on the inside only, the outside being irregular where it was cut into the slope, although it may have been faced at higher level. Entry to the room was from a continuation of the passage noted to the north of Wall 5, by way of a doorway through Wall 41 (Stone feature 3). The jambs, on the south side of the doorway, were decorated with a plain chamfer and broach stop. One jamb had subsequently been repositioned – the final width of the opening was a massive 2.25m. In all probability it was the westernmost jamb that had been moved, since that on the east side lay adjacent to a drain – which should have been easier laid through a doorway – and the wall footings were continuous except where cut by the drain. Saunders drawing shows the main entrance opposite this opening, which would have made the western end of Room 3 the entrance hall, with, in all probability, Room 4 containing the main staircase.

direction. Pennant Sandstone bonded in a pink mortar was used for the base, walls and capping of this main drain. Gully 47 may have been associated with construction of this feature. At the time of excavation the sub-circular feature was interpreted as a garderobe, or privy, but is now thought to have been a ‘hopper’ or sump to catch water dropping from a roof spout. The drain itself was sat on a base of dark red clay silt (context PY) and was bonded in a pink mortar. A series of drains were in use on this line until the demise of the building in the later nineteenth century. South of Wall 9, to the west of Drain 15 lay a deposit of pinkish-orange mortary rubble and stones with lumps of pinkish-grey mortar towards the bottom (context MG), matched on the opposite side by rubble with lumps of orange-pink mortar and orange-brown silty soil (MM). The latter contained five sherds of BPT 118. The appellation ‘Minster House’ does not appear to have been applied until towards the close of the life of the building. Mary Robinson (‘Perdita’), the actress, and mistress of the future George IV, who was born within the Cathedral precincts in 1758, talked of a ‘Minster House’, which was in fact on the north side of the cloister and now lies beneath the Victorian nave. It seems that the more usual name given to the prebendal house was ‘Prior’s Lodging’ or ‘Lodge’. No other part of the abbey precinct has been identified as the likely site for the prior’s accommodation.

Between Walls 6 and 8 lay an area that was defined on the north by Wall 27, a westward continuation of the line of Wall 26. It was, however, rather thinner than the other walls, at 470mm, and its relationship to them was unclear. Faced on its south side, the wall was less regular on its north side, where it appears to have been founded on the northern edge of the wall of the Norman building. Mainly comprising Brandon Hill Grit, it was bonded on the north side in a red-brown silt, on the south side in an orange-pink mortar. In the angle between Walls 8 and 27 was Stone Feature 31, the bottom of a flight of stairs. Four risers and three treaders survived, but there were probably originally more, with the upper end hinting at the beginnings of a turn. The treaders were of Pennant Sandstone, 640mm wide and 300mm deep, and the same orange-pink mortar was used as in most of the Minster House walls. It is not clear whether the stairs led up to the first floor or merely to a raised ground-floor area to the north. There was apparently no wall connecting the southern ends of Walls 6 and 8 until later. This room may have been the ‘little butterie now the kitching’ recorded in the 1649 survey (BRO DC/E/3/2).

Period 4b – After the Dissolution (Fig. 54) Upon the surrender of St. Augustine’s Abbey on 9 December 1539 the site and its buildings passed to the Crown. At, or soon after this time, the old nave and its partlybuilt replacement were removed, leaving the truncated structure that was to constitute the cathedral church from its establishment in 1542 until the 1870s. Some of the claustral buildings managed to survive – making it clear that wholesale destruction was not necessarily the order of the day. However, the western side of the cloister did suffer badly compared with the remainder, although it is not clear as to when, for instance, the cellarium range was removed. The surviving foundations indicate that it was of substantial construction and may well have been capable of further use.

Drain 30, to the north of Wall 9, has been mentioned previously (Period 3). It ran from east around to south and with the conventional Pennant Sandstone slabs for floor and roof. It would originally have continued on to join Drain 15, which ran past the end wall of the Norman building and then southwards. This provided drainage for both Buildings 1 and 2. Although the surviving evidence points to this period, it is possible that the drain was first installed earlier than this. A reddish-brown clay-silt fill (PL), complete with a single sherd of BPT 118 (c 12501350), was recorded within Drain 30. The drain was later blocked by part of the northern edge of a sub-circular stone feature, S.F.25. This was constructed in similar manner to the majority of drains, in this instance the walls bonded in an orange-pink mortar, but was somewhat larger at approximately 700mm diameter. It formed the head of Drain 15, which then led directly southwards through the building, after which it turned to run in a south-south-west

The establishment of the new bishopric of Bristol, created in 1542, utilising the remains of the abbey and with St. Augustine the Great as its cathedral church, was provided with a total staff of 40. Apart from the bishop – who was to set up home on the east side of the lesser cloister, beyond the end of the abbey’s dorter range – accommodation had to be found for the dean and the other officers, including half a dozen prebendaries, or major-canons. Each of the prebendaries was provided with an official residence, the canon of the first stall being allocated Minster House. However, given the incidence of pluralism at the time, the prebendaries often had duties elsewhere and for the most part spent only a fraction of the year at Bristol. Even in the nineteenth century they were only required to spend two 49

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 54. Plan showing Period 4b features © Bristol Culture

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The Excavation: Period Descriptions months of the year in residence. The regular duties seem to have fallen to the six minor canons. Probably the most famous prebendary of the first stall was Richard Hakluyt or Hackluyt, the Elizabethan geographer, who also held a similar post at Westminster. At this time the part of the abbey outer court adjoining the south side of Minster House was converted into a garden, delineated by walls to south and west.

east of Drain 20 was NM, which produced a further tally (small find no.128 – Fig. 74.8), on a fragment of slate that was once part of the same larger piece as small find no.176 in context PC (a fourteenth century context). At the southern end of the line of Drain 20, Gully 42 (context NZ) may have been a re-cut of the earlier Pit 117. To the west of this was the layer NL, with a single sherd of post-1550 date. Immediately above NL was MZ, a dark brownish red silty soil. Above that again were MF and MQ, reddish brown silty soils with stones.

Drain 23, in the thickness of Wall 3, appears to have continued in use after the surrender of the house. Above the third fill of the drain (context TJ), dating from the last decades of the abbey, lay a very loose light brown silty sand (TH) containing many small bones and two sherds of Wanstrow ware (1550 and later). Uppermost within the drain lay context LC, containing no specific dating evidence. At some point the drain channel had been sealed at its eastern end by a mortared blocking almost 300mm in length but which left a small almost square vertical opening immediately to its west.

Sealing the western end of Drain 11 and extending for 4.40m to the south of it was a layer of buff mortary sand, generally only a few millimetres deep, JH. It was noted that the northern extent of both drain and sand coincided exactly. No pottery with potential to be later than 1600 was encountered within the deposit. Along its western side the mortar was cut by the foundation trench of the later Wall 12. It did not extend southwards beyond the line of the later Wall 11. To the east the deposit died out. Postholes 41 and 45 (contexts HZ and KS) were subsequently cut through JH (Fig. 47). A pair of stones 600mm east of P.H.45 were interpreted as the packing in a third example (P.H.49).

Within the cellarium, a short distance east of Wall 32, was Pit 133, fill recorded as context RK. Sealing the pit was layer PO, a red-brown soil with stones and lumps of plaster and pale mortar that was limited to the area east of Walls 29/32. Cut into PO was Pit 125, whose eastern end was against the cloister/ cellarium wall. The fill of the pit, QG, produced several sherds of post-1550 pottery. Pit 109 (fill context NT, not shown on plan), in the south-east corner, and Pit 105 (fill NG) which cut the western end of Pit 125, were also inside the building. They were both beneath the extensive but later layer, GN, which was piled up against the Walls 28-32.

In the area to the south-west was Pit 120 (fill PG), subsequently destroyed to south and west by later gullies cut for drains. At the southern edge of the excavated area lay Pit 110 (fill context OA), which cut across the earlier P.H.62 and also cut the south-eastern part of Gully 43 (fill OB) immediately to the north. Both pit and gully had their eastern ends cut away by the later Gully 5 (Period 6, Fig. 58). One of the finds within OB was a piece of worked stone carrying a number of incisions (M.71). Post-hole 61 (fill OC) was no more than 100mm from the northern edge of the gully. Less than a metre to the west of this small group lay Pit 134, containing two fills but running into the south section. The lower fill, RV, dark orangered sandy soil with stones, included no dating material; the upper fill, RB, an orange silty soil with small stones and lumps of pinkish mortar, produced a single post-1400 sherd. To the north were two small oval pits, Pits 135 and 136. Further to the west, and partly dug into the fill of the large Period 3 feature, Pit 118, was Gully 44, an irregular cut aligned north-south and continuing beyond the excavated area. This feature contained a fill of mixed coaly ashy soil with dark red-brown silty soil (context OR), including five sherds of BPT 96 (Wanstrow ware of c 1550-1800) and half a dozen sherds of BPT 197 (Malvern ware of the fifteenth or sixteenth century). There is a possibility that the feature was cut from a higher level. On a parallel alignment, 950mm to the east of Gully 44, was a single vertical slab of Pennant Sandstone (Stone Feature 71), possibly the remains of edging to a path, the gully, on the opposite side, against the west garden wall, having perhaps been a bed or border.

To the west of the cellarium, Drain 20 probably continued in use – at least initially. A short distance to the north of both the drain and Buttress 2 was the small Pit 78. Cutting the northern end of the pit was Drain 11 (LQ), which commenced at the western face of Wall 3 and ran on a generally westerly route. For the first four metres this took it in a direction to the north of west after which it turned slightly towards the south, until it met up with the larger north-south drain, D.8. Pennant Sandstone was used for the base-stones, walls and capping, with the gaps between the cap-stones sealed by slates. The water channel varied between 150 and 200 mm in width, being narrowest at the least convenient spot, where the drain changed direction. Two blockings had been inserted close to the upper end. A whitish or pale grey mortar had been used in the drain’s construction. At its eastern end the drain cut the earlier, Period 4a, feature, S.F.50. Sealed beneath the south wall of the drain was an infilled post-hole, P.H.53. Throughout the western half of the area to the south of Drain 11, was layer MR, a reddish-brown silty soil, subdivided into upper (NA) and lower (NF) deposits (Fig. 47). Each of the three contexts produced pottery from no earlier than the mid-sixteenth century. A slate tally was found in MR and a counter in NF (small find nos.122 – Fig. 74.7 – and 258). The equivalent layer of NF to the

Lying a little over a metre west of the larger Drain 8 was the lower end of Drain 28 (Figs. 7-8). This probably 51

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 originally ran from the south-east buttress of Minster House, from a point that was later served by Drain 22, draining into the larger Drain 8. Much of the upper route was subsequently destroyed by the construction of Walls 17 and 18 in the nineteenth century, although a fragment survived below the corner of the latter. Drain 28 was built with walls of Pennant Sandstone and some Brandon Hill Grit with pink mortar, the floor being of the usual Pennant slabs: no cap-stones survived. Within the channel was a fill of red-brown silty soil with some charcoal and mortar flecks.

At the western end of the passage was layer PM, a dark red clay-silt. In the southern half of Room 10 was LT, disturbed natural. Neither produced any secure dating evidence. Cutting into PM was a small post-hole, P.H.54. Period 5a – The Seventeenth to late Eighteenth Centuries (Fig. 55) During this period rooms within the Minster House saw changes in use, drains were replaced and fireplaces installed. The area to the south of the house was used as garden. Borders along the west and south walls were defined by upright stone slabs. Further west, beyond the garden wall there were drains that carried their loads down to the Marsh and the Avon. The drains were wellconstructed, and some were later replaced in brick.

On the east side of Drain 8, towards its northern end, was layer NE, a mixed red-brown clay-silt and dark brown silty soil, not unlike context ON, on the opposite side of the drain, which was a mixed dark red clay-silt and orange-brown mortary sandy silt. The former produced only a solitary medieval sherd, the latter none. To the west of deposit ON lay an east-west band of red-brown silty soil (OT).

In the eastern part of the site a wall was erected against the south face of the wall of the old Norman hall (Wall 33). This, Wall 36, bonded in a slightly pinkish mortar, was built of Brandon Hill Grit with some Pennant and Old Red Sandstone. It was relatively thin – 400mm – and not particularly deeply founded. The wall turned to the south for a very short distance at its eastern end when it met the west face of Wall 2, the west cloister/east cellarium wall, but due to its shallow nature soon ran out. Possibly it originally continued on to meet the east end of Wall 31. Its western end was later destroyed by the construction of a large drain, D.25, and, beyond it, a cess pit, Stone Feature 56 (Periods 5a and 5b, respectively). Partly overlain by the southern side of the wall was the small, earlier pit, P.128. Beyond the south face of the wall the pit was sealed by a 150-200mm deep layer of brownish orange mortary silt that contained some lumps of off-white plaster and pinkish orange mortar (OX). This extended over most of the area as far as Wall 31. Within the deposit the predominant pottery-type was Donyatt wares of the sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries, of which 15 sherds were identified, but there were other fabrics of similar date and even a solitary fragment of English tinglazed ware. Above much of OX was layer OO, rubble with brown silty soil that again included lumps of mortar and off-white plaster. Cutting OX and defining the southwestern extent of OO was a larger stone-built drain, D.25. Initially on a north-south route, once it had crossed the line of Wall 33 it turned to drain in a south-easterly direction, exiting the site through the fourteenth century doorway in the west cloister wall (S.F.20 in Wall 2). With a channel of generally 350-400mm in width, the drain was capped with slabs of Pennant Sandstone and freestone bonded in a hard, grey mortar (NW), indicating that it was cleaned out – presumably because it was still in use – in the late eighteenth century or later.

Extending southwards from the south-west buttress of Minster House and reaching to the southern limit of the excavated area was Wall 16 (Figs. 34-35). Constructed mainly of Brandon Hill Grit bonded with an orange-pink mortar with lime flecks and occasional charcoal flecks, the wall was unusual in that only the eastern face survived for most of its length. However, the various illustrations clearly show a solid western face, and the partial survival must be due to the eastern side having been the more deeply founded, which might have been necessary if the garden area to its east was under regular cultivation and that to the west was not. It seems that the full width of the wall was about 700mm. Although the garden entrance by the late eighteenth century was framed by a rusticated surround (Figs. 16, 17 and 21), the existence of the various paths beside Minster House from the late medieval onwards show that this was an ancient access way. Alongside the south side of Minster House, above the dark red clay-silt, PN, was a path of crushed freestone (PR), only 10-20mm deep but between 1.50m and 2m wide, running eastward from Wall 16 for about 3m. Against the east face of Wall 16, cut into PN and sealed beneath PR, was the square post-hole, P.H.66 (Fig. 35). Above PR was a much deeper path of red-brown sandy soil (NX), 150-200mm thick but only 1.30m in width, that produced pottery of medieval date, also seven sherds from post1550. Beneath NX was the post-hole, P.H.65, almost three and a half metres east of Wall 16. Over this lay another path, context NK, of similar width but slightly shallower, a red-brown sandy soil with much white mortar and plaster. To the south, in the middle of the garden area, were Pit 108 (fill context NP) and, close by to the east, P.H.60 (fill NQ). They were not related to other features. There is a possibility that Pit 108 was cut from a higher – and therefore later – level.

Wall 36 was pierced by Drain 25. Slightly eastwards of that point the wall was later robbed out completely, perhaps in the eighteenth century, by Gully 45 (fill context OV), which also cut the northern edge of OO. In turn, the gully fill was cut by the post-hole P.H.56 [not shown on plan], which was against the south face of Wall 33.

In the Minster House range itself there was very little that could be dated in the post-surrender sixteenth century. 52

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 55. Plan showing Period 5a features © Bristol Culture

53

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 To the south of cellarium cross-wall Wall 31 lay the extensive layer, GN, which was piled up against the Walls 28-32. This was a light yellowish-brown clayey silt layer containing large quantities of ceramic roof tile. Three tile fabrics were identified (plus a single piece of pantile). The largest quantity was of Bristol Rooftile Fabric Series (BRF) type 7, Malvernian tiles of probably sixteenth century date, although they have been found elsewhere in earlier contexts. Less extensive, but still noteworthy, were the quantities of BRF types 6 and 18, the former, at least, of local manufacture and mostly flat. Ridge tiles in a similar fabric to the latter were found at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Bristol, in 1977-78. As far as the pottery was concerned, there was a single sherd of Devon gravel-tempered ware (BPT 112A) of post-1600 date, also including 10 sherds of Nether Stowey pottery of range 1550-1750 (BPT 280) and three of Wanstrow ware (BPT 96, c 1550-1800), and other earlier post-medieval wares in addition to a number of residual medieval fragments. A Nuremburg jetton of c 1500-50 was also recorded within layer GN (small find no.74). The whole layer represented destruction of a roof, possibly that of the cellarium itself. As with the earlier layer PO, it did not extend beyond Walls 30 and 32, nor did it reach north across Wall 31. While the majority of finds from within this deposit suggested a date of shortly after the surrender of the abbey, sealed beneath the layer was context HV that included more products of Wanstrow and Nether Stowey and, more importantly, a couple of sherds of English tin-glazed wares from 1640 or later. A series of spreads and patches of coal dust with some small coal constituted the bulk of this fragmented layer. In the angle between Walls 29 and 30, abutting them and sealed by the combined layers GN and HV, lay the remains of a flagstone floor, S.F.61. The two larger Pennant Sandstone slabs were accompanied by several smaller fragments. To the east, in the corner of the site, was layer FW, comprising up to 200mm of orange-pink mortar/stone rubble together with a number of sherds of seventeenth/eighteenth century date, principally tin-glazed and Nether Stowey wares (BPT 99c and 280).

over the site of the thirteenth-century possible bell tower. However, all memory and above-ground evidence for the latter must have long since disappeared, for the new structure, although of similar size and shape, failed to take advantage of the surviving remains and was constructed a little to the south-south-east. The western wall of the new building even managed to be built slightly overlapping the inner edge of its predecessor. As may be seen from the several drawings (Ashford, c1 825; O’Neill, 1821 (Fig. 16); Saunders, c 1822 (Fig.18)), the new erection (Building 5) was a cross-gabled building of one and a half storeys (i.e. the upper floor was in the roof). Gables faced to east, west and south, the last terminating at a large chimney breast and stack. At first glance apparently a cottage, the building seems to have functioned as a detached kitchen, a type of building that was not unusual in Bristol at the time, although most notably associated with houses that were largely of timber-framed construction. The 1649 survey mentions a kitchen with loft over, quite possibly this building (BRO DC/E/3/2). Distancing the kitchen from the main building was a practical solution to the ever-present danger of fire, the kitchen being the most likely place for such incidents to occur. An added advantage was that the smells of cooking would also be reduced. On the other hand, separating the kitchen must also have increased the incidence of cold or lukewarm meals arriving at table. No evidence for the east wall of the kitchen block has survived, but it is fairly certain that Wall 3, the west wall of the former cellarium, was utilised. Paul’s plan shows the northern half of the east wall to be of a considerable thickness, so that part at least must have been the fourteenth century original. Unfortunately, his record of the south wall (Wall 11) only shows a narrow chimney breast, whereas the excavated feature was much wider. At its eastern end the fireplace was defined by Buttress 1 or its equivalent. An opening of no less than 2.75m was created, after which Wall 11 stepped in for 1.60/1.80m before reaching Wall 12, whose east face it abutted. The eastern end of Wall 11 had been uncovered during the 1991 evaluation, recorded there as wall 3. Similar mortar was used in both walls, described at the time of excavation as pink with lime and charcoal, Wall 11 built mainly of Pennant Sandstone and Brandon Hill Grit, Wall 12 mainly of the latter material (Fig. 4). Of the two walls, the north-south was the thicker, at 600mm, with Wall 11 being only 500 mm across. Wall 12 ran for a length of 5.75m. In contrast to the neat and square southern end, the northern extremity was a little untidy, and there was no return towards the east. Instead, there was a wall of much lighter construction on a base of pink mortar, Stone Feature 34, extending eastwards for about 2m. At the far end was a rectangular post-hole (S.F.35), approximately 200 x 150mm in size, with stone packing in a small post-pit. A square stone was set above the mortar 700mm to the west of the post-hole. It is possible that there was an entrance between this and the post-hole, with a timber-framed wall to the west. The west end of S.F.34 lay a little to the north of the end of Wall 12. Room 11

With the exception of Wall 36 alongside the southern face of the Norman wall (Wall 33), there was no clear evidence of standing buildings in the area immediately west of the cloister in this period. The Parliamentary survey of 1649 (BRO DC/E/3/2) refers to a ‘little garden walled about lyeing East uppon the cloysters’ at the end of the description of Minster House, and this part of the site may have been that garden. It is possible, however, that Wall 37 was built during this period. Constructed of Brandon Hill Grit, with some red sandstone, and bonded in a pale orange-buff mortar, this was laid against the south face of Wall 31 for the whole of the 3.25m between the western end of the north pier (Wall 52) and the eastern face of Wall 3. In the region of 400-500mm in thickness, the wall turned to the south in front of Wall 3, after which all evidence was lost due to the insertion in the nineteenth century of a substantial cess pit (S.F.38). To the west of Wall 3 the story during this period is more certain, with a building of almost square plan placed 54

The Excavation: Period Descriptions lay to the north of S.F.34. At the eastern end of the same feature, immediately beyond the post-hole S.F.35, was the base of another partition, L-shaped in plan. A short leg ran northwards (S.F.16), and a longer section ran eastwards (S.F.17). Both consisted of stones of Pennant Sandstone and Brandon Hill Grit laid in a buff-grey mortar. A continuation of the eastwards line, as S.F.18, was of brick in a similar mortar. Room 7 lay beyond these partitions.

century. Pit 48, a small irregular feature, fill context EP, cut layer GO in the area between Buttress 2 and Drain 11. Over parts of GO, especially in the north-east part of Room 6, survived a patchy floor of fairly hard pink mortar, EE. The line of Wall 12 was continued southwards to the southern boundary of the site by Wall 20, a 470mm-wide rubble construction in red sandstone, Pennant Sandstone and Brandon Hill Grit bonded in orange-pink mortar. Unfortunately, the relationship between this and Wall 12 was later destroyed by the building of Drain 10. To the east of Wall 20 and south of Wall 11 was context HG, a redbrown humic silty soil, much disturbed by later features.

Architecturally, Building 5 appears to be of seventeenth century construction. The southern footings of Wall 11 were probably sealed by contexts EN or HG, both of which contained pottery of seventeenth-eighteenth century date, including some from no earlier than 1700. Layer EN was a deposit of between 200 and 300mm of dark brown and red-brown sandy soil and including pinkish, pale grey and white mortar. Gully 26, the foundation trench along the eastern side of Wall 12, produced no dating evidence, but it did cut layer JH (qv). On the opposite side of the wall the footings were sealed by context HM, which included two sherds of post-1680 date.

In the small area between Wall 20 and Drain 8, against the southern edge of the site, was Pit 80 (fill context HP), which produced no pottery except for four sherds of eighteenth-century white salt-glazed stoneware (BPT 186). Above the pit was the layer HF, a dark brown humic soil containing a number of sherds of seventeentheighteenth century date. Against the south-west corner of Wall 12 was another pit, and 200mm to its north, its eastern end cut by the foundation of the same wall, Pit 77, sub-rectangular in plan, within its fill (HO) a solitary sherd of 1550 or later. Beneath the pits was the layer MA, red-brown loamy silt, the equivalent of LZ on the opposite side of Gully 5. Above Pit 77 was layer HM, dark brown humic soil that contained a few sherds, including two of tin-glazed ware of c 1680-1780. On part of the west side of HM – which itself overlay the west foundation of Wall 12 – was a line of thin vertical Pennant stones, possibly the demarcation for a bed or border against the wall, Stone Feature 46 (HL). Between the stone edging and Gully 5 was a band of dark brown humic soil (FQ) about a metre wide running alongside the latter feature. The finds within this layer were generally of seventeenth/eighteenth century date. Over the western side of FQ was a narrower (about 400mm) band of pale pinkish-buff mortar, 10-20mm in thickness (FO). Above this again was another metre-wide band, EX, dark brown humic soil.

Within Building 5 a sizeable gully, G.34 (context KM), was cut in a direct north-south line, its northern end destroying part of Drain 24 from Period 3, its southern end meeting Drain 20. Gully 34 cut away the eastern side of layer JH. The largest variety of pottery found within the gully fill was English tin-glazed ware from 1640 or later (BPT 99), of which there were a dozen sherds. Pit 79 was later cut through part of the gully fill, apparently to access the top end of Drain 20 at the west end of the remains of Buttress 2. There were no finds within the pit. Drain 11, running east to west across the northern end of the interior of Building 5, was respected during the construction of Wall 12 by its incorporation within the footings. The main drain fill was a dark greenish grey ‘cessy’ soil with patches of a more yellowish colour (context KL). Finds included seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pottery, amongst which was English tin-glazed ware, foreign porcelain and garden redware. A further fill was EJ-EK, producing two sherds of eighteenth-century stoneware (BPT 186).

Drain 11 was later replaced west of Wall 12 by the more modern Drain 17 (Period 5b, Fig. 56), but below the latter survived a deposit of dark brown ‘cessy’ silt, apparently the remains of the first drain (context HE). On the south side of the drain was Pit 87 (fill KP), beyond which lay the layer LY, a deposit that contained no pottery but did include a glass stopper of possibly eighteenth-century date (small find no.35). A short distance to the south-west, on the opposite side of Drain 8 but dropping towards it, was the gully G.31 (fill context JN). Further north, Drain 22 fed into the west side of the main drain from a north-westerly direction. The head of the drain sat in the angle between Wall 19 and the south-east buttress of Minster House, a semi-circular shape in the corner indicating the position of the bottom of a downpipe. At this end of the drain was a small lead sheet (context MB), perhaps positioned to cushion against some of the force of water issuing from the pipe. Pennant Sandstone was utilised for the base and cap stones, with the walls also partly of brick and Brandon Hill

Throughout the interior of Building 5 (Room 6) was a deposit of orange-red sandy silt with small stones, lumps of pink mortar and brown soil patches, with a depth of up to 100mm, context GO. Found within the layer were two sherds of Nether Stowey ware from the period 15501750 and one sherd of transfer-printed ware of post-1780, the latter possibly an intrusion. Otherwise there were a number of fragments of pottery dating from no later than about 1600. In Room 11, to the immediate north-west of layer GO, and the equivalent of it, was HA, a red (slightly brownish red in places) sandy clay-silt with small stones. Pottery from within the layer consisted of five sherds of wares dateable no more accurately than to the eighteenthtwentieth centuries, with a further two from Nether Stowey, and assorted residual medieval fabrics. Room 7, to the northeast of GO and east of HA, was the location of layer GX, spread throughout, a deposit of orange mortary sand and stones that produced no pottery of later than the sixteenth 55

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Grit, the whole bonded in grey mortar. At least one brick was 60mm thick, indicating a probably eighteenth-century date. In the bottom of the 200-250mm wide channel was a 20mm depth of dark grey-green ‘cessy’ sand.

respectively, Gully 35, Pit 99 and Pit 101 (fills contexts LO, LR and LV). All three sat below the line of the later Gully 20 and all were beneath layer HW. On the south side of Gully 35 was the mid-brown silty soil deposit, JA, whose eastern edge partly overlay JB, pinkish orange mortary soil arranged in a north-south band with a slight ridge that dropped away to either side. In the angle against the south garden boundary and the east face of the west garden wall (Wall 16), extending for 4.50m north and 2m east, was layer HW, black charcoal-ash soil with many tiny coal fragments, charcoal, some patches of brown silt, and the occasional stone, also a fragment of slate marked with calculations in Arabic numerals (small find no.232 – Fig. 74.9). There were generous amounts of Nether Stowey and Wanstrow ware from the period, c 1550-1750/1800 (BPT 280 and 96), also six sherds of Dutch maiolica (BPT 344), and a drinking glass stem with lion mask decoration (small find no.92, similar to small find no.70, Fig. 85.1). Slightly to the east of HW, its eastern half cut through JA, was the metre-square pit, P.68, its northern side battered, the others vertical. Inside the pit was a fill of brownish green ‘cessy’ sandy soil with small fragments of stone and small lumps of pinkish mortar (GK). Pit 43, 900mm to the east, b-shaped in plan, contained fill EC, brown silty soil with many stones and with lumps of orange-pink mortar. The small circular pit, P.69, lay 650mm to the east again, cut into the fill of Pit 84, its own fill similar to that of Pit 43 but with charcoal noted.

West of Drain 8 as far as Wall 16, and from Minster House southwards to the site boundary was in use as the garden, within which were excavated various pits and gullies during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. One extensive deposit, LZ, ran throughout the southernmost 7m of the garden. A red-brown loamy silt generally about 150mm deep, it contained many, often large, lumps and flecks of charcoal, also mortar flecks. This was the equivalent layer to MA on the east side of Drain 8. Above LZ for much of its southernmost 4m or so was the deposit JR, dark brown and reddish-brown loamy soil, 200 to 300mm deep, containing ten sherds of English tin-glazed ware, also a small triangular object (of unknown function) in pinky-white marble with a circular concave centre (small find no.104 – Fig. 86.1). Within the layer was a lead water pipe (small find no.58), angular in cross-section and of 50-60mm external diameter. This ran 3.50m north of, and parallel to, the southern edge of the site, in the general direction of the south-west corner of Building 5, although its final destination could not be confirmed due to the later destruction of that end of the pipe. To the west, the line continued through the base of Wall 16 and on to the area of the Lower Green, although here it had been replaced by a later length of pipe. Above JR, in a strip along the southern boundary of the garden, was layer KF, possibly the fill of a shallow gully, including amongst its five sherds three of seventeenth-century date. From the western end of KF, Pit 84 (fill JK) ran northwards. This pit was crossed by the western end of Gully 29 (JG), a feature whose fill contained eighteenth and later seventeenth century pottery. At its opposite end the gully was itself cut, by Gully 25. This latter was aligned north-south, terminating prior to the south garden wall: at the northern end it simply died out. Gully 25 was cut down to Drain 28, apparently for the purposes of removing the cap-stones. The fill of the gully (HH) contained half a dozen tin-glazed earthenware sherds, also pottery produced in the period from 1550 to the eighteenth century. To the north-west of Gully 25 and to the west of Drain 28, the top of which was just exposed at this level, were three parallel linear pits, P.5355, the third of which produced several eighteenth-century sherds. Each pit contained similar material, a dark brown humic soil with charcoal and some white flecks (contexts FF & FG). The linear Pit 60 (fill context FK) cut across the lower ends of the three pits. Cutting the east end of the pit fill was a small circular pit, P.56. To the north-east, beside Drain 8, 4.5m from the southern boundary of the site, was Post-hole 31. Extending from the post-hole right to the garden boundary and following the western edge of the line of Drain 8 was Gully 23. The gully fill (GP) was a dark brown humic soil and included only a few sherds, of which two were potentially eighteenth century in date.

Up in the north-west part of the garden, dark red-brown clayey silty soil (context RA) was deposited against the face of Wall 16. A little to the north, an orange-red mortary soil with a pinkish mortary surface, LJ, in a strip alongside the south side of Minster House for a distance of up to 3 or 4 metres from the garden gate may have been a path. To the south of the path was an east-west band, LG, 1.50m wide and 100-150mm deep, between Wall 16 and the position of the later Pit 11, but merging into HW along its southern edge. This deposit comprised dark brown humic soil with large patches and spreads of black ashy soil, also some patches of orange-pink mortary soil. Above LG and covering the same area was another deposit, LF, again dark brown humic silt, but with patches of yellow-brown clayey soil. Both layers produced eighteenth/nineteenth century redware, the lower also included seventeenth/ eighteenth century tin-glazed ware. A further layer of dark brown humic silt, context HX, lay above LF, extending slightly over HW also. Further deposits were left at the western end of the path beside the Minster House south wall. Layer KT, above LJ, was a silty soil with mortar and charcoal flecks and including a large lens of black coaly ashy material. At its western end, against the top end of Wall 16, KT sealed a stone step (S.F.64) immediately inside the garden gate (Fig. 35). Cut into KT by the south-east corner of the step were two stake holes (P.H. 46 and 47), while into the eastern end of KT was Pit 96, the post-pit for Post-hole 50, which sat in its north-eastern extremity. An upper fill of mixed mortary soil sat above a red-brown silty soil (excavated

In the south-western area of the garden, in a line that ran parallel to the south garden wall, were, from east to west 56

The Excavation: Period Descriptions as Pit 121). At a short distance to the south was Post-hole 51. Over KT was KK, a mixed layer extending for about 4m from Wall 16. Alongside the south side of the garden path was Gully 27, a shallow linear depression of about one metre in width. Recorded for a distance of 3.50m from Wall 16, it may originally have extended further eastward: a projection of its southern edge lines up exactly with the northern edges of the later features Pit 11 and Gully 6. The humic soil gully fill, HT, contained no pottery of later than c 1780 in production.

(Stone Feature 49). These seemed to be sealed by the later layer GB, although Saunders’ view does show a similar edging to the path, which may mean that they belong in the later period. A large patch of red-brown clay-silt with lumps of pinkish mortar, HB, was deposited in an area of about 2m by 1m, 100mm deep, at the western side of the garden. Partly overlying HB was GS, a deposit of yellow-brown clayey silt and brown humic soil with many flat pennants and chips of the same. This was in two areas, a patch of about 3m by 4m near Wall 16, and a strip 800mm wide running for 4m west from the position of the later Wall 18.

Against the west garden wall, almost a metre south of the gate, was a large rectangular post-hole, P.H.40, 400mm (east-west) by 200mm, and about 800mm deep. This sat within a larger post-pit of similar shape, Pit 98, size 850mm by 500mm. Within the post-hole was fill JE, comprising very loose stones, brick, much clinker, some brown silty soil – and many voids. Pit 98 had a more conventional fill (LH), of humic soil, stones and some grey mortar lumps. A lower fill was subsequently excavated (SS), consisting of mixed dark red clay-silt, orange mortary soil, mortar lumps, stones, patches of grey-brown more humic silt and charcoal flecks, in all some 350mm deep.

The eastern half of Room 1 in the Minster House range was greatly disturbed during the construction of the Victorian nave and west end. One feature that did survive, however, was Stone Feature 57, built up against the south face of Wall 26. This was a small stone and brick construction bonded in grey mortar, its sides enclosing a 260mm-wide channel that was partially roofed. The south end was missing. Inside was a fill of dark grey-brown sandy silt (LA). No function could be discerned. The whole was set into a shallow oval pit cut into natural. In the western part of the room, at a slightly higher level than the top of S.F.57, the westernmost 2.30m of flooring survived (Floor 2, context KZ). Much of the flooring consisted of reused blocks of oolitic limestone, laid as flags, with some red sandstone also in evidence, and Brandon Hill Grit was used as cobbling in other parts. Amongst the reused stone were fragments of window tracery. In Room 2, the corridor alongside Room 1, and into Room 3 to the west layer HS was present. A dirty orange mortary sand with some small stones and chips of freestone, it was recorded throughout the two rooms, where it was seen as a make-up level for a floor. Prior to this period the passage to the west of the doorway S.F.2 (between Walls 5 & 6) was open to the north until the end of Wall 8 was reached, but this was changed by the insertion of Wall 7, which ran between the southern ends of Walls 6 and 8 to create a new room, Room 10, to the north of the passage. The new construction was 2.10m long and 480mm thick, of Brandon Hill Grit bonded in a pinkish buff mortar with lime and charcoal flecks (Fig. 51): it was plastered on its face to the passage.

Beneath Gully 27 was a single stakehole, P.H.38. The later Gully 24, a narrower feature, defined the southern edge of the path and cut the northern side of Gully 27’s fill. Varying in width between 350 and 400mm, this ran from the west wall of the garden, beside the step inside the gate, for a distance of more than 9m, was then cut by the later Wall 18, but did not continue beyond it. However, Pit 75 (fill context GQ, a red clay-silt), immediately on the far side of the wall, may have been related. Either the gully terminated at the porch (later illustrated by Saunders), or it turned to the south to run alongside the north-south path on a line subsequently destroyed by the construction of Wall 18. With another dark brown humic fill, GY, this was deeper than its wider predecessor, at 150mm, but produced no pottery younger than the eighteenth century. A single pitched pennant (S.F.72) was recorded on the south side of Gully 24. Perhaps the whole gully was originally defined by a row of such stones. Two stake holes were driven into the fill of the gully, and a third beyond it to the south-west, all three in a north-east to south-west line (Post-holes 3436). In an east-west band parallel to Gully 24, its southern edge cut away by the later Gully 6, was layer GW, and, beneath it, close to the location of the later Pit 13, the remains of a stone feature (S.F.70). This comprised a few stones, including one of Carboniferous Limestone, bonded in a pale pinkish mortar, and may have been part of a small wall. On the northern edge of GW was the stakehole P.H.37. Above GW and extending northwards to seal the fill of Gully 24 was layer GV.

Within the new room the sixteenth century stratum of disturbed natural, LT, was overlain by layer of reddish orange sandy soil of 50-100mm depth, KD. Above the western end of KD was a 50mm deposit of pale yellow sand, KG. These were cut in the south-west corner of the room by Stone Feature 62, an oval cut containing a square stone feature in the angle of Walls 7 and 8. A flat slab formed the base of the feature, with a small northern wall and two steeply angled stones defining its eastern end. Around the stones was much grey mortar, but it seemed to be packing the void to the edge of the cut rather than bonding the stones together. The fill of the feature was a dark brown clayey soil including charcoal flecks (context KE). Pit 86 cut into KD and KG at a point about halfway into the room, from where it appeared to occupy the whole

In a line between the southern edges of the chimney breast and the south-east buttress, half a metre away from the house and bounding the northern edge of the main path, were a row of single pennants on edge, most of which had been removed from the eastern half (Gully 22), leaving some voids, with more stones in-situ for the western end 57

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 of the northern half of Room 10. At its eastern end another stone feature, S.F.63, was built down into it. Consisting of stone rubble bonded in a hard, slightly greyish pink mortar, this abutted the northern half of the west face of Wall 6, then continued for a short distance along the north wall of the room. Although no archaeological evidence for its function survived, it sat directly beneath a chimney stack recorded by several of the illustrations, some of which locate it to the north of the centre line of the building. It was subsequently sealed by the paving of Floor 1, although the shape of the flags preserved its shape, suggesting that it may initially have been surviving above floor level only to be cut down and covered later. Pit 86 was filled with rubble with dirty orange sandy mortary soil (KN). At the bottom of the pit’s west end were a couple of flat stones bonded in a white-buff mortar and overlain with a lime deposit (S.F.66), the southern edge of the stones lining up with the limit of a greyish mortar to the east. Room 10 proper was paved in irregular fashion with a mixture of Pennant Sandstone, Brandon Hill Grit and well-worn oolite, even a few bricks, set in a bedding of buff-pink and dirty pale brown mortar (Floor 1, context KB).

(CF), which contained a mere two sherds, one of yellow ware (BPT 101A, 1650-1750), the other late eighteenthcentury Staffordshire ware. In a band of about a metre in width running westward from Wall 16 to Gully 18 was layer TP, dark red silt with small stones of Brandon Hill Grit, depth approximately 100mm. Of the two sherds within the deposit, one was of earlier medieval date, the other from after 1600. Cutting this deposit was an unnumbered feature, probably a post-hole, matched by a second 1.20m directly to the north, P.H.43. These may have housed the supports for the front corners of the small structure (possibly a watchman’s box, or even a small conduit head) that was recorded halfway along the west face of the garden wall by both Eyre and de Cort (Fig. 15), although that might then place them in the next period. Above layer TP and the post-holes, and occupying the whole area from Wall 16 west as far as the large drain D.19, was layer HN, red very coarse gravelly soil and silt with some more brownish patches and many small stones, probably redeposited natural. None of the seven sherds found within this layer had a production date of later than 1400. Cutting HN was Pit 41. This sat immediately on the western side of the north-south garden wall, W.16, 3.50m from the southern edge of the site. Finds from the fill (JO) included two sherds of tin-glazed ware (c 16401780), and one from Nether Stowey, of mid-sixteenth to mid eighteenth-century date. The upper part of this subrectangular cut was re-excavated later during the digging of Gully 19.

Drain 15 continued in use beneath Room 4. The excavated drain fill, LE, very dark brown loose sandy silt with many small fragments of pinkish mortar and some grey mortar, containing not a single sherd produced after the close of the eighteenth century, may have dated from this period. Context LW was the equivalent of LE to the north of Wall 9. On the south side of Room 3, the drain flowed out into the garden beneath the doorway in Wall 19. This had originally been a wide opening but – probably in this period – was reduced in width and partially blocked with stone rubble bonded in a light pink mortar.

Gully 18 was a substantial cut running the length of the area to the west of Wall 16. An average of one metre in width, it was 9m long (as excavated), continuing into the sections at both ends. To the south it went beneath the road leading to the cloister; to the north the gully disappeared below the unexcavated area at the western end of the site. Within the gully was a stone-built drain of similar proportions, D.19, consisting of walls largely of Brandon Hill Grit with the floor and cap-stones of Pennant Sandstone, with a channel of roughly square cross-section, 400mm in width and height. Traces of pink mortar survived in the side walls and was also noted adhering to the cap-stones. However, the upper side walls had in places been bonded in grey mortar and the same was used to secure the cap-stones onto the walls, any gaps between side and roof also sealed in the mortar, and this indicated a subsequent reconstruction of the upper part of the drain, probably as part of the process of cleaning it out. Drain 19 was continued north of the unexcavated area as Drain 3 (see below).

A short distance to the north of Room 4, S.F.25, the circular stone feature that fed into Drain 15, was altered so that its wall blocked off the old Drain 30. Drain 16 led into S.F.25 from the east along the northern edge of Wall 27. Due to its proximity to the north section, only a part of the drain was excavated in 1992. Brandon Hill Grit side walls and Pennant Sandstone base slabs were recorded, bonded in pink mortar, but no fill was noted. In the short stretch of Drain 15 before Wall 9 was reached, on the west side, Drain 14 entered. A relatively short structure – about 1.25m in length – it led from the angle between Wall 9 and the northern end of Wall 10, possibly taking rainwater from the roofs at that point. Pink mortar bonded the stone sides of the drain, which had a channel 200mm wide and deep. Pennant flooring was used: the cap-stones did not survive. No fill was recorded. Two fills of S.F.25 were noted. A lower fill of dark brown humic silt (CH) included nine sherds of early Wanstrow ware (late fifteenth/sixteenth century), also four later examples from the same source, five from Nether Stowey (1550-1750), and other fabrics of seventeenth/eighteenth century date. In addition, CH contained a double-sided bone comb (small find no.18 – Fig. 83.1). Mixed pink mortar, stones and patches of very dark brown silt formed the upper fill

The area to the west of Minster House was dissected by various drains that served the gatehouse and the dwelling that lay between it and Mr Tucker’s house. Although some were of a later period, two were of seventeenth-eighteenth century date or possibly even earlier. Drain 5, right in the north-west extremity of the excavation, flowed down to the west in a 350mm-wide channel, its upper end destroyed by later replacements. Brandon Hill Grit walls were bonded in orange-pink mortar; the floor was of the usual Pennant 58

The Excavation: Period Descriptions Sandstone slabs and was laid on a bed of similar mortar. Drain 3, which cut the upper end of the earlier Drain 5, flowed at first south-westerly, before turning to run southwards. Construction was similar to Drain 5, but with a slightly wider channel (400mm), and orange-pink mortar was again used. Most of the course of this drain was, much later, to be utilised for the laying out of a ceramic sewer pipe. Drain 3 was the northern end of Drain 19.

in fact was its successor, Wall 25. This was constructed of Brandon Hill Grit and Pennant and other sandstone, bonded in grey mortar. From somewhere to the west of the mid-point of its southern face another wall of similar thickness ran southwards, turning to the west on the line of Wall 28. This north-south wall cut through the two similar deposits of JM, to the west, and JP, to the east. Layer JM, consisting of orange sandy mortary soil, was 100mm deep, whereas JP, orangey mortary demolition rubble, was somewhat thicker, at about 300mm. Defined by the two walls was a room that measured 12 feet 6 inches (3.81m) north to south and about 11 feet (3.35m) in the opposite direction, possibly in use as a scullery. Paul shows a wide south-facing window with internal splay and, at the bottom of the eastern wall, a doorway. Given its thickness, the south wall was apparently Wall 28 still in use. A small area of grey mortar constituted the sole remains excavated of the east wall. According to Paul’s plan a short two foot-thick (610mm) wall connected the south wall to that alongside the lane leading from Lower College Green (College Square), but no evidence of this was found during the excavation. Between the western room and the cloister wall Paul simply showed a large space, 21 feet 6 inches (6.55m) north to south and 19 feet 6 inches (5.94m) east to west. The doorway depicted by O’Neill was shown in the west cloister wall, but Paul drew the stretch to the south of it as only 18 inches thick (Fig. 12). Not all of the north wall was drawn – perhaps it had already been largely removed. Excavation revealed a small area of irregular mortared stonework (Wall 40 – context MW) immediately to the south of Wall 25, on the line of the old Wall 31. This consisted of Brandon Hill Grit bonded in grey mortar. This area may have been the location for the stable and coach house recorded in the Consolidated Rates, although, alternatively, the stable may have been in the small building shown immediately to the north-west by Plumley and Ashmead in 1828.

Two bones from this period, both of them femoral heads from different cows, showed features typical of osteoarthritis. This typically affects older animals. It tends to support the conclusion that the site was of a lower status after the Dissolution, when the quality of animals being consumed had declined. Period 5b – The Late Eighteenth Century Until 1883 (Fig. 56) Much would happen during Minster House’s final century, although what happened in the area once occupied by the cellarium is not clearly understood. At the far eastern end of the excavated area, behind the west cloister wall, there are neither illustrations nor photographs, while some of the cartographic evidence is apparently contradictory. What was shown, by Plumley and Ashmead (1828) and Godwin (1863), is an L-shaped building, its longer, northern side on the position of the earlier Wall 31, its eastern end against the cloister, and part of its southern edge adjacent to the lane. The earlier map also showed, abutting the western half of the same building, another, of rectangular plan, approximately 5m by 3m in size. Ashmead’s 1:600 survey of 1854 failed to show any structures in this part of the site, although the later version, produced in 1874 but subsequently revised, recorded a rectangular building for the whole of the southern part of this area (shaded in grey). O’Neill’s view of Minster House from the cloister showed a doorway of eighteenth/nineteenth century construction just 600mm to the south of the medieval arched entrance in the west cloister wall.

Much of the ground beneath the floor of the western room was dug down to about 14.30m aOD. A large cess pit (Stone Feature 38) was created in the void, built out as far as Walls 3, 28, 29 and 30, and extending north for almost three metres. The walls were built of rubble bonded with a hard, pale grey-buff mortar and were generally 350mm thick at lower level, where cut into natural, but wider where cutting archaeological strata. Internally the cess pit measured 2.50m by 2.10m by 1.19m to the springing of the vault. Squared Pennant Sandstone flags were used for the floor, each joint covered by a raised seal of mortar. The walls were rendered internally. Brick was utilised for the vaulting, with a square access hatch provided in the south-east corner. Later, when the cess pit had become redundant, it was backfilled with a mixture of loose rubble and lumps of grey and orange-pink mortar with brick and ceramic roof tile (context DQ). Probably at the same time, the majority of the vaulting was removed.

Pit 72, with a fill of loose back charcoal-silt (context GL), was dug approximately 3.50m from the southern and eastern edges of this part of the site. Close to the cloister wall, near its southern end, was Pit 62 (fill FY), cut into the earlier deposit FW. Three metres to the north was a further, small pit, Pit 73. In the 3m or so alongside the lane leading to the cloister were demolition layers ER, EW, GC and GD, most containing a variety of sherds representing pottery covering the period from the Dissolution to the close of the eighteenth century, also a few potentially later examples. Within GD was found the stem of a drinking glass decorated with lion masks (small find no.70 – Fig. 85.1). Paul’s plan (BRO DC/F/9/1; Fig. 12) showed the L-shaped block depicted by Plumley and Ashmead but not the smaller rectangular structure. The long north wall of the larger structure, shown as about 18 inches (460mm) thick, was clearly not the rather more substantial Wall 31, but

Immediately to the north of the line of the old east-west wall, W.31, a second large cess pit was installed (Stone Feature 56). Like its southern neighbour it too had been 59

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 56. Plan showing Period 5b features © Bristol Culture

60

The Excavation: Period Descriptions backfilled, but this time the roof survived intact. It fitted tightly between Walls 31 and 33 and abutted Wall 3, occupying a space of 3.80m, north-south, by 2.70m. The brick vault of the cess pit was pierced by a D-shaped access or manhole to the north-west of centre. Against Wall 3 was a small shaft, 180mm square, and, a short distance away, was a small inlet pipe. Along its southern edge the top of the vault had been built up with flat-laid pennants (S.F.65), possibly to carry the western end of Wall 25. An area of stonework bonded in cream-buff mortar immediately east of S.F.65 (Wall 44) may have performed a similar function. In the north-western corner, in the angle between Walls 3 and 33, a small area of cobbling survived (S.F.67). To the east of this was a further area of mortared rubble, perhaps a later continuation of Wall 36, including a slab of smooth (worn?) stone, possibly oolitic limestone (S.F.68). This latter was the location for the west jamb of the doorway shown by Godwin (1863, Plate 1). The interior of the cess pit was not investigated until after the completion of the excavation, when it was found to be similar to its southern neighbour. Finds included two stoneware ink bottles and three leather shoes or boots.

Layer KY lay immediately east of – and was possibly cut by – the northern cess pit (S.F.56), extending as far as Drain 25 and south across the line of Wall 31 to a point where it was beneath Wall 40. It was composed of portions of ceramic roof tile with dark brown silt, also small fragments of orange-pink mortar, and was up to 300mm deep. The tile was predominantly of BRF 6 and 7, with a smaller quantity of BRF 18. Included within the layer were in excess of 40 sherds each of white china (BPT 202) and transfer-printed ware (BPT 278). Over the northern edge of KY and reaching as far as the line of Wall 33 was layer KX, comprising up to 200mm of dark red sandy silt with stones. This in turn was partly overlain by KW, a layer that was generally restricted to the area northeast of Drain 25. Within this dark grey-brown humic silt were some sherds from as late as the eighteenth century, but nothing more recent. All three deposits were sealed by the more extensive layer JQ that covered the whole width of the area between Wall 25 and the line of Wall 33 and contained examples of various types of eighteenth and nineteenth century ceramics, also a lead jetton of probable late medieval date (small find 109). This was a disturbed level of demolition debris including soil, rubble and mixed mortar. In the arched doorway in Wall 2 (Stone Feature 20) were two small layers, MT, reddish brown clayey silty soil, and, above it, MS, dark grey-brown ashy humic soil. The latter contained a handful of seventeenth/eighteenth century sherds.

For a distance of 1.50m north-east from the eastern side of the cess pit ran Drain 27, a structure with brick walls and Pennant Sandstone cap-stones and base slabs. The channel was about 150mm in width and towards its upper end included a D-trap (S.F.74), which, like the other examples on the site, was carved out of a single block of oolitic limestone. At its lower end the drain dropped into the larger Drain 25. No fill was present within Drain 27 at the time of excavation. In contrast, the larger drain contained four deposits, NY as a top fill, with OJ at the north-west end, OE as a second fill, and OL at the eastern end of the feature under the Wall 2 line. With a thickness of 50-100mm, NY was a greyish green sandy silt with flecks and small lumps of mortar and some small stones. It contained large quantities of transfer-printed ware, white china and stoneware, also a fragment of clay tobacco pipe made in Gouda in the Netherlands. In addition, there were the bases and stems of three drinking glasses (small find nos. 138-39 and 152 – Figs. 85.2 to 85.4), and part of a bone handle with fleur de lys terminal (small find no.137 – Fig. 83.6). A red-brown silty soil mixed with dark green ‘cessy’ silt (OJ) replaced NY at the upper end of the drain. Again, there were sherds of eighteenth-nineteenth century pottery, also an incomplete object in tin-glazed earthenware, possibly heart-shaped, of uncertain function (small find no.174 – Fig. 86.2). At the lowest end the drain contained loose rubble and grey mortary silty soil (OL), with just a few transfer-printed sherds. The second, or lower, fill of Drain 25 was OE, a yellowish green/grey ‘cessy’ silt with lumps of grey mortar, stone and slate, and containing many fragments of clay tobacco pipe, including the only complete example found during the excavation, the product of Israel Carey I, who was working from 1756 until at least 1786 (Fig. 77.1). Another pipe, marked with a crowned 75 was a highly decorated example produced in Gouda, probably in 1748 to commemorate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Fig. 77.9).

Enabling works for the construction of Street’s new nave included not only the removal of the remains of the uncompleted sixteenth century nave but also partial demolition of the prebendal house. February 1870’s ‘Day Work’ records include reference to cutting away for partition of the building, clearing away an old office, making good up to new work, building up the end wall of the house and buttresses, and making good to the return side wall, also building a retaining wall to the garden (BRO DC/F/1/3). A letter from George Wood, two and a half years earlier, had mentioned the need to build a new wall across Canon Randall’s bedroom (BRO DC/A/8/7,211). Roland Paul’s plan (BRO DC/F/9/1) and the photograph taken in or just after May 1881 (BRO 17563(1-2), 124) provide evidence for the extent of the demolitions in 1870 (Figs. 12, 22 and 57). The east end of the main Minster House range was removed, with the south wall (Wall 5/33) apparently retained as far east as the north-east corner of the kitchen range, which itself seems to have survived unscathed. One room was retained to the east side of this block. Paul does not show Wall 33 beyond the corner of the kitchen block. This accords with the archaeological evidence, which shows that the eastern section of the wall was almost completely robbed out, leaving the original foundation trench (Gully 32) largely void of stonework. Two layers of backfill were then deposited in the resultant robber trench. The lower layer, thickness about 500mm, comprised red-brown sandy and clayey soil with stones, lumps of mortar and red clay (context KA), and included a bone handle (small find no.108 – Fig. 83.9). Above that 61

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 57. Suggested possible layout of Minster House after the 1860s truncation © Bristol Culture

62

The Excavation: Period Descriptions was JL, a black ashy deposit. Both layers contained pottery that was predominantly either transfer-printed ware (BPT 278) or white china (BPT 202), JL including a complete jar in the latter fabric. Also found in JL was a clay tobacco pipe produced at Broseley (Shropshire) by W. Southorn & Company, during the period 1855-1900. In addition, the deposit produced a moulded green glass bottle (small find no.91 – Fig. 85.9). At the western end of Gully 32 was Pit 100 (fill context LS), a post-pit for Post-hole 44. Only 450mm to the south-east of P.H.44 was P.H.48. Both P.100 and P.H.48 would later be overlain – the former only partly – by Wall 1. To the north of Gully 32/Wall 33 and sealing the earlier Floor 4 was layer JZ, dark brown silty soil with mortar of various colours, purple clay and charcoal flecks. It was cut by the foundation trench to the Victorian southwest tower, Gully 62 and the associated Pit 111 (fills TG and OG respectively). Pit 111 cut Pit 153 (fill TT), which was the post-pit for Post-hole 81. A shallow pit, P.112 (fill context OK), adjoining one buttress of the south-west tower may also have been associated with the construction of its foundation. Sealing the pit was a clayey soil and mortar layer, OH.

Within and slightly beyond the large fireplace that occupied much of the southern end wall of Room 6 were several constructions below ground. The centre and western end of the area were excavated (Pit 89) and a stone and brick feature bonded in an off-white mortar (S.F.42) was installed. Initially this consisted of 500mm-wide slabs running northwards from the back of the fireplace, with shallow masonry side walls, the western of which contained a duct or flue that rose towards the west and was noted as having a sooty surface. Further out from Wall 11 on the opposite side was another that extended for 2m, curving gently around the corner of the eastern jamb of the fireplace. Pennant cap-stones covered the first 1100mm, but the remainder then appears to have been open. Whitish mortar was used to bond the stone walls. This (S.F.41) was initially interpreted as a drain (Drain 13), but was found to contain a black, ashy, charcoally fill (context EL). At a later point the rear of S.F.42 was built out from Wall 11 by 250mm. Later, the whole feature was replaced by a new stone-lined rectangular pit with no flues – S.F.29 [not shown on plan]. This measured 500mm by 370mm by 370mm deep internally and was bonded in grey mortar. It was subsequently filled with red-brown sandy soil with much charcoal at the base. The northern part of the earlier stone feature was cut away by the associated Pit 47. Both stone-lined pits are thought to have acted as ash-pits to early kitchen ranges or similar fixtures. The side ducts of Stone Feature 42 could have served coppers or ovens.

The 1881 photograph looked south-east from a point opposite the Abbey Gatehouse, towards the incomplete west front of the Cathedral (Fig. 22). Although the northwest tower was then complete for a full two stages, its southern companion was a little less complete. Minster House lay tight against the southern end of this latter tower. The taller section of Minster House had been truncated at its eastern end; there was a new eastern buttress and a shorter buttress against the north wall. West of the latter was an arch-headed sash window at first floor; above the buttress, at the second floor, was a smaller, blocked, square-headed window, with a small parapet above. A short section of the lower-roofed part of the house was also included in the photograph, the roof itself at a steeper pitch than that to its east. Both roofs visible in the photograph were laid with clay pantiles. Faintly visible at ground floor level was an opening, although it is unclear whether this was a door or window.

Inside the east wall of the room and against the remains of Buttress 2 was a small pit, Pit 27 [not on plan]. There were no finds amongst the fill. Towards the edges of Room 6 were several patches of grey mortar, variously soft or hard, layer BW. The most southerly patch had clearly been used for the seating of floor slabs. It continued into the fireplace area, where it sealed the now-infilled Stone Feature 29. Similar areas of grey mortar were found in Rooms 7 and 11, to the north-east and north-west of Room 6 respectively. A large patch in Room 11 preserved evidence of parallel north-south lines and showed that the strips were of variable width, normally 250-350mm, indicating that the flooring was therefore probably of flagstones. On the east side of Room 7 the grey mortar appears to have covered a spread of orange mortary soil, depth 50mm, context DR, which in turn sealed a patch of black charcoal of similar size but less depth, DS. Defining the western edge of Room 11 was a brick wall of single thickness (110mm), S.F.24, bonded in grey mortar and sat on a shallow bed of the same material.

Building 5, the kitchen range, remained standing until the surviving portions of Minster House were removed in 1883. The main room, Room 6, appears to have been the kitchen, with Room 7 to its north perhaps a pantry. At the west end of Wall 11, between the wide chimney breast and the south end of Wall 12, there appears to have been a doorway into Room 6 (Stone Feature 4), although the rectangular freestone block at the western end may represent part of a later blocking. It is possible that S.F.4 was a feature from the previous period, since layer GO appears to have run into the northern part. Wall 11 carried through to meet Wall 12 beneath S.F.4, but the north-western part of this short length was cut by a small squarish pit that contained the square brick and stone feature up against Wall 12, S.F.30. Inside it was a brown silty soil with mortar lumps (CK), above which was about 300mm of loose buff, pink and grey mortar lumps with some stones.

The relatively narrow strip between Building 5 and the lane leading through to the cloister was packed with features during this period. Initially throughout the area was an earlier deposit of between 200 and 300mm (context EN). This was cut by Drain 2, which ran in a west-southwesterly direction away from the angle between Wall 3 and the southern side of Buttress 1. Brandon Hill Grit was the main constituent in this stone-built feature, which was bonded in a pale grey-buff mortar. As was often the case, Pennant Sandstone was used for the drain floor (JV), here 63

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 in a pale grey mortar. The top end of Drain 2 was fed by Drain 1, which latter cut diagonally across the line of Wall 3. Loose grey mortary soil and black silt constituted the drain fill (OM). Brick sides were bonded in grey charcoalflecked mortar. At least one of the floor slabs was of slate. A curving wall ran away from the top end, while, on the opposite side of the drain, an angled piece of slate may have been part of a side inlet. Immediately below these lay another freestone D-trap (Stone Feature 7). Paul’s plan of Minster House shows that there was a doorway above the drain and trap (Fig. 12). Drains 1 and 2 were recorded during the 1991 evaluation as drain 1, and S.F.7 as stone feature 1. Of Drain 12, only a fragment survived beneath the later boundary wall, flowing towards the upper part of Drain 2. Further down the course of the latter, on the opposite side, a short brick-built drain provided a connection from a further D-trap that sat beneath a vertical chute (S.F.6 – context DP). In this instance the mortar was variously described as both light buff and as grey. Black soil (DJ) filled the remainder of the oval cut occupied by S.F.6. Another freestone D-trap with brick shaft (S.F.5 – context DO), in this case draining west by way of Drain 10, was located close to the western end of Wall 11. Surviving in patches amongst the drains were elements of cobbling (S.F.15), mostly composed of Brandon Hill Grit but including a small area of grey mortar. Cutting the cobbling at the west end, against Wall 20, was Pit 83, containing a mixed fill of brown humic silt, red clay-silt, grey mortary soil and lumps of mortar, charcoal flecks and small stones (JF).

context DL, and containing only transfer-printed ware. Halfway between the wall and the line of Drain 8 was the post-hole P.H.24, diameter 400mm, containing a dark slightly greenish brown humic soil with flecks of charcoal and white mortar (EY). Saunders’ view of Minster House from the garden, c 1822, showed a square porch with latticework sides placed in the angle between the south elevation of the house proper and the west wall of the kitchen block (BRSMG M.1752; Fig. 18). The south face of the porch was founded on shallow brick foundations to either side of the central arched opening. These (Stone Feature 27) were set within two cuts, the western of which was recorded as Pit 74. All evidence for the western side of the porch was destroyed by the later Wall 18. Beneath the bottom of Pit 74 was a post-hole, P.H.63, of uncertain date. Slightly off-centre within the southern doorway was a square post-hole, P.H.39 (fill context HY). This was, more correctly, a post pit, the post hole proper being slightly smaller and tight against the eastern and southern sides, with very charcoal-rich soil above stone packing to north and west. Post-hole 55, 1.25m to the east, may have been associated. Immediately south of P.H.39 lay the remains of a short linear stone feature alongside the western edge of Drain 8, S.F.55, interpreted as a light wall base, and set in a shallow gully, G.30 [neither on plan]. Both seem to have pre-dated construction of the porch. The post-hole was sealed by EB, a 50mm-thick layer of brown humic soil that occupied much of the porch area. Also below the same layer, and a short distance to the north of the post-hole, was a stakehole (P.H.33). The eastern part of EB was cut by the largish, irregular, Pit 28, which was probably dug to repair or unblock Drain 8 below. Beyond the northern extent of EB lay two small pits, one in the north-east corner, the other, Pit 31, in the area of the upper end of Drain 22. During this period the drain was replaced by a new eastward-running feature, Drain 7 (see below).

The D-trap, Stone Feature 5, just outside the door at the western end of Wall 11, fed into the upper end of the west-flowing Drain 10. At this point the drain retained its original stone construction, but to the west of the line of Wall 20, through which it cut, this was replaced by three lengths of ceramic sewer pipe, internal diameter 230mm. The older part of the drain was largely of stone, together with some brick, all in a grey mortar. Dark grey humic soil formed the fill (DN). Drain 10 sat in Gully 10, whose cut was up to 1.50m in width. Grey-brown humic soil and occasional stones with some lumps of buff and grey mortar (BR) constituted the backfill of the gully beyond the drain: found within BR was a side handle brush (small find no.21 – Fig. 83.3). Wall 20 was rebuilt in a grey mortar around the drain. At the extreme southern end of the earlier Drain 8, where it disappeared into the south section, was the end of a ceramic sewer pipe, its upper end blocked by a vertical slab. No pipes had survived back as far as the junction with Drain 10. It seems that a stretch of about six metres of ceramic pipe in Drain 8, including the joint, had been removed, presumably upon demolition of Minster House, the robber trench being Gully 5, which ran for 6.50m into the site.

The earlier Drain 11, after flowing westward beneath Room 6 in Building 5 and carrying through the lower part of Wall 12, had emerged in a short east to west section before joining with the main north-south drain, D.8. This particular part was rebuilt in brick and some stone, bonded in grey mortar, with Pennant Sandstone cap-stones (Drain 17). Against the west face of Wall 12, another freestone D-trap under a short brick chute (Stone Feature 33) was installed, blocking the channel of the now disused Drain 11. Within the drain was a fill of dark grey clay-silt (GZ), over which lay mixed mortar and rubble; inside S.F.33 was brown silty soil with mortar lumps (CO). Adjacent to the south, hard against Wall 12, sat a slab of Pennant Sandstone, rectangular with two diagonally opposing corners missing (S.F.45). It showed no signs of wear, but otherwise was the correct shape and size (1200 x 420mm) for a threshold step – possibly there was originally another slab above it. Parallel, and slightly to the west, was a long (640mm) single pennant on edge (S.F.48), possibly a cousin to the not dissimilar S.F.46 (by the south-west corner of Wall 12), although apparently at a higher level.

In the area defined by Walls 20 and 35 and Gullies 5 and 10 was a layer of dark brown humic soil, 150mm or more in depth, EZ. To the north of Gully 10, beside Wall 12, lay a succession of thin, alternating layers of black charcoal/ coal-rich soil and brown humic soil, recorded as the single 64

The Excavation: Period Descriptions It should be noted that the uppermost point of S.F.48 was 130mm higher than the surface of S.F.45. Saunders’ illustration suggests that there was a small paved area in the angle between Wall 12 and the south side of the porch, and in fact he shows a garden roller at that spot. Above S.F.45 and surrounding but not covering S.F.48, which stood slightly proud, lay a 100mm thick deposit of humic soil, EQ.

17 was robbed out after demolition of Minster House, as were most of the other walls. Only the foundation trench survived for the northerly return (Gully 7). The sole part of the east-west wall parallel to Wall 17 to survive was 700mm at its extreme eastern end, although the foundation trench (Gully 6) remained elsewhere. Foundation trenches for the pair of responds on the west side of the building were Pit 13 (at the western end of Gully 6) and Pit 42 (against the breast). Wall 18 was of similar composition to Wall 17. All walls and foundation trenches were of a standard 600mm width with the exception of Pits 13 and 42, which indicated that this section of the west wall may have been slightly thicker.

In the western and northern parts of Room 9 lay ES, at a similar level to EQ and not dissimilar to it. Direct comparison was prevented by the existence of several intervening features. Running north-south, roughly on the line of the eastern side of Drain 8 beneath, was a line of grey mortar (Stone Feature 32, not shown on plan), probably the base for a linear brick feature, perhaps the west wall of a privy that was served by the shaft and D-trap of S.F. 33. At its southern end this turned westward briefly before terminating at S.F.37, a squarish block of stonework also in grey mortar. To the south of S.F.32 and the south-east of S.F.37, but largely cut away by the later Gully 5, was a rectangular pit, P.29, which on its eastern side cut layer EQ.

Enclosed by Wall 17 and its parallel northern neighbour was a long narrow strip 3.30m in length by 950mm in width, closed off to the west by the wall standing in Gully 7 but open at the opposite end. At the western end of this space was a short channel of brickwork bonded in grey mortar with a sloping stone bottom (Stone Feature 23), leading into the upper end of Drain 9. The drain flowed eastwards to empty into the main north-south channel of Drain 8. Only a part of the northern side of Drain 9 survived, built of stone and brick in grey mortar. There is a possibility that a replacement was installed, in ceramic pipework, only for it to be removed during demolition. The narrow space between the parallel walls may have been the location of a staircase – no other possible locations have so far been identified in this area – in which case there would presumably have been a single flight climbing from the east. At the west end, below the top of the staircase and served by S.F.23, was a suitable location for an inside privy or water closet.

By 1850 the porch illustrated in the 1820s by Saunders had been replaced by a two-storey construction that occupied a somewhat larger area within the angle between the two ranges (Building 6). George Pryce’s drawing (1850), published as the frontispiece to his book of that year, illustrates the new block, although apparently not completely accurately (Fig. 20). The block was not shown by O’Neill in his 1823 view from the Lower Green, nor on the 1828-published large-scale map by Plumley and Ashmead, and it must therefore date from somewhere within the date range of 1823/8-1850. A structure of unusual plan resulted, perhaps suggesting a two-phase construction, although the archaeological evidence is insufficient to say one way or the other.

The north-western part of Building 6, to the west of Wall 18, appears to have functioned as a large porch or openended, undercover area. As has already been noted, the west wall at ground-floor level was not continuous. A photograph published in Faustina Hodges book (1896, opposite p.166) shows the wide opening as possibly not fitted with doors. By the time that the photograph was taken, probably near the end of the life of Minster House, the various climbing plants had reached to the eaves and largely obscured the oriel window at first-floor level. Inside the ‘porch’, patches of mixed dark brown humic soil with much grey mortar were excavated (context GR).

From the middle of the west side of the kitchen range, Wall 17 ran westwards for 6.50m. There was then a short return northwards, before a short westward leg of just 700mm. From here there was a return to the north, but, although this line was continuous at first floor level, there was a gap of 1.65m between two jambs or responds at either end of the ground floor. The northern end of this wall abutted the eastern end of the Minster House chimney breast. Some 3.20m to the east lay a parallel, continuous, wall, W.18, extending southward from the old south-east buttress (S.F.28) for 2.75m before abutting the north-east corner of a further wall that ran eastward from the dogleg in the west wall and was north of, but parallel to, Wall 17.

Extending for a little over a metre eastward from Wall 18 was Wall 23, composed mainly of Pennant Sandstone in grey mortar, with a consistent southern face but an irregular northern edge. Covering most of the south-western half of Room 8, to the north of Wall 23, was soft grey mortary soil (CJ). Against the south face of the same wall was an elongated patch of pale grey mortary soil, CA. Cutting the north-east part of CA, at the east end of Wall 23, was the small Pit 17. Close by to the south-east, again cutting CA, was an even smaller pit, P.21, a partial void with loose grey mortary soil and a single large stone, perhaps dug for access to Drain 17 below.

Wall 17 was of rubble construction, grey mortar bonding stonework largely comprising Pennant Sandstone. It abutted the west face of Wall 12 and was cut by the later Gully 5. Wall 12 was partially rebuilt in brick and grey mortar where the north side of Wall 17 abutted. Posthole 7, cut into Wall 12 immediately to the north of the rebuild, may be associated. The far western end of Wall 65

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 The area to the south of Minster House continued in use as a garden. Saunders’ view shows it laid out as lawn with paths close to the north and west edges, beyond which were beds that included, amongst the plantings, some climbers (Fig. 18). Alongside the south wall, in a 500mm-wide strip between the chimney breast and south-east buttress, was a dark brown humic soil deposit, 150-200mm deep (context GB). On the west side of Drain 8 at its southern end was a deposit of grey-brown humic soil, 250mm deep (DF), that contained a bone tube, possibly a nozzle from a medical instrument (small find no.42 – Fig. 83.4). Most of the garden was covered by a mixed layer, 200mm or more in depth, a dark brown humic soil with many stones and many lumps of pink mortar, also large spreads and patches of black charcoal-rich soil (CZ). This extended north of the line of the later Wall 17 as context BX. A large patch of dark grey humic soil with stones, approximately 6m by 4m in size (DC), lay against the garden face of Wall 16. Beneath part of DC was Gully 20 (fill context EA), a linear feature that contained part of the lead pipe that ran through the garden. The gully extended for a maximum distance of 3.75m eastward from Wall 16. Within it lay what appeared to be a later replacement section of pipework (small find no.59), about 40mm in diameter and consisting of a number of shorter lengths joined together. The pipe had continued beyond Wall 16 as far as the road, but had subsequently been cut on the far side of the said wall. In the opposite direction, the earlier section of pipework was broken – rather than cut – in the southern end of Pit 46, lying between Drains 28 and 8 and approximately 2.50m long and nearly a metre wide, containing a fill of mixed stones and lumps of pink and grey mortar in brown silty soil (context ED). Cutting the northern extremity of the pit and abutting the south face of Wall 17 was a shallow gully (unnumbered) in which was laid a small eastwardflowing drain with brick sides and Pennant floor, bonded in grey mortar, Drain 6. The head of this drain was 3m from the south-west corner of Building 6, in about the centre of the south wall, and may have served a downpipe from the roof.

1867 (BRO DC/A/8/7). The photograph of the north side of Minster House (Fig. 22) indicates that the fresh end wall lay close to the southernmost buttress of the new Cathedral west front. Initially it was thought that Wall 24 represented the remains of the end wall, but it now seems more likely that this lay immediately beyond the east face of Wall 24. However, no remains of walling survived here at all, nor was there any evidence of bonding into the north and south walls (Walls 26 and 4). Rubble-built and bonded in grey mortar, Wall 24 itself was laid directly on top of the earlier floor, Floor 2, which was removed beyond it to the east (again suggesting where the new end wall was located). As found in 1992, Wall 24 was merely a short length of walling 300-330mm in height with unfinished ends that suggested that it might originally have been longer. Possibly its construction was associated with the work to truncate Minster House. Room 1 continued in use in its reduced size. The wall against the passage was plastered with a creamy-buff mortar, while the west wall, W.6, appears only to have been whitewashed. Against this were placed three thin, parallel brick walls, S.F.5153. These were at least three courses in height and may have formed wine bottle bins, or perhaps supported some sort of work surface. Only one wall survived above its grey mortar base, and this was plastered (Stone Feature 51). Coal dust of up to 10mm in depth (context CL) was found in Room 1, including around, but not over, the three bases and Wall 24, indicating use as a coal store. A ferrous peg was found in Floor 2, amongst the flagstones beneath the line of Wall 24 but protruding 30mm or so above the surface. It was rectangular in cross-section, about 30mm by 10mm in size. In Wall 26 was found a smaller ferrous pin with flat head, projecting about 30mm from the south face. Neither object served any obvious purpose. To the east of Wall 24, Room 1 was extensively disturbed. Wall 26, forming the northern edge of the room, was cut through at a point 4.50m from its western end. Here was dug the outer edge of the foundation trench for the southwest tower. Just outside the southern end of the trench was a double post-hole, of indeterminate date. Immediately north of this was Pit 95 (fill context LN), partly cut into the backfill of the foundation trench. Within the main part of the pit sat a rectangular slab, Stone Feature 59, of sandstone or freestone. A twin to this slab sat 1.65m further west, in the bottom of Pit 94 below the fill LP (S.F.58). No clear reason for their presence could be established at the time of excavation, but they may represent pads for scaffolding or shoring associated with either the building of the nave or the rebuilding of the end of Minster House. Pit 94 lay beneath Pit 76 (fill HD). All three pits seem to have been sealed by layer HC, a mixed rubble and mortar deposit, although Pit 76 may have been cut through it. At a higher level, dug into HC, were Pits 66, 67, 70 and 71, some intercut. Pits 67 and 71 could be associated with the removal of the 1870 end wall at the time of final demolition of Minster House in 1883. Gully 41, to the south of these pits and against the west face of the tower buttress footings, represented the robbing of part of Wall 4. In the face of the said footings were revealed a series of

Between the two-storey 19th.century extension and the west garden wall the old path continued in use, shown by both Saunders and the late photograph. Several beds were cut in the strip of 750mm or so to the north of the path. At the eastern end was Gully 28, with, at its western end, the shallow Pit 81 (fill context HR). A metre to the west again lay the deeper Pit 88, its fill (context KQ) a brownish green loamy soil, the others having contained the more typical brown humic soil. Construction of the new Victorian nave and western towers involved the removal of the eastern end of the main Minster House range. Room 1, in the north-east of the area excavated in 1992, was reduced in size by the erection of a new east wall. This may be the ground-floor portion of the new end wall known to have been built in February 1870 (BRO DC/F/1/3). If that is the case, then the room above must have been the bedroom of Canon Randall, as referred to by George Wood’s letter of 2nd. September 66

The Excavation: Period Descriptions ledges or steps, S.F.43, perhaps originally intended to be one side of a short flight down to the lower, cloister level but apparently never put to use.

only a fragment of Wall 41. Both jambs were chamfered to the south with broach stops (Stone Feature 3). However, whereas the western jamb was in the same pinkish mortar as Wall 10 behind, its twin on the opposite side was in a grey mortar, indicating that it had been rebuilt, probably a repositioning further to the east. The result was to form an opening 2.24m in width between the two rooms. In the same grey mortar as the jamb was the small brick feature (S.F.40) that ran northwards for almost 400mm before briefly turning to the west. Of unknown function, this had been built of bricks on edge. Throughout most of Room 4 was a pink mortar floor and its make-up layer (jointly recorded as context FR), although only against the east wall (Wall 8) and part of the north (Wall 9) did the floor proper survive. A sole sherd of late eighteenth-century Staffordshire ware was the only dateable find from this deposit. In the north-west corner of the room was a large pit, sub-rectangular in plan, Pit 82. This was filled with grey mortared rubble (with some unmortared stones), the whole being loose with voids, context JD. No pottery was present, but there was a single clay tobacco pipe bowl, carrying the initials ‘JR’ and probably made either by John Ring (fl.c1803-18) or John Roberts (fl.c1815-51). Pit 82 was not identified until after the removal of context FR, but at the time of archaeological excavation was thought to have possibly cut it.

Inside Room 10 the walls were all rendered with a pale cream-coloured plaster. Despite the existence of the earlier short flight of steps down into the north-west corner of the room (Stone Feature 31), a second set of just two steps (Stone Feature 44) was added adjacent on the north wall (W.27), constructed of Pennant Sandstone, including the treaders, the whole bonded in grey mortar. Due to the level to which Wall 27 had been demolished, the doorway above the steps had not survived, but there was clearly a third riser at the position of the inner wall face. These steps gave access out into the garden area to the north, whereas those adjacent led north-west up into the prebendal house that partly abutted the north side of Minster House. No definite evidence was available to determine when the room went out of use, but being separated from the passage may have meant relegation to minor use from as early as 1870. The flagstone floor, Floor 1, was overlain by BP, a loose mixed layer of rubble, mortar, plaster, and brown silty soil, generally of 300mm thickness but sometimes more. Within the layer were several fragments of a Thomas Toft charger from the seventeenth century. Over BP were BN and BE, both described as ‘garden soil’ but also containing lumps and flecks of mortar. A half groat of Edward VI was found within BE (small find no.15).

Southwards from the centre of Room 4 the drain, Drain 15, was substantially altered. While the west wall was retained, a new brick east wall was laid along the centre line of the original drain, creating a narrower channel of about 120mm, Drain 26. Pennant was again used for the cap-stones. The fill (LM) was a very loose dark grey ashy-mortary soil with grey mortar lumps. Beyond the new side wall, a wider channel was created by removing the old Drain 15 wall and replacing with brick on a more easterly line. This second route (Drain 18) was capped with more Pennant (JU), the brickwork bonded in grey mortar. Unusually, slate was utilised for the floor, and this was then lined with grey mortar that also ran part-way up the side walls. It ran at a higher level than its westerly neighbour. At its northern end, almost at the middle of Room 4, the channel terminated in a steeply inclined slab. From here there was a gentle drop to a point somewhere towards the far side of Room 3, from where the floor began to rise once more. Crossing the line of Wall 19, the whole curved around to the west to run alongside the southern edge of the same wall as far as the south-east buttress of Minster House. For this section it was recorded as Drain 7. Here, at the end was another inclined slab. Drain 22 had earlier commenced at this same place, but illustrations show that the downpipe had apparently now been replaced by another further to the east, draining into Drain 17 on the east side of Drain 8. Drain 7 was similar to Drain 18, except that the mortar was more of a buffgrey and the channel was marginally narrower at about 200mm. Back at the northern end of Drain 18, there was a brick construction (S.F.54) around the angled slab. Drain 18 contained KJ, a fill consisting of black sooty soil with some brown silt.

Grey mortar (context FX) was found throughout Room 2, the eastern end of the passage alongside Room 1. This was the bedding for a floor, equivalent to the layer BW found in Rooms 6, 7 and 11. The mortar bedding continued into the western passage, Room 3, as context EV, and ran through the doorway (S.F.14) in Wall 19 towards Room 11. It was also noted for a short distance into Room 4. Surviving fragments of freestone and Pennant Sandstone suggested that these floors were flagged. The level of the bottom of the wall plaster indicated that the floors had been at the same height as that in Room 1 (Floor 2). Separating the two rooms of the passage was the earlier stone doorway, Stone Feature 2, for which a ferrous pintle survived on the inside (east side) of the south jamb, indicating that the door was hinged on that side. A single Pennant flagstone survived at the eastern end of the entrance into Room 3 through Wall 19 (S.F.12, not shown on plan). Around the corner, against the north face of the wall, a small brick feature survived (S.F.11). There was no foundation, and it was initially interpreted as the bottom of a door jamb, although it could have been the remains of a brick blocking wall. Paul’s plan shows, at the west end of Room 3, an entrance through the southern end of Wall 10 into the large room beyond. This opening (S.F.13) was 910mm (3 feet) in width, its southern edge one with the north face of Wall 19. Surviving brickwork may have been the remains of steps that led down into the lowered area to the west of Wall 10. Access to Room 4 from the north side of Room 3 was by way of an entrance that was virtually the full width, leaving 67

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 The function of Drain 7/18 is not entirely clear, but it is assumed to have performed as a heating duct or flue. Burnt charcoal and black ash were noted on the undersides of the Drain 18 cap-stones. By the 1820s the south-western extremity, against the side of the south-west buttress, was in one corner of the lightly-constructed porch that had, in all probability, not been there for many years. Previous to its erection this had simply been the end of the path leading from the garden gate to the entrance to Minster House. The position occupied by the end of the duct was therefore suitable for locating a ventilator or grille for the provision of air.

by a single large room. Later in the life of the building the ground floor was lowered, to the point where it cut into natural. At the same time, a suspended wooden floor was inserted, supported by a pair of sleeper walls that ran along the longer dimension. Two shallow gullies (G.8, G.9) were cut into natural and grey mortar bedding was laid. Only the very eastern end of one sleeper wall, the northern (Wall 21), survived, mainly built of Brandon Hill Grit and bonded in the same grey mortar. Low ledges of brick laid in dark grey mortar were added to the insides of the north and south walls of the building to take the outer ends of the joists, each of which had to bridge about 1.22m (4 feet). Two beam sockets (G.64 and G.65) were cut into the inner face of the west wall, Wall 14, but they took beams at a slightly higher level than the side ledges took their joists, and therefore may not have been contemporary – they may represent the supports for an earlier timber floor. Some of the beam end still survived within G.65. In G.64 was an iron plate, about 30mm wide, in-situ and apparently bolted into the mortar 500mm from the inner face of Wall 14. A row of three postholes set against the same wall (P.H. 2-4) may be evidence of a need to support the ends of the original beams, which would often start to rot first where they met the wall. Two of the post-holes (3 and 4) were later to be sealed by patches of black coal/charcoal-rich soil containing some clinker and slag (layer AT), with a more extensive deposit of the same material in the eastern half of the strip to the north of, and defined by, Wall 21, and therefore not earlier than its construction. A shallow pit in the centre of the natural floor of the building was of indeterminate date.

As the site was excavated, a long thin strip was opened up between the north section and the northern sides of Walls 26 and 27. A few features were noted between the two edges, but it was not possible to explore then fully in the very limited space, with the exception of a flatbottomed post-hole, P.H.57, adjacent to the north face of Wall 26. Wall 26, the north wall of Room 1, was noted as possessing a fairly consistent outer face at its eastern end but becoming irregular about halfway along. Abutting the north face immediately east of the point of change was a north-running rubble wall, Wall 45, comprising Brandon Hill Grit and oolite bonded in a hard, light grey mortar and in the region of 600-700mm thick. Only a very short length (less than 300mm) was revealed before it disappeared into the north section. None of the contemporary maps or plans show this wall and its exact function is unknown. To the west, the northern face of Wall 26 continued, albeit in irregular fashion, followed to a point almost in line with the west face of Wall 6. A small patch of pitched stonework, possibly cobbling, survived between the wall and the north section. From thereon, for a metre or so, no face could be discerned, and, in fact, there was possible evidence of a wall turning north from near the eastern end of Wall 27, the north side of Room 10. Successive maps show that, towards the western end of Wall 27, was the end of the eastern wall of a building that was approximately square in plan, known as the house of Mr Tucker in 1649 (Parliamentary Survey, BRO DC/E/3/2). It is described as late one of the prebend’s houses, abutting eastwards onto a little common yard that led to the cloister (an area that remained open until construction of the new nave). Measuring 40 feet, east-west, by 38 feet, north-south, it contained three storeys and had three bedrooms, being worth £3. 10s. 0d. a year. The west side of Mr Tucker’s house was not found during the excavation, but Ashmead’s 1854 city survey indicates that it may have been flush with the western end of Minster House. Nineteenth century illustrations depicted a two-storey house with sash windows, but there was a two-stage buttress part-way along its north-facing facade and another at the north-east corner, and Latimer (1887, 345) recorded that the building included a turret staircase and other early features.

In the west end of Wall 13, beyond the brick ledge, a rectangular feature with three sides of brickwork bonded in grey mortar was added (Stone Feature 19). Light and dark grey mortars were also noted beyond the brick feature. This all represented work to restore the ground-floor section of the two-storey oriel window, which still looked crisp and fresh when photographed (Hodges 1896, opposite p.166). Pearson’s letter of 18 July 1882 refers to ‘a small bay window of two stories the lower part of which is modern and an imperfect copy of the original work . . .’ (BRO DC/F/1/3). On the opposite side of the building, beneath the line of Wall 15, a line of post-holes, at intervals varying between 950 and 1550mm, extended for virtually the whole length of Building 4 (P.H.84-90). Most were rectangular voids, some still with traces of wood, and some included charcoal-flecked silt at the bottom. The majority had flat bottoms, usually with a flat pennant as a base. At the west end the post-holes were directly below the wall, whose bottom was now more than half a metre above the level of the lowered natural. With one exception (P.H.89) the postholes were in a fairly straight line. The posts were associated with the lowering of the floor, which had cut below the base of Wall 15 and made it essential for shoring to be inserted. Subsequently the posts were enclosed when the medieval wall was properly underpinned by masonry, which strictly speaking created post-pockets rather than conventional post-holes. To the south-west of P.H.84, and directly north of P.H.2, was a possible post-hole, P.H.83, although it may have been no more than a void in the stonework.

The principal part of Minster House (Building 4) lay at the west end of the long east-west range. This was a rectangular block that measured approximately 8.80m by 4.60m internally, and, for the lowest storey at least, was occupied 68

The Excavation: Period Descriptions Within the bottom of Wall 14 were three channels, each continuing through the full thickness of the wall to a brick-lined shaft immediately outside (Stone Features 8-10; Figs. 52-53). Between them the three channels or ducts served the three underfloor sections into which the interior had been divided by the sleeper walls. The brick shafts were short, only of a few courses each, and were not visible above ground (they are not shown by any of the drawings or photographs of Minster House). All three were interconnected below ground by a duct built of brick with Pennant Sandstone cap- and base-stones (Drain 39), the cut for which was Gully 36 (context ML). Since the wooden floor inside the building was not raised above the outside ground level, the use of air bricks was not feasible, and it appears that the ducts and associated shafts were added to provide the underfloor ventilation necessary to help avoid the incidence of rot – dry rot in particular – a fate that, as suggested above, may have befallen the previous floor. There is no evidence that the ducts and shafts were ever associated with any form of heating, and there were no signs of burning or the effects of heat, nor deposits of, for instance, soot. Above the capping of two of the ducts were the impressions left by small brick features possibly associated with them (S.F.84-85).

An archaeological watching brief accompanied the work. Natural was noted at only 200-250mm beneath the surface. At a point almost midway between the standing buildings lay the remains of a backfilled cellar or large cess pit, 5.60m by 4.60m in size. Beside the eastern edge was a wall constructed of Brandon Hill Grit laid with a hard, pale grey mortar, on the line of the eastern edge of the building shown by Plumley and Ashmead and others. On the opposite side of the cellar was a less well-defined wall, again of Brandon Hill Grit but with pink mortar and also red brick. As noted previously, the area to the west of Minster House was dominated by a series of drains. Initially these lay outside the Minster House garden, but with successive extensions outward eventually were to be found inside the fence. The upper end of the earlier, Period 5a, Drain 3 (Fig. 55) was replaced by Drain 4, which ran westward for a short distance from a point just to the north-west of the corner of Minster House. Pennant Sandstone was once again utilised for the base slabs, but the walls were of brick bonded in grey mortar. At the upper end of the drain was a small paved area with the remains of brick and stone walls to east, west and south. These walls approximated to the small square building shown by the OS 1:500 plan of 1883, a structure that, in the corner of a backyard, occupied the classic location for a privy. Also shown on the same plan was the south wall of the yard, and this was seen, briefly, adjacent to the privy, with, to the west of Drain 3, the foundation trench of a further, robbed-out, section. The back yard containing the privy had belonged to the house immediately east of the abbey gate, at one time the home of the chancellor (Stewart, 1745), but known in its last days as the Precentor’s House and removed in May 1885 (Latimer 1887, 516). This house had possessed a facade of early Georgian design, of three bays and three storeys plus semi-basement and attic.

Built within the northern end of Wall 10 was a bricklined rectangular feature (S.F.47), open to the north-east corner of the ground-floor room in Building 4. Single thickness brick walls surrounded a brick floor that was at approximately the same level as the wooden floor of the room; a space of 840mm by 640mm was enclosed. The function of the space was not clear, although initially it was interpreted as a fireplace or similar feature. Construction of S.F.47 cut the upper end of the old Drain 14, the upper fill of which was recorded as a gully, 1.60m in length, Gully 3 (fill context AY).

The earliest recorded enclosure on the west side of Minster House was rectangular in shape and ran west for a short distance from the southern buttress to the west elevation, before turning north to run parallel to the same wall (Eyre, c 1776; Samuel, 1792; de Cort, 1794 (Fig. 15)). A gate seems to have been provided adjacent to the buttress. Pit 65, a small post-hole or similar feature 2m south of the Chancellor’s back wall, may have been associated with this fence. A short distance to the north of the pit was an east-west gully, G.17, and on the north side of the east end of this was a larger pit, Pit 64 (context GG). Three stake holes were noted on the northern edge of the pit, with a further one to the east.

Immediately to the north of the centre of Wall 15 lay a cess pit, Stone Feature 22, of almost square plan. Rubble walls were bonded in a buff-grey mortar and carried a hard render of similar colour, the corners and base being rounded. As was usual for such features, there was a flagstone floor with raised mortar strips over the joints. The walls survived for about 600mm above floor level. Within the cess pit was a lower fill of black sooty soil, 100mm deep, above which the remaining fill was of mixed mortary rubble (context BY). A short distance to the north-west was another cess pit, S.F.26, but only one corner was within the excavation area and further examination had to wait until works on the site in 1993, when it was found to measure 2.10m (E-W) by 1.60m (N-S). These two features were beneath the house that adjoined Minster House on the north, (formerly Mr Tucker’s), a building that survived, latterly as the Chapter Office, until March 1881 when it was removed to improve the view of the new West Front (BRO DC/F/1/3).

Gully 15 represented the re-excavation of Drain 3/4 for the purposes of laying a replacement in ceramic pipework. Within the backfill of the trench (context DA) was a counterfeit halfpenny of 1770 (small find no.28). The northern end of the new drain was later superseded by a length of ceramic pipework running from a north-westerly direction and laid in Gully 16. Drain 3/4 ran outside the edge of the rectangular enclosed area, but, with the later extension of the garden to a new line connecting the southern end of Wall 16 and the south-west corner of the gatehouse, that situation changed.

Between the west front of the cathedral and the gatehouse lay an extensive area that had not been touched during the 1992 excavation. This, however, was subsequently disturbed during works to lay paving outside the west front. 69

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 In the southern part of the area outside Wall 16 (the west wall of the main garden) the lead water pipe (small find no.59) was cut. Gully 19 (fill context GH) represented the robbing out of the pipe. The earlier, Period 5a, Pit 41 (Fig. 55) was partly re-excavated, the subsequent backfill (DX) being similar to the fill of the gully. Emptying of Gully 18 in order to gain access to Drain 19 resulted in the section of Gully 19 that crossed it being destroyed. Later excavation for Gullies 13 and 14 cut away the western end of the pipe rob trench. Pit 40 (fill DW) cut Gully 19 immediately on the east side of Gully 18. A small pit at the extreme southern end of Wall 16 (Pit 106) may be associated with rebuilding at the junction with the wall alongside the cloister access road.

line as it existed from at least the 1820s and still did in the 1860s. By the later 1870s, however, the enclosed area west of Wall 16 had been extended again, to reach the boundaries that still existed in 1992. Ashmead’s 1874 city survey, subsequently updated, while failing to record the revised garden boundary, did show the drain running southwards from the precentor’s house as far as an eastwest sewer laid below the cloister access road. In the narrow area between the mortary deposit DB and the west side of the old garden wall was a small pit, P.33. This, together with the metalled road surface and everything else in the southernmost 3m or so of the site, was directly below the layer BV, comprising between 100 and 150mm of mixed red clay-silt, grey-brown humic soil, stones and fragments of brick, all of which was deposited after the above-mentioned westward extension of the outer garden. Within BV was a flared copper alloy strap fitting (small find no.23 – Fig. 84.7).

As previously explained, Drain 19, the southern half of Drain 3, was partially reconstructed during this period, in order to gain access for cleaning out. Parts of the upper walls were rebuilt in grey mortar, and the same material was also used to bed down the cap-stones and fill any voids. Gully 18, originally excavated for construction of the drain, had to be re-excavated in order to gain access to the drain within. Once cleaning and repairs had been carried out, the gully was again backfilled, with a fill of mixed redeposited natural, some stones and some buff gravelly soil (context DV). A relatively large number of sherds of a small variety of pottery were found within the fill, including sixteen of white salt-glazed stoneware (BPT 186), dating to around 1720-80, more than two dozen of yellow wares (BPT 101a), 1650-1750, nearly twenty of English tin-glazed ware (BPT 99c and d), and also eight pieces of white china. Gully 18 cut into the western side of Pit 160 (WE), a feature that also lay beneath Gully 19. Pit 160 was also cut, at its southern end, by Post-hole 82. Within Drain 19 were two surviving fills, contexts JT and, above it, JS. The lower fill, 100-150mm deep, was a greygreen ‘cessy’ silt with some red-purple clayey soil and containing white china and redware. Pale grey mortar, redbrown sandy soil, stone, charcoal and black ash formed JS, which was about 150mm thick and included transferprinted ware amongst the pottery finds, also producing a bone toothbrush that carried the legend ‘G.JONES REGISTERED 10 SEPTR. 1844’ (Fig. 83.7).

Period 6 – During and after the demolition of Minster House (Fig. 58) Those parts of Minster House not removed for construction of the new nave managed to survive into the early 1880s. Completion of the nave in 1881 (but with the west front finished only up to the top of the second stage of the towers) saw a review of the function and layout of the space between there and the gatehouse. By this time G E Street was dead, and his successor, John Loughborough Pearson, had different views regarding this area, the ‘West End Enclosure’. The view of the west front from College Green/ Deanery Road was opened up by the removal in May 1881 of the chapter office, but that the remains of Minster House still managed to obscure the view from the Lower Green (College Square). Pearson seemed determined to do away with the house and open up the view from that direction (the south-west). In April 1882 he was set to remove the building as soon as convenient after the current tenant had concluded his tenure in the following September. Minster House was still standing in mid-July of that year, and apparently also in the January following, but a report by Pearson dated April 27, 1883, suggests that by then it had been removed (BRO DC/F/1/3), a fact confirmed by Dean Elliott’s letter published in The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post six days earlier. The building was not shown on the OS 1:500 plan, surveyed in 1883, and in fact the outlines of former abbey buildings shown there bear no relationship to any known structures. Alfred Parkman produced a slightly fanciful illustration of the first-floor hall of Minster House, looking west to the traceried end window and showing a vaulted (plasterwork?) ceiling. He described the room as ‘Refectory, Bristol Cathedral, destroyed in 1883 for Cathedral Extension’ (Fig. 23).

Sealing part of the southern end of Gully 18 was a patch of grey mortar occupying an area of about 1m by 1.50m, layer DB. The south-western edge of DB was cut by the north-eastern edge of the 400-500mm-wide Gully 13. In the description of the area to the west of Minster House, above, it was shown that the stone-built Drain 3 was later superseded on the same line by a ceramic pipe. This same pipe continued southwards into this part of the site, but had by now parted company with its predecessor, which had run further east as Drain 19. Gully 14/Pit 12 was the trench excavated for the ceramic pipework. Where it crossed the line of Gully 13 then that feature cut it, after which the pipework disappeared below a metalled road surface in the extreme south-west corner of the site. Gully 13 lay beside the north-eastern edge of the metalling and is thought to have been dug to take the kerb and gutter alongside the road. This line of road and kerb ran parallel to the fence

The precentor’s house, adjacent to the abbey gate, was shown on the OS 1:500 plan, as also were the Minster House garden walls to the Lower Green and the road to the cloister, and the west cloister wall. No change of level was apparent from the plan, although it showed the west door of the Cathedral, the small gate to the Lower Green 70

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 58. Plan showing Period 6 features © Bristol Culture

71

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 and the old doorway in the cloister wall as all flush with the general ground surface. North of the west cloister wall doorway, the wall thickness was shown as better than a metre. Pearson, in his report of April 27, 1883, confirmed that most of the walls shown around the boundary by the OS were surviving old walls. He proposed to pull down the ‘wall dividing the Lane’ and to run a new one to the gatehouse (to the west) and the old doorway in the cloister wall (to the east). The design would be ‘a low wall with a good coping on it, and on the top an iron railing’. In addition, ‘The old cloister door and part of the cloister wall existing I would restore with its inside arch’. He proposed to link the two levels by means of a flight of steps. As for the enclosure to the west of the Cathedral, it would be made nearly level, ‘the carriage road only being made to slope down to the road in Little College Green’ (BRO DC/F/1/3). Two months later, he had produced a specification for the boundary wall, the railings on which would match those on the north side of the Cathedral. Works would include restoration of ‘a portion of the inside Arch of the doorway marked X which is now wanting’ and a new string course and coping would be added to the thick wall over the doorway (BRO op. cit.).

dark grey-brown ashy silt. All three deposits were, in turn, overlain by BD, mixed mortary soil with stones and some humic soil. Along the eastern side of the area, between the cloister access road and the old doorway, the previous thinner wall was rebuilt to match in thickness that to the north. Gully 21 (fill context FT) was the foundation trench for this feature (the southern half of Wall 2): it cut the eastern end of layer CR. From Wall 2, westwards to the Lower Green then turning north to the gatehouse, a new boundary wall was constructed (Wall 35). Aligned parallel to the cloister access road in the area west of the new wall were two rows of pits/ post-holes. In some cases, at the time of excavation it was unclear as to exactly whereabouts in the stratigraphic sequence they belonged, since some of the fills were very similar to the deposits above and around, but it is now believed that they lay directly below the later layer AP. The southern row, located a fraction over 3m north of the roadway, comprised three pits, P.52, P.59 and P.51, from east to west. All three were thought to have been post-pits, although only Pit 59 (fill GM) contained a recognisable post-hole, P.H.26. The second line ran with their post-holes 1.90m north of the first. On the east, Pit 57 contained P.H.27; to the north of Pit 59 was Pit 50 (fill HK), containing P.H.25. A second fill of Pit 50 was later excavated, as context QH (Pit 126). Both of the post-holes on this line were rectangular in shape, with the northern half of the bottom stepped up. No third pit was found in this line. However, to the north of Pit 51, the westernmost of the southern row of pits, (and at a distance that was exactly twice that between the two main rows) lay a smaller pit, P.49, cut into Wall 25. Directly north of Pit 49, in the angle between the western buttress and main south wall of the south-west tower, was Pit 148 (fill context TK), a square feature that cut the upper fill of the Victorian foundation trench and above which was Pit 93 (fill LD), of squarish plan. It is likely that the pair of pits were simply two fills of the one feature. Whereas TK contained just two sherds, one of potential eighteenth-twentieth century date, the other medieval, LD included none from earlier than the eighteenth century (i.e. garden redware and white china).

The Second Edition OS 1:2500 plan, revised in 1902, showed the carriage road, running south from College Green, past the west doors, then turning westward to reach the Lower Green; no other paths were shown. Parallel to, and about 7m west of, the side of the cloister, a wall ran south from the south-west corner of the tower as far as the road leading to the cloister. Subsequently, a path was added to link the carriage road with the doorway in the west cloister wall, and this was recorded in a photograph of November 1934 (Winstone 1986, plate 200). Ashmead’s later 1:600 survey plan sheet (no.67) covering the cathedral included a small grey-coloured parcel, indicating the survival of a building adjacent to the north side of the access road, between the cloister wall and the parallel wall to its west. Although the Ordnance Survey plan failed to record any trace of the structure, a photograph of the cathedral taken shortly after the completion of the nave did show it in the background. A couple of tiled ridge roofs were shown, which, at their western end, were supported by the remains of a sturdy wall that had been partly demolished – possibly the remains of the old cellarium wall. These two small structures at the lower, or cloister level, probably did not live beyond the completion of the western towers. A Francis Frith photograph (20141, dated 1887; Hardy 1999, 24-25), showed the west end enclosure before work had recommenced on the towers but with wooden sheds upon the open area, presumably in preparation for the final works.

On the opposite side of the buttress to Pit 93/148 was a post-hole, P.H.1. Against the boundary wall alongside the access road to the cloister was a small pit, P.14 (fill context BS). A wide gully (G.4, fill AV) ran beside Wall 2 from the old doorway southwards then turned alongside the southern boundary wall for a distance. Grey-brown humic soil up to 200mm in depth filled the cut, which may have formed a bed around the edge of a grassed area. An entry in the Chapter Minute Book for July 3, 1888 (BRO DC/A/8/8, 168), records that Mr Pearson was requested to arrange for lightning conductors to be affixed to the central and western towers. Not long afterwards a similar request referred to the central tower only, suggesting that the western towers had by then been equipped. A lightning conductor tape ran down the south-east corner of the southern tower to a point on the west side of Wall 2. Here it divided in two, one line running in a trench cut diagonally

In the area west of the cloister, south of the old doorway, were two deposits. Towards the south-east corner was a hard, grey mortar layer, CS, probably the remains of a floor. A short distance to the north lay a more extensive deposit, CR, a greenish layer of mixed silty soil. Much of the latter was sealed by CD, another mixed layer predominantly of 72

The Excavation: Period Descriptions across the backfilled robber trench (Gully 32), as far as a point located almost 3m away from the tower. Here, in a square pit, P.90, the tape terminated in a similarly-shaped copper plate. The second line was laid in a trench alongside the wall before turning to enter the cloister area beneath the old doorway. Within the entrance, above the conductor tape trench, was a Pennant Sandstone floor, Stone Feature 21, sat on a base of mixed mortary rubble (context BT). It was necessary during the archaeological excavation to move the conductor tapes to a more convenient line, and this was achieved by excavating a new trench in the north-west corner of the cloister. A narrow cut of almost 5m in length was sent out to the south-south-east from the bottom of the tower. Nothing of particular interest was located during the trench cutting and the material removed (HJ) was not recorded in detail.

inside the nineteenth century two storey extension. Gully 12 was the equivalent cut leading westwards from the northern end of the pipework stretch of the drain. Grey brown humic soil with stones, lumps of grey mortar and drain-pipe fragments (context BB) was used to backfill the north-south trench, its west-running neighbour containing a similar deposit. A Swiss ten-centime piece of 1850 was recovered from BB (small find no.14). Beneath the bottom of Gully 5, at the point where it crossed the southern edge of Wall 17, was the pit, P.19, containing a fill of the same description. Rectangular in plan with vertical sides but sloping ends, Pit 19 had all the appearance of having been cut by the bucket of a mechanical excavator, possibly for geotechnical investigation, although no record of such work has yet come to light. Many of the walls of Minster House were only taken down to approximately level with the contemporary ground surface. After all, the principal aim was simply to open up the vista from the south-west, so removal to a suitable level to allow for the necessary landscaping was all that was required. Nevertheless, a few walls were totally robbed out. Those on the west side of the nineteenth century extension were destroyed completely, as was that running eastwards to the bottom of Wall 18. The empty foundation trenches, Gully 7, Pits 13 and 42, and Gully 6, were backfilled with grey-brown humic soil containing grey mortar and other inclusions. No context was allocated for the Gully 7 fill: the others were BQ, DY and DK/PV. Wall 16, the western boundary to the main garden, was so severely damaged that none of the line of its outside face survived, the east side only surviving because it was more deeply founded.

Ground levels vary between the West Front/College Green and the cloister by about 1.15m (45 inches). In order to keep the west end enclosure relatively flat a defined change of level was created by the construction of a low retaining wall, built on a line running due south from the south-west corner of the cathedral. This was Wall 1 (context AF), a construction of Brandon Hill Grit and red sandstone bonded in a dark grey mortar, capped with blocks of oolitic limestone. These included a fragment of coffin lid, decorated with the head of a cross (M.18), and a piece of a square Norman base or capital (M.8). Many fragments of older stonework were re-used in the foundations. Beneath the northern end of the wall was layer SK, which produced a Nuremberg jetton of 1480-90 (small find no.205). Occupying a line a short distance to the east of the old cellarium wall (Wall 3), the new construction passed across the two disused stone-built cess pits, S.F.38 and 56. In the case of the former, it was possible to build directly over the vault. With its southern neighbour, however, the situation demanded that the wall footings run lower than the vault, and to span the backfill material within it was necessary to create a new arch, S.F.39. On the east side of Wall 1, to the north of the centre point, a short flight of steps was added, these giving access to a tarmacadam path that led across the lower area to the old medieval doorway in Wall 2 (S.F.20). An electric cable was laid beneath the path, in Gully 1. Topsoil was laid to either side of the path: contexts AP (to the south) and AQ (to the north). Latterly this was laid out as grass. Layer AP produced a Victorian farthing dated 1881 (small find no.13).

When it came to that part of Minster House that had contained the first-floor hall, the demolition gangs did a particularly thorough job of removal, leaving only the lower foundations. Francis Frith’s 1887 photograph recorded what appear to be masons’ sheds laid out to the west of the Cathedral. Across part of the south wall (Wall 13) remains and beyond a series of post-holes were laid out in a straight line that ran almost exactly due east, perhaps indicating the line of a fence. Each post-hole sat within a post-pit. Seven post-holes were identified in eight post-pits. It is likely that there was a ninth, rather shallower, post position, above the remains of the northern end of Wall 3. Two parallel rows of posts at 3.2m centres ran northwards from the east end of the single line. North of P.H.16 was P.H.17 in Pit 26: no matching post-hole was identified immediately to the east, although the earlier passage mortar floor was disturbed at precisely the point where one might have been expected.

Demolition of Minster House was accompanied by an element of salvage and wall robbing. Pit 45 (fill context AD), a shallow feature on the western side of the north end of Wall 3, the old west wall of the cellarium, was created during the demolition works. Pit 38, a short distance to its south, may be contemporary. Further south again was Pit 91 (fill context KV), presumably post-dating demolition of the wall but only producing a single sherd of post-1550 date. Sewer pipes that had been laid as a direct replacement of Drain 8 were retrieved, presumably for re-use. This entailed the cutting of a trench, Gully 5, between the southern boundary of the site and a point just

Various features, mostly unconnected, were excavated in the area of the former garden, sealed by a general make-up layer, AK/AL. Against the remains of Wall 16 were three adjacent parallel cuts, Pits 5 to 7, with a fourth example (Pit 8, fill context BH) at the end of Pit 5 (fill BG). All four contained the same material, namely loose mortar rubble and stones with grey humic soil. It is just possible that they were survivals from the latter days of the previous period 73

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 and were true garden features. Directly to their east, at a distance of a little over 2m, lay a large rectangular pit, Pit 11, cutting the western side of the backfill to the wall robber trench, Pit 13/Gully 6. Uppermost was a fill of buff-brown silty soil (BM), including part of a rounded panel of leaded glass from a window (small find no.38). Beneath BM lay a stack of panels of leaded window glass dating from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. It is unclear from whence these panels derived, but none of the known windows of Minster House were of a suitable size. All the same, it is likely that they had only come a short distance, so probably belonged to one of the buildings within the cathedral precinct. At the bottom of the pit was another fill, a dark brown humic silt including a patchy spread of crushed oolite (CX). Cutting the north-east corner of the same backfilled pit as Pit 11 was Pit 10 (fill BL), the post-pit for Post-hole 8. Two metres further east lay the rectangular Post-hole 11. Pit 116, close to the chimney breast of Minster House, was a relatively modern feature cut from high level whose fill (OW) included many lumps of grey mortar. Within the pit was Post-hole 58. Close by to the north-west, cutting Gully 28, was Post-hole 42. Pit 44, a late, very shallow feature, cut into the top of the surviving part of Wall 13.

North of Minster House the ground was levelled using up to 200mm of crushed 0olitic limestone (context AE). This material was also utilised for the backfilling of Gully 2, a channel that ran eastwards for 6m along the northern side of Wall 15, cutting the south wall of the cess pit S.F.22, before turning south-east to cross the wall at an angle. Presumably it held a pipe or cable, but none survived at the time of the 1992 excavation. Apparently sealed by AE was, towards the western end, Pit 16 (fill DZ). It did, however, bear a resemblance to Pit 19 in shape, and is therefore another candidate for being a machine-cut hole of much later date. Layers AG, red gravel and sandy soil with oolite chips, and CB, mixed soil with stones, mortar and oolite fragments, were both found below AE. Beneath the eastern end of AG was the mark left by the end of a timber, a feature most likely to have been relatively modern, recorded as Post-hole 64. Near the west end of Building 4, two of the earlier brick ventilator shafts, S.F.8 and 9, were filled with dark grey humic soil and stones (contexts AR and AS). A general layer in this part of the site (AM) comprised clay, redeposited natural, loamy and clayey soil, stone and crushed oolite, with charcoal. This sealed the backfilled sewer pipe trenches, Gullies 15 and 16, and appears to have done the same for Gully 38, backfilled with redeposited natural (NC) and not fully excavated. To the south of AM was the main entrance to the archaeological excavation, an area that was not fully investigated, south of which again was the general sealing layer of AN, a mixed deposit of clayey soil, stone, lumps of tarmacadam, sandy soil and mortar with charcoal. Below AN were five small features. Post-holes 9 and 10 lay 1.75m apart, both at a similar short distance from the south-west section of boundary wall. They may have held supports for a sign or noticeboard. To the rear of the second post-hole, however, were the small pit, P.9, and, further into the site, Post-hole 6, the three in a row almost perpendicular to the wall. At right angles to the inside end of the line, at 1.75m distance, was the southern end of Pit 15, in plan a dumb-bell shape. Together, all five features made a rectangular shape, although this may not necessarily be significant.

In the south-east corner of the old garden area were two small features of questionable origin. Pit 20 (fill context CG), close to the site of Wall 20, was probably formed either by animal or root action, a small burrow or like disturbance running away its south. Post-hole 13, a short distance to the west, was a good example of its sort, but also had a disturbed south side. To the north of the posthole was a square, relatively shallow cut, Pit 3 (fill BF). A metre to the south-west, against the boundary wall (W.35) was Pit 1 (fill AX), a D-shaped cut reaching down to the surviving end of the stoneware sewer pipe, possibly associated with the insertion of a vertical slab to seal the open end. Further to the west, also against the same wall, lay the shallow Pit 4. Those walls of Minster House lying to the immediate west of the cathedral survived after demolition to a height of 400-500mm above floor level (deeper in Room 10 where the floor was lower). Various layers of rubble and mortary soil were deposited in order to bring the site level (contexts AW and AZ in Room 10; AB [part], FM, FP, FV, FZ and GA in Room 1). Forming a base layer for the carriage road was FA, a yellow deposit of crushed oolite with spreads and patches of more gravelly material. To either side, dark brown humic soil (topsoil) was laid (ET and FB). With the later extension of the tarmacadam area outside the Cathedral, a make-up layer of small stones, gravel, oolite fragments and yellow-brown sand was laid down (EF). Rubble was also deposited elsewhere within the remains of Minster House, including the passage south of Rooms 1 and 10 (AB – part of), and the large room beneath the firstfloor hall (AC). One coin was recovered from context AB (a James I farthing, small find no.2). Within AC were five coins or tokens (a Glastonbury halfpenny, two Nuremberg jettons, a Charles II farthing and a William III halfpenny, small find nos.1 and 3-6).

The Trench in the Cloister (Fig. 56) In the early stages of the excavation it became necessary to divert the lightning conductor tape that fed from the south-west tower. This involved digging a trench in a south-easterly direction into the cloister. Most of the route ran beneath an area of Pennant Sandstone flagstones, but it did extend a short distance into the tarmacadam beyond. The trench was 4.75m in length and 300-350mm wide (context HJ). At its north-west end was exposed a block of freestone that had been utilized as the base for the western end of the Victorian north cloister arcade. Natural was hit at a depth of about 600mm at the south-east end of the trench. Two lines of brick crossing the trench may have marked buried electric cables. No other features were revealed, and the sole find was a sherd of early medieval pottery. 74

The Excavation: Period Descriptions

Fig. 59. West-east profile of the cellarium area, after excavation © Bristol Culture

Fig. 60. North-south profile of the cellarium area, after excavation © Bristol Culture

75

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 61. North-south profile west of the cellarium, after excavation © Bristol Culture

76

4 Conclusions Unlike many other archaeological sites excavated in Bristol, the below-ground evidence was complemented by a wealth of other sources, most usefully the visual (e.g. paintings and photographs), but also documentary (including the 1649 parliamentary survey, dean and chapter records, Hodges’ biography, and civil records). These sources have helped considerably in the interpretation of the strictly archaeological evidence, particularly by showing what the building looked like above ground.

of the cellarium, which was quite an ask in engineering terms, even if the building had only been single-storey (and they are usually two storeys in height). In addition, no evidence survived of any buttressing on the west side of the original range, whereas the east wall could at least have gained some outer support from the cloister walk and its roof. This method of construction may have been the reason why the range had to be rebuilt after only a couple of centuries.

The 1992 excavation examined an area that is now associated with the western end of Bristol Cathedral but was formerly part of the precinct of St Augustine’s Abbey, founded by Robert Fitzharding in 1140 as a community of Augustinian canons. Although the evidence available today suggests that initial development of the precinct took place further east, it appears that work on the abbey church commenced soon after 1148. The abbey gatehouse, which stands adjacent to the 1992 excavation site, dates from later in the twelfth century.

In the nineteenth century E. W. Godwin identified a small Norman period structure at the northern end of the cellarium (labelled as ‘D’ on Paul’s plan). Much had been robbed out by the time of the excavation, apparently during the construction of the Victorian south-west tower, but fortunately there had been more than Godwin had recorded, with the west end of the south wall still standing beyond the line of the cellarium. An internal projection on the south wall could have been the base of a respond, and was matched by a gap in the internal face of the north wall (together with a pit), possibly representing a robbedout footing. These indicate that the ground floor of the structure could have been stone-vaulted, but, unfortunately, the foundations for the two southern buttresses of the south-west tower destroyed any corroborating evidence that might have survived further east. The walls were constructed from Brandon Hill Grit, a local stone often used in buildings of this date, and were about 1.2m thick.

In most religious houses the west claustral range contained the cellarium or abbey storehouse, although there would have been other storage facilities such as barns or granaries in the outer precinct (what is now College Square, in this instance). There would often be an outer parlour incorporated into the northern end of the west range, providing a facility where outside lay persons could meet with members of the walled community on matters of business. The space between the main gateway, outer court and cloister would be a practical location to house the prior and/or the cellarer, respectively the second and third officers of the abbey (sometimes one and the same person). Tradition suggests that this part of the St Augustine’s Abbey precinct was indeed the location for the prior’s lodging or house.

A new structure was added during the thirteenth century, in the west angle between the cellarium and Building 1. This was square and stone-built, with substantial walls (Building 2), but had a north wall that paralleled the south wall of Building 1 rather than abutting or incorporating it, although there was a slender connection at the western end. The gap between the two buildings was sufficiently wide to have provided a passageway leading to the outer parlour at the north end of the cellarium. Despite its limited internal size (about 5.2m east-west by 4.5m north-south), Building 2 was provided with a cross-wall, north of centre, and floors. This structure, fairly massively built, is thought to have been a bell tower. Independent bell towers were not unknown, perhaps due to the possibility of vibration damage to the main church. Buildings of similar shape and size in plan may still be seen in some churchyards in south-west England. This would also help explain why bell casting took place close by (see below).

No evidence was found for any activity on the site before the abbey’s foundation. For the first three centuries or so following, building activity was limited to the eastern half of the area excavated in 1992. This included, in the first phase, a twelfth-century west claustral range (cellarium), together with a narrow east-west range across its northern end (Building 1), the latter apparently not extending further east than the north-west corner of the cloister. Although the east wall of the Norman claustral range was not identified during the excavation, it is believed to have been on the same line as that occupied by its fourteenthcentury replacement. The west wall was recorded in 1992, however, largely built from Brandon Hill Grit. No evidence was found for intermediate columns down the centre line of the building, so there must have been an unsupported span of almost 9 metres across the interior

Several narrow drains were constructed outside Building 2, but it has not been possible to explain their presence or assess their significance. Instead of the more usual stone slabs, flat ceramic roof tiles were utilised to floor the drains. Such tiles are rare finds from medieval Bristol, since 77

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 roofing in the more substantial buildings was apparently usually either of thin Pennant Sandstone tiles or slate, with only the crest tiles in clay. Minor stone features were also built to the north-west and south-west of Building 2. Inside the cellarium, thin upright stone slabs set into the ground may have been associated with a new off-centre north-south, partition, probably of timber, together with a short easterly return connecting with the main east wall. A new floor was laid at the eastern end of Building 1.

Most obvious in this part of the abbey in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries were the rebuilding and considerable enlargement of the buildings north and northwest of the west claustral range. A first-floor hall with angle buttresses was erected close to the abbey gatehouse and included in its southern elevation a large chimney breast and a two-storey bay window. This was connected, by further new construction, to the old block north of the cellarium range, which itself had been rebuilt. However, it is not clear if all of this new construction took place in a single phase. Steps up to the raised ground to the north were provided inside the link block, Broach stops were provided at the base of some internal doorways. A stonebuilt drain was installed beneath the new range just east of the hall, running southwards to beyond the limit of the 1992 excavation. Tradition says that the hall was part of the prior’s residence – some records refer to Prior’s – or Priory – Lodge.

At this time the ground to the west must still have been open, and it was here that a large pit was excavated to take the base of a temporary furnace for heating the necessary materials for bell-casting. In the bottom of the pit was a circular base divided in four by a principal east-west flue and a narrower cross-flue. The size of the pit was such that it would have created a hazard after use, so was backfilled soon after, the fill including the remnants of 3 circular bell moulds. Bells being heavy and fragile objects, it made sense to cast them as near as possible to their intended final location, and the structure interpreted as a bell tower was only about 10m away. A bell of c.1300 still hangs in the present cathedral, and could be the remnant of a fullor part-peal cast here. Various small pits or post-holes were dug to the north and west of the bell-casting area, but no other relationship could be confirmed. A large pit immediately north of the bell-casting area included fragments of sub-rectangular brick-like objects that have been identified as flooring from a floor tile kiln. This was another process requiring an outdoor location, and again would have been most convenient if not too distant from the main abbey buildings.

O’Neill and Saunders both illustrated fifteenth or sixteenth century windows in the south elevation (Figs. 16-19). Windows of two different types sat between the large projecting chimney breast and the south entrance, the western one with two (quatrefoil-headed?) lights, the eastern a taller transomed single-light example with a similar head, both with heavy drip mouldings. Upstairs, but further east, were two Tudor-style mullioned windows, one with two square-headed lights, the other with three. There was a conventional pitched roof with west end gable, perhaps originally containing a large traceried window, similar to that inserted in the 1820s. Internally, the hall would have measured approximately 9m by 5.5m (29.5 x 18 feet), and may have been open to the roof timbers, displaying chamfered purlins and cusped windbraces. The undated painting of the interior as a refectory gives a possibly slightly fanciful interpretation (Fig. 23). No archaeological evidence remained to indicate if, or how, the lower storey of this block was divided, but the 1649 survey indicates that there were then two cellars occupying the space.

The fourteenth century saw the rebuilding of the west range of the cloister, containing the cellarium, with, as was common, an outer parlour at its northern end (although the original Norman northern end wall seems to have been retained in the rebuilding). As already noted, the original Norman construction appeared not to have been well designed, and it would not have been surprising if the long walls had pushed outwards over the intervening two centuries, particularly on the western side where there was no cloister walk to provide at least some bracing support. The replacement structure was erected in Old Red Sandstone (Devonian sandstone), which happens to outcrop at nearby Abbots Leigh, then one of the abbey manors. Buttresses were provided at regular intervals along the western wall, although none were noted on the opposite side of the building (where admittedly only a short length of wall was exposed during the excavation). No buttressing was provided at the northern end of the west wall, but instead there was a contemporary substantial stone base that projected out for about 3m and may have supported an outer porch. The bell tower of the previous century must have been removed, either at this time or earlier. A fourteenth-century doorway with two-centred head survives in what remains of the east wall of the range, and this may have been the cloister entrance to the outer parlour. A pair of short, parallel, east-west walls inside the range are thought to have supported stairs to the upper floor.

Within the cellarium, additional walling was erected around the existing pair of parallel walls, dividing up the space at that end. The proportions of their foundations suggest that these were full-height masonry walls rather than footings for timber partitions. These seem to have been the final works in this area of the abbey before the establishment was closed down in 1539 during the Dissolution. Creation of the new diocese of Bristol in 1542 saw the introduction of cathedral status for the site, bringing with it the need for accommodation for the various church officials. The Minster House site was chosen to be the residence of one of the six prebendaries, an office that was often held in plural with others, such that it was an official rather than a regular residence for some of the postholders. It was at this period that the area south of the hall is first known to have been partitioned off, diocesan officials probably demanding more privacy than those of the former abbey. A western wall was erected to create a garden area 78

Conclusions south of the house. Contemporary features cut within this area could have been associated with gardening activity. Drainage was also enhanced in this early post-Dissolution period. Perhaps the best known of the prebendaries was the geographer Richard Hakluyt (in post 1584-1616), although it is not certain if he ever took up residence in the building.

floor windows were retained at this time. The other big contemporary change on site at this time was that the old, seventeenth century, gabled kitchen block was rebuilt, and now extended all the way to the main Minster House range, presented as a two-storey block with plain pitched roof, with neo-Tudor windows in its western elevation. Back in the main house, the storey below the hall was lowered and a suspended wooden floor installed. Further alteration to the drainage system was undertaken during the nineteenth century. Before 1850, a two-storey extension was added between the main range and the kitchen wing.

The seventeenth century and the majority of the following century, up to c 1780, saw alterations within the main structure, but, perhaps more importantly, the addition of a gabled kitchen block in the western angle between Minster House and the old western claustral range. Consisting of only a single storey with a small attic, this was not a large structure, but it survived sufficiently long to be recorded in early nineteenth-century illustrations. This was probably the ‘kitchen with a loft over’ that was included in the description in the 1649 Parliamentary survey: the main room was provided with a large fireplace that was 2.75m/9 feet wide and 750mm/2½ feet deep, making such use likely. A lead pipe laid across the garden was probably associated with water supply to the kitchen. More traditional garden activities were also recorded, with various gullies or trenches excavated. A step or threshold immediately inside the northern end of the garden wall showed that there was already an entrance here; a small linear feature parallel to the main house may be evidence for edging to a flower bed. Minor walls were erected elsewhere in this period, together with minor improvements to the drainage. A larger drain was laid beneath the old medieval doorway in the east wall of the old cellarium range. Outside of the property, beyond the garden wall, stone drains were installed at the edge of the Lower Green to serve neighbouring residences.

Minster House narrowly escaped total demolition when the Victorian cathedral nave was erected, although it still had to endure truncation at its eastern end. The cathedral architect, G E Street, must have seen the historic importance of the building, even though it partially obscured his design for the western end and its twin towers. Street’s untimely death before completion of the new work proved to be fatal for Minster House, the new architect, J L Pearson, being determined to provide a fitting setting at that end of the cathedral, entailing removal of the remainder of Minster House, which was achieved early in 1883. All that would survive was a short stretch of the east wall of the cellarium, together with its doorway, in the north-west corner of the cloister. Fortunately for posterity, the demolition of Minster House stopped close to ground level, preserving not only the foundations but also shallow lengths of above-ground walling in places; only a small amount of salvaging of materials took place below this level. At the same time, Pearson’s scheme for lowering the area outside the cathedral great west door came to nothing. Some limited damage was caused by the excavation of a number of post-pits, arranged in rows and possibly associated with wooden stonemasons’ sheds erected for the final works to complete the western towers. Upon completion of the nave and towers, the area between the cathedral and the abbey gatehouse was turfed and laid with paths, defined to west and south by a masonry wall topped with railings. To the east, a low north-south wall included steps down into a new grassed area between the south-west tower and the lane leading into the cloister, the remains of the old cellarium wall being extended southwards to meet the lane. This then remained the situation, with only a few alterations such as the wartime removal of railings and the addition of trees or sculpture, until 1992.

From the late eighteenth century and until the final removal of the building in the early 1880s, there is extensive archaeological evidence, further enhanced by illustrative material, initially drawings and paintings, with the addition of photography later. At some point, date unknown, the mass of the west claustral range, or cellarium, was removed, although sections of walling were retained where they were integral to the remainder of the Minster House fabric. Two subterranean stone-built cess pits with vaulted roofs were inserted in what had been the north-west corner of the cellarium and west end of the outer parlour, probably both serving this property; a further pair on the northern edge of the site appear to have served premises fronting College Green. Externally-visible improvement works in the early 1820s were recorded in a pair of ‘before and after’ illustrations by Hugh O’Neill, dated 1821 and 1823 respectively (Figs. 16-17). In the west end gable of the fifteenth-century block, the first and second floor windows were replaced by a single tall traceried window, presumably salvaged from another local medieval building. The first-floor hall must have been reinstated at this time; a small quatrefoil ventilator was inserted much higher in the gable. O’Neill does record that the pair of segmental-headed ground 79

5 The Finds 5.1 The Pottery (Figs. 62-70)

present were sherds of BPT 46, a calcareous flint tempered fabric found throughout the Avon Valley and beyond and probably made in the Warminster area of West Wiltshire. BPT 46 accounted for some 27 per cent of Period 1 pottery and has been dated in Bristol to between 1150 and 1300, however, in Bath where it is designated Bath A it has been thought to start much earlier possibly in the eleventh century (Vince 1979), variants of Bath A were again considered to start in the eleventh century at Eckweek, Avon (Young forthcoming).

by Rod Burchill A little under 4,000 sherds of pottery were recovered during the course of the excavation. The material was quantified by sherd count only. This was considered a satisfactory method given the fragmentary nature of the pottery, making the assessment of vessel equivalents difficult, and the fact that the material represented only a sample of the ceramic potential of the cathedral site as a whole.

Period 2

The pottery was sorted by eye into broad fabric groups and then, using a hand lens (x10mag) where necessary, individual fabrics were identified by comparison to the Bristol Pottery Type Series (BPT). The Type Series has recently been reworked and upgraded by the writer for Bristol City Museum and still awaits full publication, however part of the Series will be published with the pottery report on the recent excavations at Welsh Back, Bristol (Burchill forthcoming). The original type series has been partially described in several papers e.g., Good and Russett 1987; Ponsford and Price 1979b and 1979c; Ponsford 1988; Ponsford 1991. Ponsford published a version of his original type series in his report on the pottery from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Bristol (Price and Ponsford 1998), however Ponsford has included type numbers no longer included in the Bristol Museum Type Series.

Period 2 pottery was comprised mostly of green glazed jugs (85 per cent) with few coarse wares being present. Bristol/Redcliffe jugs (BPT 118) which start around 1250 or perhaps a little earlier make an appearance, however, they are numerically outweighed by Ham Green vessels mostly of B type (BPT 27). A single sherd in a poorly glazed quartz gritted fabric (BPT 121) probably dates between 1300 and 1350, this fabric is thought to have been produced in South Gloucestershire possibly near Thornbury where it is quite common (Ponsford 1998). Of particular interest in this group is the presence of a vessel in a very coarse fabric containing quite large stone fragments (up to 4mm). This fabric is very similar to BPT 49 that has previously only been identified at Bristol Castle (Ponsford 1979a) and dated there to the twelfth century. The first imported wares make their appearance in this period: a (?) jar lid in a green glazed quartz gritted Normandy ware (Fig.62.2), this fabric (BPT 239) first arrives in south-west England soon after 1200 (Allan 1984)]; and two sherds of South-west French green glazed jugs (BPT 156 and 157) both were produced in the area around Saints and are believed to have arrived in the Bristol area with cargoes of wine from the Gironde (Burchill, forthcoming). BPT 156 can be dated between 1250 and 1350 whilst the similar but grittier BPT 157 might be a little earlier.

The Assemblage Period 1 The pottery of this period was dominated by products of the Ham Green kilns that accounted for some 70 per cent of the pottery recovered from Period 1 contexts. Green glazed jugs of Ham Green A type (BPT 26) were the most common type present (55 per cent of the total Period 1 assemblage) along with cookpots in both the common iron rich fabric (BPT 32) and the coarser BPT 114. The A jugs have been shown to start sometime around 1120 or soon after (Ponsford 1991) and are replaced by the B form after c 1170. Type 114 cookpots are restricted to the twelfth century but the more common Type 32 start in the second quarter of the twelfth century continuing in production up to the end of the thirteenth century. No chronology for the Type 32 cookpots has yet been devised, however the Period 1 vessels would appear to be early. This group also included two sherds in the Ham Green B fabric BPT 27 that could date to after 1200 as could two sherds of a probable Malvernian cookpot fabric, Vince’s Fabric B1 (Vince 1985a), a very rare type for Bristol. Also

Period 3 Pottery associated with this period was mostly common medieval wares typical of those found throughout the area. Ham Green wares still accounted for 25 per cent of this group, however they are residual by this date. The output of the Bristol/Redcliffe kilns including the later BPT 120, BPT 123 and the post-1350 BPT 118L totalled some 61 per cent of Period 3 pottery. The standard Bristol/Redcliffe jugs (BPT 118) was the most common pottery type present at 55 per cent: the material covered the full date range for this type, however most were from highly decorated 81

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 62. Pottery, Periods 1 & 2 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Fig. 63. Pottery, Period 3 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

82

The Finds vessels suggesting a date at the very end of the thirteenth century or the early decades of the fourteenth century for their production.

(BPT 287), and from the Iberian Peninsula Meridatype ware, (BPT 282) were now appearing in small numbers.

A post-1300 date is also provided by the presence of wheel thrown vessels in the North-west Wiltshire lime tempered fabric BPT 84, the South Gloucestershire fabric BPT 121, a particularly fine Redcliffe fabric BPT 120 and a pink sandy fabric tempered with rose quartz (BPT 254) and attributed by Ponsford to Redcliffe. This fabric is very different to the usual Redcliffe fabrics and in the opinion of the writer a Somerset origin for this material cannot be ruled-out. The group also included six sherds, probably all from one vessel, of Complex Rouletted ware (BPT 153) – these vessels were produced in the Gloucester/Worcester area and the Monnow Valley.

Period 4b Some 56 per cent of Period 4b pottery was residual. Of the remainder Malvernian wares were still the most common, however, the number of Somerset made vessels was by this time increasing. Wanstrow wares (BPT 96) (Good 1987, Good and Russett 1988) were the most common along with the products of the Nether Stowey kilns (BPT 280) (Good 1987, Good and Russett 1988). Donyatt vessels (BPT 268) (Coleman-Smith and Pearson 1988) whilst present were few in number. Imports from south-west France had now all but ceased and the focus for pottery traded into Bristol was by now centred on northern Europe. The Period 4b assemblage included vessels from Raeren in the Rhineland and sherds of at least two Martincamp flask – Hurst Type 1 (Hurst et al 1986) (BPT 307). Merida-type ware (BPT 282), a micaceous red ware from the Spanish/Portuguese border, was present in a small but significant number. This fabric was very common in the sixteenth century and is found on most if not all Bristol sites of this date.

Three sherds in a Donyatt medieval fabric (BPT 124) from Context OP were unusual. Donyatt medieval wares are rare on Bristol sites, a good example was found at St Thomas Street (Burchill 1989) and another at Water Lane (Burchill 1992) with other examples at Welsh Back (Burchill forthcoming) and St Bartholomew’s (Ponsford 1998), however the northward distribution of these wares generally stops short of the town. Two sherds in the Malvernian red fired fabric BPT 197 date to after 1400 and are probably intrusive in these contexts.

Of particular interest are eleven sherds in a hard, off-white sandy fabric (BPT 290), this is unusual but is probably a local product. Unusual on a Bristol site was the presence of a sherd of North Italian tin-glaze, a Ligurian Blue on Blue (BPT 107a) (Fig.65.26).

Period 4a The pottery from this Period consisted of late medieval wares mostly typical of those found throughout the town. Bristol/Redcliffe ware (BPT 118) still accounted for 25 per cent of the pottery in this group although most if not all were by now residual. If all the BPT 118 sherds are considered to be residual then residual material accounts for 51 per cent of Period 4a pottery.

A single sherd of North Devon Gravel Tempered ware (BPT 112) in Context MQ was probably intrusive as production of this type does not appear to start until c 1600. Periods 5a, 5b and 6

Malvern wares (Vince 1977) which are considered to arrive in Bristol around 1400 or soon after (Ponsford 1988) form some 21 per cent of the Period 4a assemblage. Ponsford has discussed the types of Malvernian vessels that were imported into Bristol where they achieved market dominance for the next century and a half (Ponsford 1988). The Period 4a assemblage also included a small number of Tudor Green wares (BPT 182) as described by Holling (1977), these were certainly in use in the town by the 1420s but appeared not to be traded after 1500 (Ponsford 1988). Seven sherds from black-glazed cups of Falfield origin (BPT 266) (Fowler and Bennett 1974) are sixteenth century in date. The assemblage also included a small number of Somerset red wares (BPT 96, 268 and 280) although none of these can be earlier than the midsixteenth century.

The pottery from these three periods was very similar. All three periods contained significant quantities of residual material at around half of the total sherds. Pottery from Period 5a was typical for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Somerset wares were still very common in Period 5a, although Malvernian vessels were now few in number. On sites elsewhere in the town North Devon vessels were becoming common by the midseventeenth century, however at Minster House only six sherds in the Gravel Tempered fabric BPT 112 and a single sherd of a slip and sgraffito decorated dish (BPT 108) were recovered from Period 5a contexts. By the middle of the seventeenth century English tinglazed earthenware (BPT 99) began to make its appearance rising to a peak in the first half of the eighteenth century. Whilst much of the excavated tin-glazed ware could not be sourced with any accuracy most of the identifiable material appeared to be of local, Bristol, manufacture. Beyond the material already mentioned little else could be attributed

The source of imported material had by this time begun to change. The plainer sparsely glazed South-west French ware (BPT 160) was still present, however imports from the Rhineland including Frechen (BPT 286) and Raeren 83

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 64. Pottery, Period 4a © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Fig. 65. Pottery, Period 4b © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

84

The Finds to the seventeenth century with any degree of accuracy, however, some examples of yellow slipware (BPT 100 and BPT 101) might be of that date.

Period 6 pottery could not be distinguished from that in Period 5b and a number of sherds from Period 5b and 6 contexts could be joined.

By the early eighteenth century the pottery was dominated by the products of the Bristol and Staffordshire industries with tin-glazed earthenware and yellow slip ware alongside local brown stoneware (BPT 277) and white salt glaze stoneware (BPT 186). Other local wares included Tiger ware (BPT 211), local white wares (BPT 202) and red ware of indeterminate origin but mostly local (BPT 201 and BPT 264).

Discussion The pottery from Minster House was with few exceptions typical of that found throughout the Bristol area. The ratio of glazed vessels to coarse -wares was very high throughout the history of the site. This is to be expected from the late medieval period onwards when metal cauldrons replace ceramic vessels for cooking in almost all households, however at Minster House the low numbers of coarse-wares in early contexts would suggest that the abbey used metal cooking vessels from an early date.

Period 5a also included a number of imports including vessels from Raeren (BPT 287) and Cologne (BPT 286) in the Rhineland, sherds of South (BPT 344a) and North (BPT 344b) Netherlands Maiolica and a fragment of a rare North Italian Marbled slipware costrel (BPT 82): marbled slipware is made at a number of centres in northern Italy including Pisa from where the present sherd probably originated. Period 5a also included sherds of Spanish oil jar (BPT81) and the ubiquitous Merida ware (BPT 282) along with sherds from a plate in the so-called Columbia Plain style (BPT 333c). Spanish fine wares form a background noise on most Bristol sites but are usually few in number. They are not thought to have been traded in any quantity but to have arrived in the town as souvenirs of Bristol’s links with Spain (Ponsford and Burchill 1996).

Throughout the twelfth and early thirteenth century the assemblage is dominated by the products of the Ham Green kilns which gave way to Bristol/Redcliffe wares in the later thirteenth and fourteenth century. Malvern wares, which dominate the ceramics of the town in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century, are important at Minster House but do not achieve the dominance found elsewhere. Somerset wares that replaced the Malvernian products throughout Bristol in the late sixteenth and seventeenth century (Good 1987, Burchill 1989) are common and include significant numbers of Donyatt vessels which are normally scarce in the town. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the range of pottery in use is very broad with many fine examples of the pottery of the period.

Of special interest, but residual in these contexts, was a green glazed straight-sided pedestal cup (Fig.67.41). The vessel is decorated with a pimpled iron-rich contrast strip (BPT 274). Stylistically the vessel probably dates from the fifteenth century. At x30 magnification the fabric would appear to be comparable to the later Wanstrow fabric of the late-sixteenth and seventeenth century (BPT 96).

Although limited in quantity the range of imports is higher than on the typical Bristol town site. The imports include the usual products of medieval France along with post-medieval wares from France, Northern Italy and the Netherlands. Stoneware from the Rhineland occurs in limited numbers. The largest group of Germanic stoneware being comprised of the late-fifteenth century products of the Raeren kilns. With the exception of the ubiquitous Merida type ware Spanish vessels are rare.

Pottery from Period 5b could be distinguished from that in 5a by the presence of Creamware (BPT 326) and Transfer Printed wares (BPT 278) and modern stoneware of post-1835 date (BPT 200). Residual in this group were sherds in a slip-decorated fabric similar to Metropolitan slipware (BPT 109) and dated between 1650 and 1750 and sherds in the somewhat rare (for Bristol) Somerset fabric produced at Wrangway (BPT 334). Period 5b also included examples of biscuit fired `delft’ fabric: the source of this waste material is uncertain but some forms suggest that it may have come from the nearby Limekiln Lane Pottery (Jackson et al 1991). The assemblage also included a particularly fine Toft Ware charger or flanged dish (Fig.68.48). Thomas Toft and his brother Ralph were working in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in the second half of the seventeenth century with the peak of the quality dated production occurring between 1671 and 1689.

Of particular interest in Context CH are the sherds of a straight-sided pedestal cup in what appears to be an East Somerset (Wanstrow) fabric. Unfortunately, the sherds were residual in this context. The form and decoration suggest a date for its manufacture sometime in the fifteenth century. If the fabric is East Somerset and the suggested date correct then this vessel clearly predates the known products of that kiln. Similar vessels have been found at Rackhay, Bristol (Burchill pers. observ) and Welsh Back, Bristol (Burchill forthcoming). In general, the pottery recovered from Minster House is of a higher quality than that found on the typical domestic site within the town and the range of imports wide. The high level of residual material is much as would be expected for an area subjected to a long sequence of building activity.

Imports in this period were similar to those in Period 5a with the addition of vessels from the Westerwald in the Rhineland (BPT 95) and a sixteenth century chafing dish from south-west France (BPT 232).

85

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 66. Pottery, Period 5a © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

86

The Finds

Fig. 67. Pottery, Period 5a (contd) © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

87

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 68. Pottery, Period 5b © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

88

The Finds

Fig. 69. Pottery, Period 5b (contd) © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

89

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 70. Pottery, Period 6 © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Catalogue of Illustrated Material

BPT 239  Context SP  Thirteenth century

The illustrated pottery accompanying this catalogue has been listed by the context period from which it was recovered. Pottery known or thought to be residual in these contexts but of intrinsic interest has been indicated by *.

3. Jug rim with simple pulled spout. Stacking scars on rim top. Fabric is very hard fired and glaze burnt. Probably Bristol. No BPT  Context QO  (?) Thirteenth century

Period 1

BPT 32  Context SB  Twelfth century

4. Slightly everted cookpot rim in a coarse quartz gritted fabric, externally folded and decorated externally with twin wavy comb, single wavy groove to rim top and a simple groove under internal rim edge. Ham Green.

Period 2

BPT 114  Context OQ  Twelfth century

2. Lid fragment in a quartz gritted buff-white fabric with external green glaze. Normandy.

5. Rim of a cookpot in a partially reduced fabric containing common large lumps of rock up to 4mm,

1. Jar or cookpot rim with thumbed external bead. Ham Green

90

The Finds common rounded quartz, small fragments of chert and other dark grits.

16. Unglazed jug rim. Fine buff fabric. South-west France BPT 160  Context QQ  Late-fourteenth/fifteenth century

BPT 49  Context OQ  Twelfth century

17. Simple rim with external bevel and overall green glaze. Buff-white fabric containing quartz, unhomogenised clay pellets and dark grits. Probably Bristol on fabric grounds but very odd form.

Period 3 6. Jug rim in a hard, micaceous pale grey fabric. Decorated with “rope effect applied strip and grooving under a thick green glaze. Probably France

(?) BPT 118  Context PN  (?) Fourteenth century

BPT 192  Context RY  Twelfth century *

18. Jar with slightly splayed base. Poor brown glaze. Malvern.

1. 7. Rim and handle eave from a jug with external green glaze. The flared rim is typical of the early Ham Green jugs. Ham Green.

BPT 197  Context PJ  Sixteenth century 19. Pancheon rim with internal fold. Malvern

BPT 26  Context PA  1120s-1160s *

BPT 197  Context QM  Fifteenth/early-sixteenth century

1. 8. Rim and handle of a jug with thin patchy green glaze. Bristol/Redcliffe.

Period 4b

BPT 118L  Context NV  1350-1500

20. Tubular spout (bunghole) with pierced decoration and yellow-amber glaze. Somerset (possibly Wrangway).

9. Cookpot rim with external bead. West Wiltshire.

BPT 334  Context RB  Late-sixteenth century

BPT 46  Context NV  Late-twelfth century * 10. Rim of a (?) conical jar. Unusual form. Ham Green.

21. Stoneware drinking jug with figure decoration. Cologne. Small Find 166.

BPT 32  Context PK  Late-twelfth/thirteenth century *

BPT 286  Context NA  Mid-sixteenth century

11. Simple everted cookpot rim. Ham Green.

22. Rolled back rim of a dish or bowl. Merida-type ware.

BPT 32  Context PK  Twelfth/thirteenth century

BPT 282  Context NF  Sixteenth century

Period 4a

23. Rim of a small bowl with deep neck groove. Meridatype ware.

12. Everted rim of a cookpot. The rim is grooved internally. External surfaces show the effects of heating. Ham Green.

BPT 282  Context NA  Late-sixteenth century 24. Profile of a shallow dish or plate with thin green-amber glaze and white trailed slip decoration. Donyatt.

BPT 114  Context QM  Twelfth century * 13. Chafing dish with `cut-out’ bowl and simple lug supports. Brown glazed internally with splashes over external surface. Malvern.

BPT 268  Context PO  Late-sixteenth century 25. Rim and handle of a stoneware drinking jug. Brown speckled grey glaze. Raeren.

BPT 197  Context QM  Fifteenth/sixteenth century

BPT 287  Context MF  1475-1550.

14. Unglazed pancheon. Malvern.

26. Part of a dish. Fine buff fabric with Blue-on-Blue decorated all-over tin-glaze. Liguria (North Italy).

BPT 197  Context QM  Fifteenth century 15. Internally bevelled rim of a bowl or jar in an unglazed pinkish fabric containing rounded quartz, sparse iron ores and mica. French.

BPT 107a  Context JH  1575-1625 *

(?) BPT 160  Context PN  Late-fourteenth/fifteenth century

27. Neck of unglazed flask in a white-buff fabric with buff surfaces. Martincamp (Hurst Type 1).

Period 5a

91

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 BPT 307  Context KM  Late-fifteenth/early-sixteenth century

39. Dish rim with broad wavy groove on flange. Olivegreen internal glaze. Nether Stowey.

28. Base of cistern with figure decoration around spigothole. Malvern.

BPT 280  Context HW  Seventeenth century

BPT 197  Context LZ  Sixteenth century

40. Pierced base of a small white salt-glaze bowl. A strainer.

29. Base of chafing dish with `cut-outs’. Malvern.

BPT 186  Context EJ  Eighteenth century

BPT 197  Context FK  Sixteenth century

41. Green glazed straight-sided pedestal cup with brown contrast strip decoration. The fabric and glaze appear to be the same as BPT 96 (Wanstrow) but the form is much earlier than the known products of that kiln. East Somerset.

30. Bowl with externally rounded rim and carinated body. Thick olive-green internal glaze. North Devon. BPT 112  Context GN  Seventeenth century

BPT 274  Context CH  (?) Fifteenth century *

31. Lid with crude concentric grooves under rough green glaze. Bristol/Redcliffe.

42. Chamberpot. Slip decorated externally, good green glaze. Wanstrow.

BPT 118  Context KM  Early-fourteenth century *

BPT 96 Context century

32. Tubular spout with wrap-around support. Rare pitcher form. Ham Green.

GS Late-seventeenth/eighteenth

BPT 26  Context HA  Early-twelfth century *

43. Bowl or cup in a pink-buff fabric containing sparse red iron-ores and rare dark grits. Thin green internal glaze. Possibly Coarse Border Ware.

33. Base of a small bowl. Merida-type ware.

BPT 342  Context HW  Fifteenth century *

BPT 282 Context century

44. Bowl or pancheon with internal green stained amber glaze. Wanstrow.

GO Sixteenth/early-seventeenth

BPT 96  Context HW  Seventeenth century

34. Shallow dish with rolled-out rim decorated along rim edge with thumb-nail impressions. Probably Donyatt.

45. Splayed base in an unglazed buff-pink fabric containing mica, red iron ore and rare limestone. The base has an upward kick, however the form is unclear. Probable import from continental Europe.

BPT268  Context HW  Seventeenth century 35. Flanged rim shallow dish with all-over tin-glaze. Rim is decorated with four cobalt (blue) lines. Central stylised flora motif. English.

No BPT  Context OV 46. Base of a jug or vase in a fine buff fabric with a white overall tin-glaze, decorated above the foot with a blue band. Probably Netherlands.

BPT 99  Context HV  Eighteenth century 36. Dish in a lead (green) glazed iron rich fabric decorated with wavy groove to rim flange. Nether Stowey.

BPT 344  Context HB  Sixteenth century

BPT 280  Context HV  Seventeenth century

Period 5b

37. Squat drug jar. Red-pink fabric with all over white tinglaze. Decorated with blue ring and dots and orange swirls.

47. Rim. All-over tin-glaze on a fine buff fabric externally decorated with dark blue groove with `sponged’ paleblue below. Netherlands.

(?) Anglo-Dutch.  Context HW  Eighteenth century

BPT 344  Context LM  Late-sixteenth century

38. Encrusted cup. Black-glazed globular cup decorated with crushed quartz applied before glazing. Donyatt.

48. Toft Ware charger. Triple slipped in white (yellow) pale and dark brown.

BPT 269  Context OX  Mid-seventeenth century

No BPT  Context BP  Seventeenth century 92

The Finds 49. Rim with lid seating. Green-brown internal glaze. North Devon (Gravel Free fabric).

60. Shallow bowl or saucer. Blue tinted all over tin-glaze with dark-blue flora decoration. English.

BPT 112 Context century

BPT 99  Context OE  Eighteenth century

BE Late-seventeenth/eighteenth

61. Double handled slip-decorated bowl. Bristol.

50. Crude anthropomorphic head. Micaceous buff fabric with rare quartz. Lustrous green glaze. South-west France. Small Find 180.

BPT 100  Context CZ  Eighteenth century 62. Receiving jar (chemical vessel). Unglazed with thumb decoration to body.

BPT 40  Context HC  1280-1320 *

BPT 336  Context DF  Eighteenth century

51. Fragment of an embossed medallion decoration. Blue on grey glaze. Westerwald.

63. Rim of a large side handled pancheon with thumbed decoration. Internal thick green glaze. North Devon.

BPT 95  Context GB  Eighteenth century

BPT 112  Context EW  Seventeenth/eighteenth century

52. Rim and handle of a pipkin with internal amber glaze. North Devon.

64. Bowl. Tin-glazed with blue decoration in the Chinese style. Bristol.

BPT 112  Context HY  Seventeenth/early-eighteenth century

BPT 99  Context OE  Eighteenth century

53. Lion-head decoration from a chafing dish. Yellow and green glaze. South-west France.

65. Bifid rim of a (?) chemical vessel in a buff fabric containing clear and rose quartz sand. Clear (yellow) internal lead glaze. Heavily sooted externally.

BPT 232  Context BN  Sixteenth century *

No BPT  Context GD

54. Worcester porcelain bowl with blue and white decoration.

66. Lid. Glossy green glaze. Somerset.

BPT 203  Context DV  Eighteenth century

BPT 285  Context ER  Seventeenth/eighteenth century

55. Jug rim with simple pouring lip. Patchy green glaze. South Gloucestershire.

67. Bifid rim of a bowl. Internal thick green glaze. North Devon.

BPT 121  Context HQ  1300-1350 *

BPT 112  Context ER  Seventeenth/eighteenth century

56. Profile of a shallow dish. Brown glazed internally with a splash of copper-stained slip on the base. Nether Stowey.

68. Bowl with incurved rim. Internal thick brown glaze. North Devon. BPT 112  Context OE  Eighteenth century

BPT 280  Context CZ  Seventeenth century

69. Small skillet with clear lead glaze. Donyatt.

57. Bowl. Lead glazed over copper-stained slip. Sgraffito decoration on rim. Nether Stowey.

BPT 268  Context DC  Seventeenth century *

BPT 280  Context CZ  Seventeenth century

70. Stoneware vessel of unknown form with speckled brown glaze. English (probably Bristol).

58. Dish or shallow bowl with internal trailed slip decoration under a clear lead glaze. Wanstrow.

BPT 277  Context DA  Eighteenth century

BPT 96 Context century

Period 6

DV Late-seventeenth/eighteenth

59. Small bowl. Biscuit fired only. Bristol

71. Neck and pierced lug handle of a small bottle-costrel. This form had two opposed handles. Green glaze. Wanstrow.

BPT 99  Context CZ  Eighteenth century

BPT 96  Context AD  Late-sixteenth/seventeenth century * 93

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 72. Shallow vessel with square edged rim and patchy green internal glaze. The vessel has been knife trimmed externally. Some heat damage below rim. Nether Stowey.

A single small sherd found during the site evaluation is similar to Kraak ware, a rather coarse porcelain with decoration within ornate panels, made during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Hardie suggested a date of around 1600 for this vessel, although Barry thought the glossy glaze might suggest a later date.

BPT 280  Context BE/FN  Seventeenth century * 73. Decorated plate rim. White salt-glaze stoneware. Bristol.

Three vessels in an under-glaze blue soft paste porcelain are probably English (Worcester). They were not considered as part of this report.

BPT 186  Context AP/BP/CR  Eighteenth century 74. Complete stoneware bottle. Stamped `Lipscombe & Co Chesterfield’.

Catalogue of Chinese Porcelain

BPT 200  Context WJ  Nineteenth century

1. Rim of plate with wide `condiment rim’, underglaze blue diamond diaper border and chrysanthemum on interior, plants on exterior, brown rim edge. Symbolism: chrysanthemum:- emblem of Autumn, joviality, life of ease and retirement mid eighteenth century.

75. Chamber pot. Blue on white ground with crown and `GR’ decoration. BPT 202 Context nineteenth century

AQ/NY/OJ Eighteenth/early

Context AA, (Fig. 71.1)

76. Small ointment pot with blue tinted tin-glaze. Bristol.

2. Rim of bowl slightly indented, underglaze blue diaper border on interior, border of double row solid hexagons on exterior

BPT 99  Context ND  Eighteenth century 77. Tin-glazed candlestick. Pale-blue decoration on a dark-cobalt ground. Bristol.

Context AC

BPT 99  Context AL/AN  Eighteenth century

3. Rim of rounded vessel, underglaze blue diamond diaper border with cartouche, grass below, brown rim edge

5.2 Chinese Porcelain The following report by Rod Burchill is based on notes prepared by Peter Hardie, former Curator of Oriental Art, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. The catalogue was written by Jennifer Barry.

Context AL 4. Bowl, underglaze blue plant scroll and chrysanthemum below rim on interior, sketchy plant tendrils and flowers on exterior

Most of the vessels are in under-glaze blue (u-g b) painted porcelain from Jing De-zhen in Jangxi Provence and is of typical eighteenth-century export types which, in incomplete pieces, are difficult to date precisely.

Context AP, (Fig. 71.2) 5. Rim of plate or dish, underglaze blue ruyi lappets or cloud collar motif below rim on interior. Symbolism: ruyi:- sceptre

Chinese under-glaze blue porcelain produced for export developed from Chinese forms and decoration to wares more in keeping with the tastes of its European buyers. Two vessels which have marks within double rings can be associated with the Kang XI reign (1662-1721).

Context AP, (Fig. 71.3) 6. Fragment of rounded vessel, underglaze blue pine needles on exterior.

The more vitreous porcelain of Dehn in Fujian Provence (the so called blanc de Chine) was here represented by a single vessel.

Context BH 7. Wall of large rounded vessel, possibly storage jar or bowl, underglaze blue boat on lake with rocky landscape. Degraded glaze and chalky encrustations

The relative paucity of the enamelled ware (Chinese Imari), a common down-market ware of c 1725-65 is perhaps surprising. The type is represented by just four vessels, less than 10 per cent of the assemblage.

Context BO

Early eighteenth century famille vert is represented by a single vessel whilst the full polychrome famille rose popular after 1721/2 is conspicuous by its absence.

8. Wall of thick rounded vessel, underglaze blue with overglaze red and gold enamel, slightly ribbed, Chinese Imari, (?) eighteenth century (PH) 94

The Finds

Fig. 71. Chinese porcelain © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

95

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Context BV

18. Rim and small body sherd, underglaze blue flower. (?) eighteenth century (PH)

9. Base of bowl, central underglaze blue lake scene on interior, leaf base mark within 2 circles. Possibly seventeenth century (PH).

Context JL 19. Body sherd fragment, underglaze blue scroll and landscape

Context DA, (Fig. 71.4)

Context JS

10. Base and rim of dinner plate, underglaze blue lotus on `condiment rim’ interior, sketchy brush stroke exterior, brown rim edge, deep cavetto, European shape. Mideighteenth century?

20. Fragment, underglaze blue decoration Context JS 21. Base and fragments of two dishes, very fine white body, underglaze blue flowers plus aster (?) in panel, scrolling rim border on one

Context DQ 11. Rim of very fine saucer, underglaze blue fence and plant on int. Diameter 12.5cm approx.

Context KL

Context DV

22. Base of tea cup, underglaze blue grass and three ducks on exterior, central grass or twigs within single circle on interior. Symbolism: ducks:- emblem of felicity, happy marriage.

12. Base of saucer, overglaze flower and grain head in red, two greens, brown, black, yellow. Possibly famille verte but enamels somewhat opaque, as in famille rose, maybe due to deposit contamination. Underglaze blue edge of rectangular base mark within two circles. Early eighteenth century if famille verte.

Context KX, (Fig. 71.6) 23. Rim of bowl, under-glaze blue grapes and leaves at rim, prunus below. Eighteenth century?

Context DV, (Fig. 71.5)

Symbolism: prunus:independence, Winter.

13. Base of tea cup, underglaze blue plants with overglaze red enamel, no gold, ribbed, greenish tinge to glaze, (?) eighteenth century (PH)

emblem

of

beauty,

sturdy

Context KX, (Fig. 71.7)

Context DV/DY

24. Base of plate? underglaze blue cloud scroll and landscape interior.

14. Base and part wall of tea cup, underglaze blue large well-drawn leaves, plantain or Chinese cabbage, on exterior surface

Context ML 25. Body sherd, undecorated

Base of plate, underglaze blue fine hatched line

Context NC

Context GS

Base of tea cup, underglaze blue floral decoration with traces of overglaze red and gold, possibly mid-eighteenth century Chinese Imari

26. Base of bowl, underglaze blue base mark of horn/ cornucopia (PH) or fish within two circles, central solid flower head within two circles on interior surface. Early eighteenth century (PH) N.B. double fish base mark known on coarse blue and white wares from Minnan kilns, Fujian Province.

Context HF

Context ND, (Fig. 71.8)

16. Fragment, underglaze blue decoration

27. Rim of plate, underglaze blue diamond diaper border on interior.

15. Rim of tea cup, underglaze blue, brown rim edge

Context HG

Context NY

17. Rim of bowl, underglaze blue diamond diaper border, interior surface. Diameter approx. 11 cm.

28. Tea cup, underglaze blue water plants on exterior surface, single circles at rim and base of cavetto on interior. Height 4.5 cm. Diameter 7 cm. approx.

Context HW 96

The Finds Context NY

5.3 Ceramic Roof Tile

29. Saucer, underglaze blue diaper border, central willow tree and large plant on interior surface.

By Rod Burchill This report was prepared from information compiled by Eric Boore assisted by three student volunteers.

Height 2.5 cm. Symbolism: willow:- Buddhist symbol of meekness, emblem of women, sign of beauty, suppleness and frailty.

The tile had been sorted into flat tile and ridge tile. Only the ridge tile had been quantified – by sherd count. The fabric had been assigned to a site-specific type series: flat tiles A – G and ridge tiles 1 and 2. Samples of each flat tile fabric and all ridge tile sherds were examined by the writer and re-assigned to the Bristol Roof Tile Fabric series [BRF] (Williams and Ponsford 1988, Burchill 2006, 132-33).

Context OE, (Fig. 71.9) 30. Sherds of saucer, underglaze blue garden fence. Context OE

Ceramic tiles date from at least the early thirteenth century, they were certainly in use in London by 1212 when they occurred in a list of permitted roof coverings; but seem only to have come into general use in southern England during the mid-thirteenth century (Dury 1981).

31. Base of tea cup, underglaze blue swastika garden fence. Symbolism: swastika:- Buddhist symbol. Context OE 32. Base of bowl, underglaze blue, overglaze red and gold enamel, bamboo (?) on exterior, Chinese Imari.

35. Two fragments underglaze blue flowers

Little work has been undertaken on the use of ceramic tile in Bristol where clay tiles were in competition with slate and stone roof coverings and in the early medieval period wooden shingles. The earliest Bristol ceramic tiles, all apparently ridge tile, probably date from the mid to late-thirteenth century: no tile is known in Ham Green fabrics. By the mid-fourteenth century the use of ceramic ridge tile had become more widespread throughout the area, however, the lack of evidence for flat tile in the archaeological record suggested that flat tile was not common in Bristol, probably not coming into use much before the late-fifteenth or sixteenth century (Williams and Ponsford 1988, Burchill forthcoming). Both blue slate and stone tile is very common on medieval and early postmedieval Bristol sites and the ready availability of these materials probably reduced the demand for ceramic flat tile.

Context OE

Ridge Tile

Sherds from the Site Evaluation Trenches

The assemblage included 82 sherds of ceramic ridge tile. The material ranged in date from the late thirteenth/ fourteenth century to the seventeenth century.

Context OE 33. Rim and wall of tea cup, underglaze blue rim border on interior, magnolia (?) flower panels with pavilion in landscape on exterior, fine pencil-like drawing technique plus dots. Context OE, (Fig. 71.10) 34. Rim of tea cup, underglaze blue willow branches pendant from rim Context OE, (Fig. 71.11)

36. Body sherd, underglaze blue decoration on both surfaces, floral motif within panel on interior similar to seventeenth century Kraak ware but with very glossy glaze and pale body, might be of later date.

Fabrics BRF1 (29 per cent), BRF2 (22 per cent) and BRF9 (28 per cent) dominated the assemblage. Glazed tiles of later fifteenth and sixteenth century date were poorly represented. The assemblage included a single ridge sherd in Malvernian fabric (BRF7) and two sherds in BRF6. Both fabrics which occurred in large numbers as flat tiles.

Context AC (Ev), (Fig. 71.12) 37. Cavetto of deep plate or soup dish, underglaze blue spikey cloud border, typical of mid to late eighteenth century export ware dinner service

None of the roof tile from the Minster House excavations could be associated with any particular building.

Context AB (Ev)

Flat Tile The archaeological record suggests that flat tiles were not common in Bristol perhaps losing out to the much lighter slate. The only previous significant find of flat roof tile 97

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Roof Tile Fabric Types Present

was from the excavations at 94-102 Temple Street, Bristol (Williams and Ponsford 1988). This material BRF6 included wasters and probable kiln lining suggesting they were made on site rather than being the products of an established industry. A small number of flat tiles in BRF6 were found at Welsh Back, Bristol in 1995 (Burchill forthcoming).

Only those rooftile types recovered from Minster House are listed here. A full description of the Bristol Roof Tile Fabric Series (BRF) will be found elsewhere (Burchill 2006, 132-33). The present BRF series is based on the series published for 94-102 Temple Street, Bristol (Williams and Ponsford 1988).

The Minster House tiles included a fabric similar to BRF6 (Boore’s fabric type A and B). The tiles were rectangular with two sub-circular peg holes at the top of the tile, they averaged 370mm x 230mm x 160mm in size. The lower half of the tiles had a yellow green lead glaze (Fig.72.1). The tiles had been sanded on the reverse. A number of tiles exhibited the impressions of footprints of both animals and birds, presumably the result of drying the tiles in the open air (Fig.72.2). A report on these impressions is included in archive. A number of tiles of this type were found in 14th century contexts (Period 3): noticeably earlier than the Temple Street examples which were dated to the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

(R) ridge tile, (F) flat tile BRF1 Fabric, variable in colour, containing lumps of unhomogenised clay up to 4-6mm. Crests are knife cut, simple knife stabs to sides. Green glaze. Bristol/ Redcliffe fourteenth century. (R) BRF2 Grey/black fabric with large inclusions of coal measure shale. Crests lower than BRF1 and stabbed with pointed tool. Green glaze. Bristol/Redcliffe fourteenth century. (R) BRF4 Dark fabric with abundant white quartz fragments. Crests similar to BRF2. Occasionally decorated with thumbed strips. Green glaze. Bristol late-thirteenth/ fourteenth century. (R)

The majority of flat tiles were in a Malvernian fabric (Vince 1977), BRF7 (Boore’s fabrics C and D). These differ in their method of fixing to BRF6 tiles being nibbed for suspension from battens. Malvernian ridge tiles in a similar but coarser fabric compared to Malvernian pottery first appear in the fourteenth and fifteenth century with production increasing in the succeeding two centuries. The flat tiles are probably a sixteenth century product (Vince 1985b). In Bristol Malvernian roof tiles are less common than the pottery and those thus far recorded have been mostly ridge tile.

BRF5 Bristol fabric with no distinct inclusions. Low knife cut crests. Green glaze. fourteenth century. (R) BRF6 Dark pink to light red fabric, sometimes dark red due to iron rich fragments. Sometimes reduced core. Partial yellow-green glaze. Mostly flat tiles, ridge tiles are rare. Local manufacture. (R) (F)

A third, often over-fired, red fabric was tempered with quartz and quartzitic sandstone (Boore’s fabric E). Ridge tiles in a somewhat similar quartz gritted red-fired fabric were recognised at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Bristol where it was recorded as BRF8 (Ponsford 1997). However, Ponsford had previously issued this type number to rooftile in Northwest Wiltshire lime gritted fabric [Minety type] (Williams and Ponsford 1988). The Minster House material has now been assigned to BRF18. No complete tiles were found, but they were nibbed in the manner of the Malvernian tiles. There was insufficient evidence to date this type, however, Boore thought them to be seventeenth century.

BRF7 Malvernian tiles as described by Vince (1977). (R) (F) BRF9 Fabric similar to BRF2 of which it is a variant with much smaller coal measure shale and quartz up to 3mm. Knife-cut crests, tiles decorated with thumbed strips. Green glaze. Bristol/Redcliffe fourteenth century. (R) BRF10 Fairly hard orange/brown fabric, poorly mixed containing unhomogenised clay lumps and rock fragments up to 7mm. (R) (F) BRF 11 Tiles in North Devon Gravel Tempered fabric.

Samples of tiles in fabric F were not found, however, Boore described them as an orange-red firing fabric with reduced, laminated, core and large red inclusions. The tiles had a good quality green glaze. Boore dated this type to the eighteenth or nineteenth century but such a late date for the manufacture of green-glazed tile must be considered unlikely.

BRF13 Pantile. BRF16 Grey fabric with red surfaces. Inclusions of quartz and limestone in a matrix of fine quartz sand. Glazes where present are purplish brown. (R) BRF17 Roof tile in a fabric similar to the Bristol/ Redcliffe pottery fabric BPT118. Knife cut crests and pale green glaze. Louvres also in this fabric. (R)

Boore’s fabric G appeared to be a variant of BRF10. The assemblage also included pantile and modern Double Roman. A small number of rather thick sherds in North Devon Gravel Tempered fabric were probably roof tile (BRF 11).

BRF18 Coarse red fired fabric tempered with quartz, quartzite and rare quartzitic sandstone. Occasional sparse glaze. (R) (F) 98

The Finds

Fig. 72. Ceramic roof tile © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

99

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Catalogue of roof tile

5.5 Stone Roof Tile

1. Flat tile. Rectangular with twin fixing holes and splashed green glaze.

A total of 75 fragments of stone roof tile was recovered from 37 contexts, a further nine fragments were possibly roof tile but their identification is less certain. All the identified tiles were Pennant Sandstone of local origin.

Roof tile Fabric 6  Context RF 2. Flat roof tile with hoof prints, probably goat.

The material was very fragmentary, however the tiles were rectangular with a rounded upper end and with either one or two fixing holes. A complete tile probably measured around 280mm x 250mm x 25mm.

Roof tile fabric 6  Context CR 3. Roof finial with three pointed terminals. Orange surfaced, grey fired fabric tempered with quartz, red iron ores and some vegetable matter. Traces of green glaze.

Stone roof tile was found throughout the site from Period 2 onwards being mostly concentrated in Period 4b and 5a contexts.

Context OQ  SF 298

5.6 Inscribed Slate

5.4 Roofing Slate

by Rod Burchill

by Rod Burchill

The inscribed slate includes a number of tallies. All are inscribed with horizontal lines crossed with short vertical strokes. Each group of eight verticals is separated by a circle. It is not certain what the groups of eight represent, however, suggestions might include stones and hundredweights or gallons and bushels. The tally slates dated from the early fourteenth to the late fifteenth century and were recovered from immediately outside the cellarium. It is likely that they were used to record information for later insertion in the abbey’s ledgers.

The excavation recovered 594 pieces of roofing slate, mostly fragmentary, of which 56 were from unstratified contexts. Slate was found throughout the site and at all stages of its history. Slate is common on most archaeological sites in the Bristol area where it formed a lightweight and readily available roofing material. Most if not all slate found on Bristol sites is of Welsh (Pembrokeshire) or North Cornish origin. Jope and Dunning (1954) noted that eleven thousand slates were shipped to Bristol from Milford Haven in 1566 and that by 1603 slates were also being shipped from Padstow.

1. Slate fragment scored with a single line. Length 80mm x 45mm. Context SW  SF256  Period 2

Medieval blue slates were less thick than Pennant Sandstone tiles and weighed substantially less putting less stress on the supporting roof timbers. Jope and Dunning (1954) have suggested a weight of 3lb per square foot for slate compared with 12-14lb per square foot for Pennant tile.

2. Slate with inscribed anthropomorphic figure on one side and crude lettering on reverse. The figure appears to be that of a man with moustache or beard. The circles above the face probably represents curly hair, an alternative interpretation, a goffered headdress is normally associated with female costume. The figure is dressed in a buttoned garment. Buttons do not normally occur much before 1340 (info Sarah Levitt) which fits well with the object’s contextual position. The lettering is unclear.

Medieval and early post-medieval roofing slates were rectangular in shape, sometimes converging at the upper end. The normal fixing method was by suspending the slate from a single peg and most of the Minster House slates were of this type, however two peg versions were found. It is not clear how the Minster House slates were fixed to the roof timbers, the most common method was by the use of wooden pegs, although, there was some evidence to suggest the use of iron nails.

Dimensions 125mm x 90mm. Context N5, (Fig. 73.1)  SF134  Period 3

Slates were overlapped on the roof and some fragments bear traces of white mortar. Similar mortar encrusted slates were found at the site of the Austin Friars, Leicester where there are documentary references to ‘torching’ – ‘to point with lime and hair; said of the inside joints of slating laid on lathing’ (Allin 1981). The effect of mortaring the bottoms of the overlapped slates was to improve the waterproofing of the roof.

3. Fragment of slate used as a tally. Inscribed on both faces with horizontal lines and short vertical strokes. Each group of eight vertical strokes is separated by a circle. Probably fits onto SF128 Dimensions 110mm x 95mm. Context PC, (Fig. 73.2)  SF176  Period 3 100

The Finds

Fig. 73. Inscribed slates © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

101

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 4. Part of a slate used as a tally. Inscribed with four shallow horizontal lines. The top line is scored through with short vertical strokes. Each group of eight verticals is separated by a circle.

length 140mm x 33mm. Context HW, (Fig. 74.9)  SF232  Period 5a 5.7 Floor Tile

Maximum dimensions 270mm x 235mm.

by Bruce Williams

Context RD, (Fig. 73.3)  SF195  Period 3

Twenty-four medieval floor tiles were found, eight of these decorated, three are illustrated (Fig.75). None was in-situ, most having come from post-medieval contexts from within Minster House. Mr R Burchill using a 10x hand lens examined the fabrics of the tiles and the tiles were subsequently divided into nine groups.

5. Sub-rectangular slate fragment. Inscribed with faint lines possibly representing the number 3. A single line is visible on the reverse. Possibly a counter. Maximum dimensions 55mm x 57mm.

On the whole the undecorated tiles display considerable wear, to the extent that much of their glaze is non-existent. This is not the case with the decorated tiles, which show a lot less wear.

Context SY, (Fig. 74.4)  SF211  Period 3 6. Rectangular, slate fragment used as a tally. Inscribed with horizontal lines crossed with long vertical strokes. Each group of eight strokes being separated by a circle. Incomplete.

Nothing meaningful can be said of the undecorated tiles. The longest measurable side is a tile in Fabric group 1 at 148mm. The only decorated tile in this group (Fig. 75.2) is part of a four-tile pattern and is a familiar tile design in Bristol with similar known examples from sites of the Franciscan Friary and the Carmelite Friary. Others are known from Keynsham Abbey, just outside Bristol, which is in a similar fabric, and reportedly Hailes Abbey, in Gloucestershire (Lowe, 128). Interestingly, the Bristol example is in the same group stylistically as tiles from Gloucester, which are thought to have been produced at the tile kiln at Droitwich, in south Worcestershire, discovered in the nineteenth century, and in production probably in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century. Other tiles of this group can be found at St Augustine’s Abbey, re-laid in the Newland Chapel on the north side of the south transept.

Maximum dimensions 123mm x 75mm. Context QF, (Fig. 74.5)  SF191  Period 4a 7. Slate fragment with scratched ‘doodle’. Maximum dimensions 123mm x 75mm. Context QM, (Fig. 74.6)  SF234  Period 4a 8. Fragment of roofing slate with peg hole, used as a tally. One side is inscribed with three lines crossed with short vertical strokes in groups of eight. Maximum dimensions 90mm x 58mm.

In fabric 2 are fragments of two tiles from a set of four (only one is illustrated, Fig. 75.3) which shows, in the corner, the initial R and part of the arms of the Berkeley family. The un-illustrated tile is of a bleeding heart which is the rebus of John Newland or Nailheart, who was Abbot of St Augustine’s Abbey from 1481-1515. The tiles are thought to have been made during Newland’s abbacy, but after Robert Elyot had risen to a position of importance as Hosteller. Tiles of this set from Bristol Cathedral were published early last century by Robert Hall Warren on the Tiles of Bristol Cathedral (Warren 1900-03, 122-27). In it he refers to an earlier article on the set by Rev A S Porter but mentions ‘no vestige of the sets mentioned by Mr Porter (sic) are to be found in the Cathedral. The tiles are part of the Malvern series. Other tiles of this set are re-laid in the floor of the cathedral’s Eastern Lady Chapel, and another is in the collections of Bristol City Museum (Acc No G2185).

Context MR, (Fig. 74.7)  SF122  Period 4b 9. Slate used as a tally. Slate is inscribed with eight horizontal lines each cross scored with short vertical strokes. Each group of eight cross strokes is separated by a circle. On the reverse are lines which may represent a ship and four more crossed, horizontal lines. There are two peg holes present. Dimensions 208mm max. x 172mm Context NM, (Fig. 74.8)  SF128  Period 4b 10. Sub-rounded slate fragment probably used as a counter. Approximate diameter 50mm.

In Fabric group 8 is part of a fleur-de-lys (not illustrated), dating from the late fourteenth to the fifteenth century, and in Fabric group 9 (No1) is a border tile which has a scooped key in its back; this is one of the earliest tiles from the site and dates from the late thirteenth century.

Context NF  SF258  Period 4b 11. Rectangular slate inscribed with sets of calculations: multiplication and division – Arabic numerals. 102

The Finds

Fig. 74. Inscribed slates (contd) © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

103

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 75. Medieval floor tile © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Fabric Group 1

Two tiles with unrecognisable designs, maximum measurable side is 74mm, thickness 21mm glaze lightbrown, both tiles have shallow scooped keys.

Orange sometimes grey fabric, abundant fine to coarse quartz, rare sparse iron ores and rare non-calcareous white grits.

Fabric Group 5

Maximum measurable side is 148mm, thickness 15mm to 18mm; two tiles have an overall white slip over their upper surface, one of these was scored diagonally and broken down to produce a triangular tile. Glazes are black or mottled green.

Poorly mixed orange fabric. Sparse red iron ore, rare white grits and unhomogenised clay pellets. Large fragment of felspar in type sherd. No glaze, maximum measurable side is 11mm, thickness 22mm, three scooped keys in back.

Fabric Group 2

Fabric Group 6

Poorly mixed orange fabric. Sparse medium quartz, sparse to moderates unhomogenised clay pellets, rare iron ores in a matrix containing very fine quartz.

Orange brown fabric. Common buff grog of clay pellets, rare quartzite, rare iron ores in a matrix containing very fine quartz.

Size 119mm, glaze light to dark brown on decorated tiles, glaze worn from undecorated tile. Thickness 22-31mm.

Unrecognisable decorated fragment.

Fabric Group 3

Fabric Group 7

Orange fabric. Sparse medium quartz, sparse white and yellow mica, rare dark iron ore, rare clay pellets, rare quartzite.

Poorly mixed, rather chaotic, orange brown fabric containing rare iron ores in a matrix containing fine quartz.

Longest measurable side is 93mm, thickness 40mm, glaze mottle brown-black.

Maximum measurable side is 90mm, thickness 34mm. Very worn.

Fabric Group 4

Fabric Group 8

Orange fabric sometimes with dark core. Abundant very fine quartz, common to very common white calcareous grits, rare red iron ore.

Orange fabric sometimes with a grey core. Abundant white quartz fragments, sparse iron ore, rare clusters of quartz grains bonded in a white cement. 104

The Finds Maximum measurable side is 102mm, thickness 23-28mm, one decorated tile was scored and broken diagonally. Glaze black over body of tiles.

5.9 Clay Tobacco Pipes

Fabric Group 9

The clay pipes in this report have been dated by their bowl typology and, where existing, from their makers’ marks and/or style of decoration. Of the 83 identifiable pipe bowls and stems from the site, 48 are marked with pipemakers’ initials or full names.

by Reg Jackson

Dark grey/black fabric. Abundant quartz, moderate dark iron ore. Oblong tile with a maximum measurable side of 71mm, thickness 25mm. Glaze very worn away.

No attempt has been made to date the pipes by stem bore analysis. A large number of stems are required from each context in order for dating by this method to be accurate, and insufficient material is available from this site. Also, doubts are now being expressed about the validity of stem bore dating (Noel Hume 1982).

5.8 Brick and Tile Kiln Flooring by John Bryant and Rod Burchill Fragments of brick or tile of unusual form were found in contexts attributed to the thirteenth century or slightly later (Fig. 76). These thick tiles or `flat’ bricks were in an orange-red fired fabric containing very common quartz, moderate iron ores, sparse grog and at x30 magnification rare mica. The fabric is chaotic with numerous voids. The upper surfaces had been smoothed or wiped and the bases sanded or stood on a bed of sand for drying. Tiles from context OQ showed some spalling and cracking of the surfaces possibly the result of heat damage. However, other fragments exhibited no evidence of exposure to heat after their original firing.

Only approximate dates for the pipes are given (e.g., late seventeenth century, c 1660-80, etc). This is due to the fairly long working lives of the identifiable pipemakers and also the now generally accepted problems of dating pipes due to the length of time an individual pipe mould could remain in use (Oswald 1985). Bristol was one of the leading pipe producing and exporting centres in England throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and it is only to be expected that almost all the pipes from Minster House were made in the city. The few non-Bristol pipes were most likely brought in by people returning from journeys or by visitors rather than through trade. Only four pipes were definitely made outside the city. Two were made in Broseley, Shropshire and two were made in Gouda, Holland. One pipe may have been made by Thomas Hunt while he was working in Somerset.

Most of the material was very fragmentary, however, partial reconstruction of a ‘tile’ was possible. The tiles or bricks were hand-made, probably in the form of linked rectangles. The surviving rectangle is pierced by a rectangular hole 38mm x 45mm. The evidence suggests a second hole at the end of the linking shaft. Surviving length 190mm: the rectangular end is 166mm x 120mm: the shaft is 125mm x 50mm. Depth 50mm. Original length calculated to be about 320mm.

Some pipes have decorative motifs instead of makers’ initials. These comprise one version of a stylised Tudor Rose and four `gauntlet’ marks, three of the latter being identical. The identity of the makers of these pipes is unknown. While pipes bearing the `gauntlet’ mark are particularly common in Wiltshire and were obviously made there, the Mould Size Agreement of the Bristol pipemakers written in 1710 refers to a type of pipe they were making as `Gauntletts’.

Tiles not too dissimilar in form were found associated with a medieval tile kiln at Farnham Park, Farnham in Surrey (Riall 1994, 80-81). In that case they were of a different shape, a pair of opposing tiles forming an ‘H’ shape in plan. Each half was 355-360mm in length, 220-225mm wide and 50-53mm deep, with a pair of circular holes, but with a smallish nib on one side, and the lower face sanded. They have been interpreted as oven-floor tiles, which would explain why only the upper face was smoothed. The kiln would have been rectangular and used for the production of peg tile and possibly crested ridge-tile.

Of interest is that twenty of the pipes bearing makers’ initials have the same mark – the initials `WC’ incuse on the heel with swags above and below. These come from ten contexts and it is tempting to suggest that the occupiers of Minster House were obtaining a majority of their pipes from one pipemaker in the second quarter of the seventeenth century.

Similar products could have been manufactured at St Augustine’s, including possibly the peg tiles used as floors for some of the thirteen-century drains.

Most contexts have only produced one or two dateable pipes and it is therefore difficult to state whether these contexts are reasonably closely dated on clay pipe evidence. However, contexts BN, CZ, GD, HW, and OE all produced a number of pipes which are roughly contemporary in date.

Later post-medieval brick The assemblage also included `modern’ red brick in contexts of Period 5b and later (i.e. late eighteenth century onwards). This material was not recorded in detail. 105

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 76. Brick © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

The Marked Pipes from Minster House with a Note on their Makers

indicate a date in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. There were two pipemakers with these initials working in Bristol at that date. William Carter took an apprentice in 1641 and was dead by 1647. William Cooper took apprentices in 1641 and 1642 although nothing else is known of him.

(Information on the working lives of Bristol pipemakers is taken from Price and Jackson 1975). The following list is in alphabetical order of the pipemakers’ initials found on the pipes.

H. EDWARDS (Fig. 77.3)

IC (Fig. 77.1)

One example from context DA. Name occurs in a threeline mark in relief within a circle on the side of the bowl. Made by Henry Edwards who was free in 1699 and was still working in 1731.

Two examples from contexts A5 and OE. The initials occur incuse on the rear of the bowl with a crude six-pointed star above. Make by Israel Carey I who was free in 1756 and was working until at least 1786.

PE

WC (Fig. 77.2)

Four examples from contexts CZ, EW and Assessment Trench context AC. The initials occur incuse on the heel. Made by either Philip Edwards I who was free in 1650 and was dead by 1683, or by Philip Edwards 2 who was free in 1681 and working until at least 1696.

Twenty examples from contexts AL, CR, CZ, DC, EH, GP, HH, HW, HX and PH. The initials occur with crude swags above and below incuse on the heels. The bowl forms 106

The Finds

Fig. 77. Clay tobacco pipe © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

107

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 WE

E. SOUTHORN

One example from context BL. The initials occur incuse on the rear of the bowl. Made by William Evans I, free in 1660, or William Evans 2 who was free in 1667. At least one of them was still alive in 1713.

One example from context AQ. The name occurs incuse on the stem with ‘BROSELEY 7’. Made by Edwin Southorn of Broseley, Shropshire, who was working from 1855 until at least 1863 (Atkinson 1975, 82).

J. HARVEY (Fig. 77.4)

W. SOUTHORN & CO.

One example from context D5. The name occurs in 3 lines in relief within a circle on the side of the bowl. Made by John Harvey I who was free in 1706 or by John Harvey 2 who was free in 1726. One was working until 1746.

One example from context JL. The name occurs incuse on the stem with ‘BROSELEY 9’. Made by W. Southorn & Co. of Broseley, Shropshire, who were working from 1855 until 1900 (Atkinson 1975, 85).

RH

IT (Fig. 77.6)

One example from context AP. The initials occur incuse on the heel. Made by Robert Hancock who was a founder member of the Bristol Pipemakers’ Guild in 1652, became free in 1655 and was working until at least 1693.

One example from context ER. The initials occur incuse on the heel with decorative motifs above and below. Made by John Tucker who became free in 1662 and was dead by 1690.

TH (Fig. 77.5)

W. TAYLOR

One example from context DC. The initials occur incuse on the heel. Possibly made by Thomas Hunt I who was working in Norton St. Philip, Somerset c 1637 (Pers comm, Marek Lewcun).

One example from context BN. The name occurs in a three-line mark in relief in a circle on the side of the bowl. Made by William Taylor who was free in 1689 and dead by 1721.

TH

IW (Fig. 77.7)

One example from context NW. The initials occur in relief in a circle on the side of the bowl. Made by Thomas Harvey who became free in 1700 and died in 1734.

One example from context HW. The initials, with two crosses below, occur incuse on heel. Made by John Wall who was apprenticed in 1619 and was dead by 1650.

RN

J. WILSON

One example from context GD. The initials occur incuse on the heel within a circle. Made by Richard Nunney who was a founder member of the Bristol Pipemakers’ Guild in 1652, became free in 1655, was still working in 1696 and was dead by 1713.

One example from context OE. Mark damaged but in relief within circle on the side of bowl. Made by John Wilson who was free in 1707 and was working until 1723.

IO

Tudor Rose (Fig. 77.8)

One example from context CR. The initials occur in relief on the side of the bowl in a diamond of small raised dots and with, possibly, a crown above. Made by John Okely I who was free in 1732 and was working until at least 1743.

One example from context GD. A stylised Tudor Rose occurs in relief on the heel of a pipe whose bowl form indicate a date c 1660-80. It is possible that this pipe was made in Bristol although the maker is unknown.

MP

Gauntlet

One example from context DQ. The initials occur incuse on the rear of the bowl. Made by Maurice Phillips who was free in 1721 and was dead by 1740.

Four examples from context HW. A hand or gauntlet occurs impressed on the heel. The pipes are seventeenth century in date. Gauntlet marks are common in Wiltshire (Atkinson, 1970).

Marks other than Initials or Names

JR

Crowned 75 (Fig. 77.9)

One example from context JD. The scroll initials occur in relief on the side of the bowl. Made by John Ring who was working c 1803 to 1851.

One example from context OE. The mark occurs in relief on the tip of the spur. It comprises the mark `75’ 108

The Finds with a crown above. The pipe bowl and stem are highly decorated in relief. Lettering round the top of the bowl reads ‘FRIDRICH MAGNUS’. A figure in a frock coat holding a sword stands on a gun carriage wheel and other weapons. A female figure holds a circular wreath containing the wording ‘VRENE/IN DUYS/LAND’ (`Peace in Germany’). On the rear of the bowl is an eye with lines radiating from it. Below is an altar (?) with flames coming from its top. On either side of the spur are the coat of arms of the City of Gouda, six six-pointed stars, surmounted by the letter ‘S’. The ‘S’ stands for ‘slegte’ meaning, literally, ‘ordinary’. Nevertheless the ‘S’ was used by the Dutch pipemakers’ guild to denote fine quality pipes. The wording on the pipe presumably refers to the Emperor Frederick the Great of Prussia who came to the throne in 1740 and died in 1786. It is likely that the pipe was made to commemorate the Peace of Aix-laChapelle in 1748 which terminated the Austrian War of Succession. The pipe was made in Gouda, Holland, and the bowl form and type of decoration support a date at the end of the first half of the 18th century. The maker is unknown. The crowned 75 mark was owned and used successively by a number of pipemakers. (Pers Comm D. Duco; Duco 1982, fig. 698; Krommenhoek & Vrij 1986, fig. 858a).

which could answer specific archaeological questions posed by the site. Only dated contexts were examined. Contexts that had been severely disturbed were checked for the presence of any unusual species (e.g., exotic or pathological) and were then discarded before analysis, as were contexts that had a date range greater than one period. The site can be divided into nine major phases that contained animal bone – the twelfth century (Period 1), thirteenth century (Period 2), fourteenth century (Period 3), fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries (Period 4A), sixteenth-seventeenth centuries (Period 4B), seventeentheighteenth centuries (Period 5A) and late eighteenth-late nineteenth centuries (Period 5B). Period 6 covers a short period of time (late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries), with very few fragments present. The Sample Just over five thousand fragments (5268) were selected for analysis. Of these, nearly two and a half thousand (43 per cent) were identified to species. The material was in fair to good condition. The bones were well preserved, but in a fragmentary state which made identification of some bones (especially bird) to species difficult.

IN GOUDA

Few small mammal and bird and no fish remains were present in the sample. There was no sieving strategy on the site, all bones analysed were hand-recovered. It must be assumed that this will have biased the sample towards larger types of species and skeletal element.

One example from context NY. The mark `IN GOUDA’ occurs on a fragment of stem within chevron decoration applied with a roller stamp. The pipe was made in Gouda, Holland in the mid-eighteenth century (Duco 1987, figs. 405-410).

Aims

Complete Pipe (Fig.77.1)

A sample size of 2277 identified bones spread over eight phases is too small a sample to support lengthy statistical analysis. However, it is large enough to begin to answer several questions about the site and animal husbandry practices in the area. After discussion with the archaeologists the aims of the post-excavation analysis were agreed as follows:

There is one complete pipe in the excavated material. This comes from context OE. It has the initials `IC’ with a crude star above incuse on the rear of the bowl. The stem is complete (with one break) and measures 243mm (9 inches) from the bowl to the tip of the stem. The pipe was probably made by Israel Carey I in the second half of the eighteenth century.

To assess the range of species represented on the site

5.10 Animal Bone

To determine if there is any change in relative proportions of species over time

by Geraldine Barber Introduction

To look for evidence of changing animal husbandry over time in terms of the age of death, butchery practices and size of the major food species

The Minster House at Bristol Cathedral was excavated in 1992. The site is an ecclesiastical one, starting out in the twelfth century as a monastic foundation. Over the next seven centuries the monastery expanded under various abbots, and the cathedral that stands today incorporates parts of it.

To compare the results from this site with those of contemporary urban sites locally and across the country Initially it had been hoped that the faunal remains could be used to investigate the functions of the various parts of the site. Given the small numbers of bones recovered for each period in each of the areas, this was not possible.

The site is a very complex one, spanning over seven centuries, and over 900 different contexts. The postexcavation strategy was to concentrate on the best contexts, 109

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Methods

the differences in size between the male and female of a species, is another way of estimating sex. This can be a problem when castrates are involved, as they may not reach the same size as males of the same breed.

Recording The methods by which fragments are identified and counted can bias results. It must always be borne in mind that the majority of any animal bone excavated is only a fragment of the original assemblage of bones from a site, and a biased one at that (Levitan, 1989a). Certain bones often preserve better than others i.e. teeth and phalanges as opposed to the spongy epiphyses (Payne, 1975). Other bones can often be difficult to assign to species such as ribs, vertebrae and some of the less diagnostic skull fragments.

Minimum Number of Individuals (Mni) MNI’s can be a difficult concept to use on urban sites (Levitan, 1989) as meat was most likely to have been brought to this site as joints as well as or instead of whole animals. In addition, given the small numbers of fragments recovered for each of the phases, it was not thought practical to calculate minimum numbers of individuals (MNI’s) for this sample.

All bones were identified as accurately as possible. For some fragments it was only possible to identify body part, but not species. These are all recorded in the database but they are not used for the analysis.

Butchery/Bone Working Cut marks and other signs of butchery were recorded, with relevant comments on jointing or use of meat or offal where appropriate.

A selected number of skeletal parts were chosen for analysis. The skeletal elements chosen were: horncores, individual teeth, mandibles, maxilla, proximal and distal humerus, proximal and distal radius, proximal ulna, first and second cervical vertebrae, proximal and distal tibia, proximal and distal femur, astragalus, calcaneum, proximal and distal metapodials, and phalanges. These were chosen as they represented different parts of the body, are frequently occurring and are easily identifiable.

Pathology Where a bone showed some form of pathology it was photographed, x-rayed and described. It was not always possible to arrive at a definite diagnosis, but the probable diagnosis and a list of differentials are given where possible.

Measurements

The Archive

Measurements of the identifiable bones were taken where possible. These followed the criteria of von den Dreisch (1976) and are listed in Bone Report Appendix 1 (in the site archive and not included in this report).

Publication constraints mean that there is not enough space to publish all data produced in the analysis. Copies of the database containing these and all other recorded information can be obtained from the author.

Ageing

Results

Ageing animals can be a problem when they are alive and complete. It is much more difficult if one has only a fragment of bone to assess. Two methods were used to estimate age. States of fusion of epiphyses of the long bones were recorded (as unfused, fusing and fused). These were compared to known fusion ages of modern animals (Silver 1972). One problem with this method is that different breeds can fuse their epiphyses at different ages, so sometimes an average or range of ages is given.

Species Represented Tables 1 and 2 show a list of all the species identified from this site (NISP), and their relative frequencies for each of the main contexts. Table 1 gives the mammals and Table 2 the birds. Mammal Cow Bos taurus

The second method of ageing is by tooth eruption and tooth wear patterns. Tooth eruption ages and grades of wear after Grant (1982) for cows and Payne (1973) for sheep and goats have been used.

Sheep Ovis aries Goat Capra hircus

Sexing

Pig Sus domesticus

It is very difficult to determine the sex of individual animal bones. The most accurate part of the body is usually the pelvis. Unfortunately, this bone is usually fragmented or butchered. With pigs, the shape and size of the canine can also be used (Schmidt 1976). Sexual dimorphism,

Fallow deer Dama dama Red deer Cervus elephas Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus 110

The Finds Table 1: Species Identified, per phase (mammals) Period

Cow

Sheep/Goat

Pig

Roe deer

Red deer

Rabbit

1

4

2

1

1

2

60

41

29

1

3

142

64

23

4A

26

55

15

4B

118

73

29

1

33

5A

168

234

25

2

29

5B

275

342

29

4

6

46

88

37

Total

839

899

188

Hare

1

Cat

Dog

1

Mouse

Total

1

9

18

151

4 1

20

1

7

233 1 1

15

4

118 255

1

459

3

2

671

1

1

3

9

1

186

103

1

8

13

20

2082

Table 2: Species Identified, per phase (birds) Period

Chicken

Goose

1

2

1

2

3

3

5

3

4A

17

3

4B

9

1

5A

27

17

5B

30

12

6

4

Total

97

Pheasant

Mallard

Grouse

Teal

Wader

Other bird

Total

1

4

4

8

2

10

14

41

8

20

1

9

59

1

3

48

1

5

42

195

1

37

1

1

3

2

2 1

4 1

3

1

8

1

Hare Lepus europeaus

5

2

Most of the identified fragments are of the three major food species – cow, sheep/goat and pig. Together they represent 84 per cent of the sample across all phases.

Cat Felis catus Dog Canis familiaris

Sheep/goat fragments were the most common species identified. Sheep and goat bones are hard to separate to species. Where possible they were separated using the criteria of Boessneck (1969). In most cases the species could not be distinguished and are discussed as sheep/goat. Of the 58 bones that could be identified to species (6.5 per cent of all fragments) most were sheep. Table 3 shows the sheep/goat ratios for the phases where any of the sheep/ goat bones could be separated. It is highly likely that most of the bones identified as sheep/goat are in reality sheep. This has also been suggested at other contemporary sites including Exeter (Maltby, 1979).

Fox Vulpes vulpes Mouse Mus musculus Bird Goose Anser anser Chicken Gallus gallus Pheasant Phasianus colchius

Cow and pig were the next two most common species, respectively. They are discussed in detail in the later sections of this report.

Mallard Anas platyrychose Teal Anas crecca

Although less than 200 fragments of bone were identified as bird (8 per cent of all identified fragments) they

Wader Scoropacidae sp. 111

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Table 3: Ratio of Sheep to Goat fragments identified Period

Sheep

Goat

Not differentiated

Ratio

1

0

0

2

All sheep

2

2

0

39

All sheep

3

4

0

60

All sheep

4A

4

0

51

All sheep

4B

5

0

68

All sheep

5A

16

2

216

8:1

5B

25

0

317

All sheep

6

0

0

88

All sheep

Other species identified include a number of rabbit bones, and a smaller number of hare, dog and cat bones that are all common findings in small numbers on urban sites. Only a few fragments of small mammal, all of mouse, were identified. No fish bones were present in the selected sample. The low numbers of specimens from these and other small taxa (including bid) are a result of studying a hand-retrieved sample. Frequencies of The Major Food Species Through Time As noted earlier, sheep/goat, cow and pig make up 84 per cent of the total identified sample. There is a difference in the total numbers of identified bones of the earliest phases (pre-Dissolution) and the larger samples recovered after this. It has not always been possible to always compare all eight phases, as some had little or no data on all three species. For this reason the data given below shows at relative/percentage figures. Figure 78 gives an overview of the relative frequencies of the three major food species.

represent relatively diverse selection. It can be very difficult to identify birds to species, especially if the bones are fragmented. Most of the bird bones identified are from the domestic chicken. Goose and duck were also present, in much smaller numbers. Odd fragments from pheasant and grouse, teal and an unspecified wader were also present. It is likely these were part of the diet, though no cut marks were found on any of the fragments. The bird bones present are most likely to be severely underrepresented as there was no sieving of the site undertaken (Payne 1975).

From Figure 78 it can be seen that cattle are the most commonly represented species in the early phases, representing up to two-thirds of the major food species. Post-Dissolution however, changes begin to appear, with sheep/goat becoming more predominant, averaging over 50 per cent from this time onwards. Pig bones make up between 10 and 20 per cent of the major species across all phases. There does appear to be a decline in its present from the post-Dissolution onwards, until the modern phase (6), but the numbers involved are very small.

A small number of red deer and roe deer were identified, mostly from the earlier pre-Dissolution phases. Larger numbers of deer are associated with high status sites as at Launceston Castle (Albarella and Davies, 1996). It has also been noted that the presence of deer is rare in urban sites (Grant, 1984). The numbers of deer in this sample though small, is larger than other contemporary ‘lower status’ sites locally (Barber 1998).

Part Representation Figures 79-81 show the distribution of the skeletal elements of the three major food species across the phases. Some

Fig. 78. Relative proportions of the major food species, by period © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

112

The Finds

Fig. 79. Percentage body part representation, by period – cow © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Fig. 80. Percentage body part representation, by period – sheep/goat © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Fig. 81. Percentage body part representation, by period – pig © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

113

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 phases did not produce fragments for any of the species, so these are excluded from the figures.

appeared to have larger numbers of foot bones (the numbers involved are small). Fewer mandible and skull fragments were recorded, as were parts of the back limbs, suggesting that body parts rather than whole animals were brought on site. This finding is in contrast to other contemporary high-status sites e.g., Launceston Castle (Albarella and Davis, 1996), where larger numbers of skulls and teeth were recovered in relation to postcranial skeletal elements.

All body parts are represented across most of the phases, but there are fewer fragments of skull and mandible than one would expect if the animals were coming onto the site whole. There is some supporting evidence for joints of meat being brought to the site for consumption, especially in the later phases such as the lack of phalanges in phase 4A and the general reduction in numbers of mandibles identified after the same phase. In phases 4A-5B there appear to be an increase in the amount of greater meatbearing bones (such as humerus and femur).

Ages of The Major Food Species

For the sheep/goat bones the lack of skulls and mandibles is even more striking. It would appear that across most of the phases the meat was brought in more as joints than as whole animals. However, as there is no evidence from period 1 (and very little for phases 2 and 3) it is difficult to say if there has been any change over time.

The lack of mandibles and skull fragments that has been discussed in the previous section makes the estimation of age at death for most of the fragments difficult or impossible. Table 4 attempts to summarise the state of fusion of the long bones for each of the three species. It gives an overview as direct comparisons of numbers of bones, and bones present vary greatly between phases. Tables 5-7 show the data collected on tooth eruption and attrition for cow, sheep/goat and pig respectively.

Most of the phases which contained pig bones showed similar body part representation, except that period 2

It is impossible to draw many conclusions from this sparse data. The mandibles present in both phases are from

Table 4: Age estimation using fusion of long bones Period

Cow

Sheep/goat

Pig

1

3:1 adult

Adult

All young

2

Mostly young

Mostly adult

All young

3

18:1 adult

Mostly adult

All young

4A

Mostly young

Mostly adult (slightly more juveniles than previously)

All young

4B

Mostly young

Few young animals, mostly adult

Mostly young – couple of adults

5A

Mostly young

Mostly adult

All young

5B

Mostly young

Mostly adult

All young

6

All adult

Mix of young and adults

All young

Table 5: Ages using tooth eruption and attrition – cow Period

DP4 Present

5A

2

5B

2

M1 erupting

M2 erupting

M3 erupting

M3 in wear

M3 erupting

M3 in wear

1 2

2

Table 6: Ages using tooth eruption and attrition – sheep/goat Period

DP4 present

5A

M1 erupting

M2 erupting

3

1

Table 7: Ages using tooth eruption and attrition – pig Period

M1 erupting

2

1

5A

1

5B

M2 erupting

M3 erupting 1

2

114

M3 in wear

The Finds younger animals. The epiphyseal fusion data from these phases (Table 4) also suggests that most of the animals recovered from these phases are of immature of sub-adult individuals. These findings are similar to those found by Noddle (1985) from the nearby contemporary parish of St Mary-le-Port.

change in status of the site, but the numbers involved are very small. Pig As most of the fragments recovered from this site were of juvenile animals it was not possible to take any measurements.

Only one phase produced any mandibles which could be aged. These results suggested that the animals were young. However, the long bone fusion data does not support this, suggesting most animals were adult. These apparent differences may be due to the small numbers involved.

Pathology Only 3 phases produced bones which showed any evidence for pathology.

The pig teeth and bones identified were mostly of young and sub-adult individuals in all phases. This is a very common finding on most urban sites.

Period 2 (Thirteenth Century) One bone, a proximal phalange of a cow showed marked ligament insertion (enthesis) formation. This is a common finding and is believed by some to be caused by traction injuries, but this is contentious.

Estimation of Sex Given the small numbers of measurements taken of those bones that can be diagnostic of sex (e.g., the metapodials) it was not possible to estimate the sex of any species using this method. Overall only pig bones could be assessed (by looking at their teeth, as described earlier). In the sample males only were identified – 7 definite and 1 probable. This may mean that the females were kept as a breeding population and were not slaughtered young, or it may be phenomenon of such a small sample size. It may however be interesting to note that the local site of St James’ Priory also had only male animals.

Table 8. Measurements of the sheep radius (BP)

Measurements Although it was possible to take measurements from many of the bones in the sample, there is not enough data from any one bone or species to produce any clear results. Complete lists of all measurements taken are given in Appendix 1, in the site archive.

Period

N=

Mean

SD

3

2

29.1

0.6

4A

1

29.2

0

4B

1

31.3

0

5A

6

29.4

1.7

5B

9

31.6

1.9

6

1

28.7

0

Table 9. Measurements of the sheep humerus (BD)

Cattle There were not enough measurements to produce any valid statistical analysis on any one bone. However, there does appear to be a general trend to increasing bone (and thus animal) size over time. The trochlear measurement of the humerus, for example, averages 64.5mm in Period 3 (n=1) and increases to 77.5mm (n=2) by Period 5A. Sheep/Goat

Period

N=

Mean

SD

3

3

27.8

1.1

4A

1

28.8

0

4B

3

27.0

0.7

5A

11

28.4

1.3

5B

18

29.5

2.1

6

5

31.9

1.5

Table 10. Measurements of the sheep tibia (BD)

As with cow, the numbers involved are small. However, in the few bones that had sufficient numbers to undertake a basic statistical analysis, there does appear to be a trend to increasing bone size with time. Tables 8-10 show the mean, standard deviation and numbers of measurements taken for the radius, humerus and tibia respectively. There also appears to be a slight drop in the mean measurements in the post-Dissolution phase in the tibia measurements. This may support the hypothesis of a 115

Period

N=

Mean

SD

2

1

26.9

0

3

2

29.2

4.5

4B

2

26.6

1.3

5A

33

27.0

2.9

6

7

26.4

2.5

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Period 5A (Seventeenth-Eighteenth Century)

the way that the vertebrae are butchered. In the later phases vertebrae at all levels were cut in half dorso-ventrally. This would indicate that carcasses were being butchered into sides of beef, mutton and pork. Maltby found a similar change at Exeter (1976). He dates the change from the sixteenth century. It would appear that this is similar for Minster House, although there are a few cases earlier than that.

Two bones, both femoral heads from different cows, showed evidence of bone remodelling. The femoral heads were eburnated, and had small marginal osteophytes present around their circumferences. There was a slight change in the bony contour of the articular surfaces. These features are typical of osteoarthritis, a joint disease. It typically affects older animals and is of unknown aetiology. The finding of two such cases on a site this size, and in one phase, is unusual. It may support the hypothesis that there was a lowering of status of the site after the Dissolution, when older, poorer quality (and thus cheaper) animals were consumed.

Further Discussion and Comparisons with Other Sites The amount of the material produced from Minster House is disappointingly small. However, other ecclesiastical sites have also produced only low numbers of faunal remains, such as at Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire (Levitan 1989b). Despite this, the analysis has produced some interesting results as many small changes can be seen in terms of relative numbers of species, their sizes and body part representation.

Period 5B (Late Eighteenth-Nineteenth Century) One bone, a rib from a sheep/goat-sized animal showed evidence of a fracture. The bone had healed well with a small amount of callus formation. There was a slight misalignment of the two sides of the break, but this is not unusual.

The Minster House community maintained a high status in the pre-Dissolution period, and this is hinted at in the faunal remains from this period – a predominance of young cattle, supported by sheep and pig, and smaller numbers with other species such as deer and a variety of birds. Many sites of high status have noted similar assemblages e.g., Taunton Priory (Levitan, 1984), Okehampton Castle (Maltby, 1982) and Greyfriars, London (Armitage and West, 1987).

Butchery Many of the fragments of bone from all phases showed evidence of butchery. An average of 39 per cent of all fragments of bone (including vertebrae and unidentifiable fragments) had some kind of cut or butchery mark (including the worked bone). Figure 82 summarises the percentage of all fragments of bone that had been either butchered or worked.

However, the most marked changes can be seen in the immediate post-Dissolution phases. The relative increase in the use of sheep/goat at the expense of both cow and pig in the periods following the Dissolution may be an indicator of decreased site status, as is the increase in bony pathology. The data is not completely clear on this point, however, and there may be an explanation. There is evidence that the Minster was not as affected by the traumas of the Dissolution as other sites, for it became one of Henry’s six new cathedrals.

It is clear that the animals whose remains are represented here have been extensively butchered. The earlier phases show cut marks on long bones and flat bones. There is evidence that skulls and mandibles were removed. Several of the tarsal bones had cut marks at the ligament insertions. These would be severed to remove the lower limbs. There is only one difference that can be noted between the earlier and later phases. There appears to be a change in

Locally, Minster House has a similar profile of domestic animal remains to many contemporary sites. St Bartholomew’s Hospital, St James Priory and St Maryle-Port have the same relative proportions of species, and evidence that butchery practices were similar. Nearby, an obvious comparison can be made with the excavations at Exeter. Maltby has a much larger sample size from several sites, but his results are very similar. Conclusions The major conclusions of this report are: 1. The majority of species identified were from the three major food species – sheep/goat, cow, and pig in that order. Smaller numbers of other species were also present, especially in the pre-Dissolution periods. Some of these are seen as ‘high status’ species. No unusual or ‘exotic’ species were identified.

Fig. 82. Percentage of bones that displayed butchery marks, by period © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

116

The Finds 2. There is a marked change in the relative number of species from the post-Dissolution phases onwards, with an increas­ ing emphasis on sheep, and a decline in the use of pig.

medical instrument (see Gaskell-Brown 1986). Similar objects were recovered from St James’s Priory, Bristol, however they had internal grooving.

3. There is no marked change in age at slaughter of the three major food species across all phases. Sheep were mostly slaughtered as adults. Cows were killed young; although a few older individuals were noted in the immediate post-Dissolution periods. Pigs were killed as immature or sub-adults in all periods. It must be remembered, however, that the numbers involved in these calculations are very small.

Surviving length 52mm x max. diam. 8mm Context DF  SF42  Period 5b 5. Incomplete, (?) rectangular, bone object with central hole. The upper surface is polished and decorated with reeds and cords. Under-surface unfinished. Possibly part of a mount.

4. The body sizes of the two major food species (sheep and cow) appear to increase with modernity.

Context DS  SF129  Period 5b

5. At all times it would appear that joints rather than whole animals were the main source of meat. Butchery practices begin to change between the pre- and post-Dissolution phases, with a trend towards the use of ‘sides’ of meat.

6. Incomplete handle with Fleur-de-Lys terminal. The terminal is decorated on both surfaces with inlaid metal in a ring and dot motif. The hollow handle is also decorated on both surfaces with inlaid metal in a lozenge pattern.

6. There is an increase in the numbers of bony pathologies, especially osteoarthritis, in the post-Dissolution phase.

Length 62mm x maximum surviving width 10mm x 6mm deep.

These conclusions support the hypothesis that there is a change in status of Minster House (from high to lower) after the Dissolution.

Context NY  SF137  Period 5b 7. Bone toothbrush. Object worked from a single bone. Narrow rounded head with 66 holes to take the bristles. Four grooves on reverse to take bristle retaining wires. Handle is stamped `G.Jones Registered 10 SEPtr 1844’.

5.11 Objects of Bone (Fig. 83) by Rod Burchill A group of 17 bone objects were recovered during the excavations.

Overall length 163mm x max 15mm wide. Context JS  SF93  Period 5b

1. Fragment of one-piece double-sided bone comb. Fine densely packed teeth. Curved end piece.

8. Incomplete object, possibly part of a brush. Series of holes drilled from one side.

Surviving length 30mm x 40mm wide.

Length 72mm

Context CH  SF18  Period 5a

Context JT  SF105  Period 5b

2. Fragment of bone knife handle. Handle is rectangular in section with chamfered edges. Hollow core retains part of tang.

9. Knife Handle. Context KA  SF108  Period 5b

Surviving length 65mm x 15mm x 7mm

10. Bone disc with central drilled hole.

Context GK  SF73  Period 5a

Diameter 12mm

3. Side handle brush. Handle is semi-circular with deep rounded notches to the shoulder. Brush head is held at right-angles to handle. Head has 60 bristle holes.

Context JF  SF94  Period 5b 11. Bone disc with drilled hole in centre.

Head 45mm x 15mm. Handle 34mm base to apex.

Diameter 15mm

Context BR  SF21  Period 5b

Context PF  SF173  Period 5b

4. Tubular bone object with tapering shaft. Flared end has twelve external grooves. Possibly a nozzle from a

12. Bone domino punched as 4/5. 117

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 83. Objects of bone © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

118

The Finds Length 34mm x 17mm x 6mm

seepage. Other shells were encrusted with a hard, ironlike material which is due to forming a chemical alliance with iron objects with which they were in contact. These conditions of `iron-staining’ and `iron caked/encrusted’ are listed in table 3.

Context AL SF236 Period 6 Items 13-17 are not illustrated. 13. Fragment of brush head. Bristle holes approximately 3mm diameter. Seven grooves on reverse to take retaining wires.

One context showed an encrusting of hardened soil which may have an origin in worm casts. Besides edible oyster shell finds numbering 1394 there were 36 other shells and fragments of shell. These are listed in table 1. Their origins are two-fold. On the one hand, cockles, mussels and common whelks are food items and may have arrived in the same way as the oysters. The tellins and razor shells would have arrived through careless sorting from the oysters, perhaps on purchase. Saddle oysters grow attached to oyster shell very frequently, as has occurred in this collection and there is a single left (outer) valve here with knife mark. Alternatively, the garden snail may have moved into the site irrespective of man’s requirements. However, this species is edible and is used today and may have been prepared for food on this site.

Surviving length 45mm x 28mm Context AP SF44 Period 6 14. Brush head – polished bone. Approximately 380 sets of bristles. Probably a nail brush (see Mary-le-Port Excavations Fig.92) Length 110mm x 38mm. Context AX SF34 Period 6 15. Fragment of notched, worked bone.

Oyster Shell (Worked)

Length 70mm.

by Rod Burchill

Context DW  SF53  Period 5b

The finds assemblage included a group of ten pierced oyster shells. The holes varied from circular to subrectangular and were mostly located towards the centre of the shell. The purpose of the holes was not clear, however, they had been deliberately drilled and the holes were generally clean and even, suggesting it was not the result of damage caused during the opening of the shells to remove the meat.

16. Fragment of one-piece double-sided bone comb. Teeth very fine and dense. Surviving length 28mm x 22mm Context DN  SF48  Period 5b 17. Fragment of rectangular section knife.

It appears likely that the holes had been used to suspend the shells in the manner of scallop pilgrim badges (Margeson 1993, Biddle 1990).

Surviving length 66mm x 12mm x 6mm Context OE  SF199  Period 5b 5.12 Molluscs

The holes varied in dimension from 9-15mm (circular) and 15-25mm (sub-rectangular).

by A. G. Smith

5.13 Objects of Copper Alloy (Fig. 84)

The oysters are an import to the site from coastal beds via a local fish market, one may safely assume. Oysters are eaten fresh and so the valves must be forced open with a sharp-pointed knife, the animal must be loosened off the shell. Virtually all the shells in this collection showed signs of knife point damage.

by Rod Burchill All of the copper alloy was in poor condition. No conservation had taken place at the time of writing and none had been X-radiographed. A number of copper alloy pins were recovered: Nos.17, 23 and 24 were classified according to Margeson (1993) the remainder according to Crummy (1988). The lace chapes were classified according to Margeson’s Norwich type series (Margeson 1993).

Quite a few shells are white and soft. The contexts for these are listed in table 3, as `calcined’ [tables 1 to 3 are in archive only]. It is an effect due to either roasting or ageing or both.

Unidentified copper alloy fragments were recovered from Contexts AC, AL, AQ, CY, DQ, EF, FC, GH, GY, HF, LD, LS.

Some shells were brown and one assumes that this is due to some staining on being in contact with an iron-rich 119

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 84. Objects of copper alloy © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

1. Trapezoidal copper alloy buckle frame with D-shaped profile. The tongue, concave on the reverse has a simple looped fixing.

Context KM  SF111  Period 5a 5. Copper alloy ring with flattened sides. Probably a curtain ring.

Context N5  SF136  Period 3

Diameter: External 27mm, Internal 20mm.

2. Copper alloy ring with slightly flattened sides. Probably a curtain ring.

Context LG  SF113  Period 5a

Diameter: external 27mm – internal 21mm.

6. Copper alloy pin. Wire wound spherical head. Crummy type 2.

Context GN  SF219  Period 5a

Context LG  SF116  Period 5a

3. Copper alloy lace chape. Lace is secured by single copper alloy rivet.

Length 24.5mm

7. Flared copper alloy tube with flared terminal is mounted in silver-gilt with chase and punch decoration. The object has been flattened, probably post deposition, and one face bears a scar probably from a cartouche or mount (now missing). A strap-end.

Context HA  SF86  Period 5a

Length 75mm x 17mm tapering to 2mm

4. Copper alloy object with pointed terminal. The opposing terminal has been bent around to form an open loop. Length 50mm

Context B5  SF23  Period 5b

Margeson Type 1.

8. Copper alloy lace chape. Margeson Type 2. 120

The Finds Length 29mm

Context PO  SF183  Period 4b

Context DF  SF41  Period 5b

17. Dome headed copper alloy tack.

9. Copper alloy pin in two pieces. Wire wrapped around shaft to form head.

Context GW  Period 5a

Margeson type 1.

18. Two copper alloy pins with globular heads. Margeson Type 5.

Length 49mm.

Length GW  Period 5a

Context EW  SF63  Period 5b

19. Group of fifteen silvered copper alloy pins with spherical heads similar to Crummy type 2.

Items 10-32 are not illustrated.

Average length 25mm.

10. Length of fine copper alloy wire.

Context HE  SF78  Period 5a

Length 45mm. Context RY  SF203  Period 3

20. Three copper alloy pins with spherical heads. All incomplete. Crummy type 2.

11. Long, fine, copper alloy pin with wire wound head. Margeson type 1.

Context HG  SF79  Period 5a 21. Copper alloy disc with recessed upper surface.

Length 43mm.

Diameter 33mm.

Context SY  SF213  Period 3

Context KE  SF106  Period 5a

12. Two fragments of copper alloy tube with turned in edges. Possibly a lace chape of Margeson Type 2. However, the tube is rather narrow and fine and a fourteenth century context is rather early for a Type 2 chape.

22. Silvered copper alloy pin with spherical head. Crummy type 2. Context LA  Period 5a

Length 12mm and 10mm. Diameter max.1mm

23. Two copper alloy pins with spherical heads. Crummy type 2.

Context SY  SF212  Period 3

Length 25mm and 23mm.

13. Copper alloy pin with spherical head – broken tip. Crummy type 2.

Context LG  Period 5a

Length 23mm.

24. Same as 18 above.

Context LW  SF117  Period 4a

Context LG  SF112  Period 5a

14. Very fragmentary copper alloy tube – probably a lace chape of uncertain classification.

25. Small copper alloy ring. One surface flattened. Function unclear.

Surviving length appx.19mm

Diameter: External 8mm, Internal 4mm.

Context QM  SF193  Period 4a

Context OX  SF204  Period 5a

15. Copper alloy wire.

26. Rectangular copper alloy sheet with semi-circular cut-out. Additional sheet rivetted to both faces of squared corners.

Length 40mm.

Overall dimensions 99mm x max.65mm. Diameter of cutout 70mm.

Context NK  Period 4b 16. Very decayed fragment of copper alloy with rivet hole at one end. Possibly part of a mount.

Context BE  SF66  Period 5b 121

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 27. Domed copper alloy tack. Probably an upholstery nail.

1. Folded lead strip, possibly hooked at end.

Head diameter 12mm

Surviving length 120mm x max.10mm

Context BR  SF20  Period 5b

Context PJ  Period 4a

28. Fine, copper alloy, wire ring. Diameter of wire 1.5mm.

2. Lead sheet.

Diameter: external 19mm – internal 16mm.

Approximately 330mm x 150mm

Context DC  SF46  Period 5b

Context MB  Period 5a

29. Fragment of lace chape. Margeson Type 2.

3. Hand-made lead pipe. Length 5.2m; diameter approx. 50mm.

Surviving length 15mm.

Context EH  SF58  Period 5a

Context DC  SF60  Period 5b 30. Copper alloy pin. Crummy Type 2.

4. Lead sheet with raised pattern. Possibly prepared for cutting out.

Length 29mm

Maximum dimensions 150mm x 115mm

Context DF  SF43  Period 5b

Context EA  SF57  Period 5b

31. Small, cast copper alloy tack with flat head.

5. Length of H-profile window came.

Context HR  SF84  Period 5b

Surviving length 170mm x 7mm x 5mm.

32. Fragment of coiled, very fine copper alloy wire. Function unclear.

Context KA  Period 5Ib Unidentifiable fragments of lead were also recovered from contexts AB, AC, AL, BR, B5, CZ, GA, GG, GY, MY, OX.

Context F5  SF67  Period 5b or 6 5.14 Objects of Iron

5.16 Vessel Glass (Fig. 85)

by Rod Burchill

by Rod Burchill

A large miscellaneous group of iron objects was collected, all of which were in poor condition with heavy accretions of corrosion products. The material had not been x-radiographed nor received conservation, consequently a full analysis of the ironwork was not possible.

1. Drinking glass stem (similar to 1 above). Mould blown inverted baluster stem with front and rear facing lion mask decoration in the Venetian manner. Probably English. Similar glasses found at Exeter (Charleston 1984). Height 55mm.

The group comprised mostly structural ironwork that was numerically dominated by nails along with holdfasts or wall hooks, hinge fragments, staples and cramps mostly of eighteenth century or later date, however, context RO contained a pintle found situated within a late fifteenth or early sixteenth century doorway.

Context GD  SF70  Period 5b 2. Stem, base and lower bowl of a drinking glass. Wide, flat base. Flange below bowl and mid-stem. Clear glass.

Few other objects were identified with any certainty except for three knife blades of late post-medieval (nineteenth century) date.

Context NY  SF139  Period 5b 3. Base, lower bowl and stem of a drinking glass. Bowl has a stepped base. Double flange to stem.

5.15 Objects of Lead

Context NY  SF138  Period 5b

By Rod Burchill

4. Plain base, stem and lower bowl of a drinking glass. The stem has been drawn out of the trumpet.

None of the lead objects were illustrated. 122

The Finds

Fig. 85. Objects of glass © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

Context NY  SF152  Period 5b

7. Small phial with wide flanged rim. Heavily weathered yellow-green glass.

5. Complete large phial. Pale green glass. Probably medicinal.

40mm x 20mm diam. Diameter of flange 22mm.

84mm x 30mm diam.

Context AL SF249 Period 6

Context CH  SF33  Period 5a

Similar vessels to 5, 6 and 7 have been recorded at Norwich (Margeson 1993), Exeter (Charleston 1984) and St James, Bristol (Burchill forthcoming) where they have been identified as apothecary phials.

6. Complete narrow necked phial – pale green glass. 65mm x 25mm diam.

8. Fragments of a straight-sided glass vessel, possibly with flanged rim.

Context CZ  SF29  Period 5b 123

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Context HW  SF247  Period 5a

by Biringuccio. In this method the wax had been replaced by a very fine loam that held the pattern. The mould was constructed in a similar way to that described by Theophilus, however, after drying the loam was removed and the two parts of the mould fired whilst separate from each other and then re-assembled for casting.

9. Rectangular bottle. Pale green glass with moulded lozenge and ring decoration contained within a recessed cartouche. A company name is moulded into the base. Context JL  SF91  Period 5b

The method used to cast the bell can usually be identified by the colour of the surviving mould. In the lost wax process the core is usually black and the cope black on the inner (metal contact) surface and red/buff externally, whilst the loam pattern produces red to buff surfaces, often black beneath, to both core and cope.

10. Wide glass bowl, possibly part of a large drinking glass. Thin, clear glass. Context OE  SF248  Period 5b Items 11 and 12 are not illustrated.

There were 276 identifiable pieces of bell-mould along with a large number of crushed or decayed fragments that were too small to identify. The material was mostly recovered from within the casting pit itself.

11. Drinking glass stem, mould blown. Inverted baluster with lion mask decoration front and rear in the Venetian style. It is not clear if the glass is English or continental European in origin. Copies of drinking glasses in the Venetian style were certainly being made in London by the late sixteenth century and the style probably continued in production until the mid-seventeenth century (Charleston 1984).

The material could be divided roughly into three groups: Core

Context HW  SF92  Period 5a

A group of some 46 pieces with a convex surface. The surface appears to have been wiped or brushed, although this might have been the result of using strickle boards in the construction of the mould.

12. Fragments of a glass bottle or container. Glass in very poor condition. The vessel has a wide flanged rim but no other detail was discernible.

A further 16 large, friable, pieces with badly eroded surfaces, some attached to large flat stones were interpreted as the base of the moulds.

Context OU  SF157  Period 4a

Cope

Unidentifiable glass was recovered from Contexts HW (SF130), OE (SF248), NY (SF243 and 244). A large quantity of fragmentary window and bottle glass recovered from Period 5b and later contexts was not recorded in detail.

189 pieces with convexo-concave surfaces. All were wiped or brushed in a similar manner to the cope. Some fragments showed minor pitting and cracking of the surfaces.

5.17 Bell Founding

Two fragments exhibited wire-grooves: one single, the other with four wires.

Length of stem 56mm

By Rod Burchill

Other

The bell mould

25 pieces could not be identified as core or cope although on balance they probably represented core material.

Davis and Ovenden (1990) have described the two methods of bell founding commonly used in the medieval and early post-medieval periods. These methods were originally described by Theophilus writing c 1110 to 1140 and Biringuccio in 1540.

Two different sound-bow profiles were noted suggesting that the material represented moulds for at least two bells. Fabric

Theophilus described a lost wax process in which the core was covered with a layer of tallow or wax on which the decoration was formed; the cope was then constructed over this. On firing the mould, the wax melted and was drained-off to leave a void into which the molten bronze was cast.

The mould was comprised of a hard but friable gritty fabric, fired mostly black with orange to red/orange and sometimes buff surfaces. Analysis of the fabric showed it to contain carbonised vegetable matter including cereal seeds and straw probably derived from horse dung (Jones infra). Horse dung together with straw acted as a binder and imparted porosity to the mould on firing (Davis and Ovenden 1990).

By the end of the thirteenth century the lost wax process had been replaced by a loam pattern method as described 124

The Finds Discussion

elsewhere in the medieval city. The proportion of lead jettons may seem low but the sample is too small to assign any significance to this.

The colour of the surviving mould, mostly red to orange with a black core suggests the bells were made by the loam pattern method. This interpretation of the method used to prepare the moulds is supported by the contextual position of the material in the very late thirteenth or early fourteenth century (context TF and TY).

The earliest piece is the class 2 longcross penny of Henry III (187). It is in such good condition that it appears to have been deposited not long after it was struck in 1248. The rest of the medieval sequence consists entirely of jettons: one probably of Tournai (188) and three of Nuremberg (205, 4, 74). Lead jettons 109 and 207 are difficult to place: 109 is post-1247 and probably fourteenth/fifteenth century in date; 207 is more likely to be late fifteenth/sixteenth century in date.

Today the central tower contains four bells, all that remain out of a set of nine. Only one, Bell 3, is of medieval date with a foundation date of c 1300. The remaining three date to 1500 and 1670 (survey by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 1987). The surviving bells were cast with canons and cast-in type clapper staples.

The post-medieval sequence is a mix of coin of the realm and tokens. The occurrence of a halfpenny token of William Cooper of Glastonbury is worthy of note.

5.18 Coins and Tokens

Catalogue

by David Dawson

Eighteen coins and tokens were recovered (table 11). The identifications are listed in small find number order within each period.

A relatively small number of coins were excavated from Minster House and of these relatively few were recovered in their primary context. This is probably more a result of extensive nineteenth century building and demolition activity than the specific location of the site just inside the outer court of the monastic precinct. The ten coins and eight tokens are a similar selection to those found

Period 2 207. Uniface lead jetton, 16mm.,1.54gms., obv. twelve roughly parallel lines. 17/1992/207. context SW.

Table 11: Finds in chronological order Small Find No.

Type

Description

Date

Context

187

Penny

Henry III

1248

QE

109

Jetton

lead

?14th/15th

JQ

207

Jetton

lead

?15th/16th

SW

188

Jetton

?Tournai

1415-1497

QQ

205

Jetton

Nuremberg

1480-1490

SK

4

Jetton

Nuremberg

1500-1550

AC

74

Jetton

Nuremberg

1500-1550

GN

15

Halfgroat

Edward VI

1547-1551

BE

3

Jetton

Nuremberg

1586-1635

AC

2

Farthing

James I

1614-1625

AB

1

Halfpenny

Glastonbury

1666

AC

5

Farthing

Charles II

1672

AC

6

Halfpenny

William III

1697

AC

12

Sixpence

William III

1697

AL

7

Halfpenny

George III

1806

AA

14

10 centimes

Switzerland

1850

BB

13

Farthing

Victoria

1881

AP

28

Counterfeit halfpenny

1770

DA

125

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992 Period 3

4. Nuremberg jetton, rose/orb type c. 1500-1550, 25mm., obv. lys DEONEIM lys NEONINIVNEODEN, three crowns between three fleur-de-lys round a cinquefoil, rev. crown NEONEN crown NEONONE crown NOENON, reichsapfel in trefoil between six annulets Cf. Mitchiner type 1248-1286. 17/1992/4, context AC.

187. Henry III penny, longcross class 2, 1248 (North 985), obv. im.six-pointed star, HENRICUS REX TERCI, rev. NIC OLE ONC ANT (Nicole of Canterbury). Good condition. 17/1992/187, context QE.

5. Charles II, copper farthing, 1672. 17/1992/5, context AC.

Period 4a

6. William III, halfpenny, first issue, 1697, very worn. 17/1992/6, context AC.

188. Jetton, French Crown type, usually post-1380 but a similar example is attributed by Michener to Tournai c 1415-97, 28mm., obv. ..SAI. . ...SAI.IASIV..S, crown, rev. three- stranded cross fleury between four As in quatrefoil between four As. Cf. Mitchiner type 656. 17/1992/188, context QQ.

7. George III, halfpenny, fourth issue, 1806. 17/1992/7, context AA. 12. William III, silver sixpence, (?third bust, small crowns type), 1697, Exeter mint, worn. 17/1992/12, context AL.

Period 5a

13. Victoria, farthing, 1881, good condition. 17/1992/13, context AP.

74. Nuremberg Jetton, rose/orb type, c 1500-50, 24mm, obv. illegible Lombardic inscription, three crowns between three fleur-de-lys round a rose, rev. illegible Lombardic inscription round reichsapfel. Cf. Mitchiner large orb types 1190-1214. 17/1992/74, context GN.

14. Switzerland ten centimes piece, 1850. 17/1992/BB. 28. Counterfeit George III Irish halfpenny, 1770, worn. 17/1992/28, context DA.

Period 5b

5.19 Miscellaneous Objects

15. Edward VI, half-groat, posthumous issue of Henry VIII, 1547-51, im.E of Southwark (North 1878). 17/1992/15, context BE.

by Rod Burchill 1. Triangular object in pinky-white marble with deeply concave centre. Function unclear.

109. Uniface lead jetton, 22mm., 9.63gms., obv. three curvilinear triangles between a plain cross.

Context JR, (Fig. 86.1)  SF104  Period 4

17/1992/109, context JQ.

2. Tin--glazed earthenware vessel, possibly in the form of a heart, with deeply concave centre. White all-over tin-glaze. Function unclear.

205. Jetton, Nuremberg copy of Dauphine type, c 1480-1490, 30mm., obv. im. illegible . . . BONASUI, powdered with lys, 2 & 3 dolphin. Corroded. Cf. Mitchiner type 1039-1044. 17/1992/205, context SK.

Context OJ, Fig. 86.2)  SF174  Period 5b

Period 6

Clay marbles

1. Halfpenny token of William Cooper of Glastonbury, issue, 1666, 21mm., im. and stops, pierced cinquefoils, obv. WILLIAM COOPER, in centre, HIS/HALF/PENY, three pierced cinquefoils; rev. IN GLOSTONBVRY 1666, the front of a house. Williamson Somerset type 142. 17/1992/1, context AB.

The finds assemblage included 15 clay marbles all from nineteenth century contexts. The marbles varied in size from 12mm to 18mm and from 25mm to 30mm. A single decorated marble had a diameter of 45mm. 5.20 Worked Stone

2. James I, farthing, Lennox round, type 3c of 1614-25 (Peck), 15mm. 17/1992/2, context AC.

by John Bryant

3. Nuremberg jetton of Hans Krauwinkel fl. 1586-1635, 22mm., obv. sixfoil HANNS KRAVWINKEL IN NVR, three crowns between three fleur-de-lys round a rose, rev. sixfoil HEVT.ROT.MORGEN.TODT., reichsapfel in trefoil, cf. Eklund type 51, Mitchiner type 1580. 17/1992/3, context AC.

The majority of the worked stone recovered comprised medieval stonework re-used in later post-medieval features, principally Floor 2 in Room 1, and the wall dividing the two levels after the landscaping of the Minster House site (Wall 1). Relatively little worked stone was found in situ. In virtually every instance the stone used was the local 126

The Finds

Fig. 86. Miscellaneous objects © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

freestone, an oolitic limestone known as Dundry Stone, technically an Inferior Oolite.

86 was at one corner of Wall 30 (one of a pair of piers within the fourteenth century cellarium) and consisted of a block of Old Red Sandstone, chamfered at one corner with a roll and bar stop.

Principal amongst the in-situ features was the surviving 14th-century doorway in the east face of the west cloister wall (Stone Feature 20). This consisted of a two-centred moulded arch with drip mould and label stops, the jambs decorate d with plain chamfers, the whole in oolitic limestone. On the west side of the wall was a segmental rear arch and jambs, all in Old Red Sandstone and with a plain chamfer. This latter had been rebuilt towards the end of the nineteenth century. At present the moulding on the main arch is in poor condition, having been badly eroded, although a complete profile may still be seen. Roland Paul recorded the profile in 1910, when it was less badly damaged (Fig.13). Hugh O’Neill’s drawing of 1821 (BRSMG M.1893) depicts the doorway in better times, although the stops are still not clearly shown. His illustration shows that the carved head today in position above the arch was also there then. It has a flat top and may have served as a corbel supporting one of the roof trusses above the west cloister walk.

Four pieces of worked stone were used in the construction of Drain 20. One of the capstones was M.77, part of the square frame to a window that contained three trefoilheaded lights, each opening about 190mm in width (Fig. 87.1). The mullions were narrow but deep, and the line of each was carried up between two smaller hollowed spandrels as far as the lintel. This stonework probably dates from the later fourteenth century. Floor 2 in Room 1 (context KZ) produced 22 fragments of worked stone, including medieval window tracery (e.g., M.54 & 85), medieval or later window architrave, and other moulded stonework (e.g., M.78 & 81, Fig. 87.2). Fragment M.78 carried graffiti, including the letters XMC. Within the eighteenth-nineteenth century layer ER, in the eastern part of the excavated area, was found a fragment of carving of probably late medieval date, possibly incorporating the top of the rebus of Abbot John Newland, or Nailheart (M.33; Fig. 87.3).

Further in-situ features, found below ground, were the bottoms of three doorways in the remains of Minster House. These appear to have been contemporary, dating to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries. All comprised the lower ends of plain chamfered jambs, terminating in stops. Stone Features 2 and 3 each carried broach or pyramid stops, but Stone Feature 1 possessed only a half-broach version.

After Floor 2, the source of most re-used worked stone was Wall 1, the retaining wall between the upper and lower open areas after completion of the Victorian nave and west front. This produced 17 items, including a fragment of squared Norman stonework with rows of nailhead decoration, perhaps part of a base or capital (M.8; Fig. 88.4) and the upper end of a later medieval coffin lid (M.18; Fig. 88.5).

Re-used stonework Most of the re-used stonework was from contexts that were removed during excavation, and each item was labelled with a number in the M.xx series (M for moulding). Two pieces that were not so treated were Stone Features 28 and 86. The former, the base for the south-east buttress of Minster House, included a large fragment of freestone, part of a scalloped capital of the Norman period. Stone Feature

Amongst the worked stone were four D-traps, with their associated vertical members (M.1, 4, 30 & 79, with M.2, 5, 31 & 80). A number of the remaining fragments of worked stone were not moulded as such, merely finished with flat surfaces in several planes. 127

Excavations at Minster House, Bristol, 1992

Fig. 87. Architectural stone © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

128

The Finds

Fig. 88. Architectural stone (contd) © Bristol Culture (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery)

129

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DC/F/1/3  Letters, specifications, reports, accounts, subscription lists, press cuttings and other papers relating to Cathedral rebuilding and restoration, 1860-1924 DC/F/9/1 Drawings and surveys, 1885-1926 (unnumbered) ‘College Gate, Bristol’, drawing by George Samuel, R.A., 1792 Other Records:George Ashmead’s surveys of the City of Bristol, 1854 and 1874 Consolidated Rates for St. Augustine’s Parish, nineteenth century Land Tax returns for St. Augustine’s Parish, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Poor Rate assessments for St. Augustine’s Parish, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 17563, p.124  Photograph of west end of Cathedral and north side of Minster House, c. May 1881 In Bristol Reference Library:Census returns for 1841 to 1881 Illustrations in Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery:Anon  Photograph of Minster House from College Square, c.1860. BRSMG Ma3830. Ashford, L  ‘The Minster House, St. Augustine’s’, 1825. BRSMG K401. De Cort, Henry  View of the Minster House area from the Lower Green, 1794. BRSMG M938. Eyre, Edward  View of the Gatehouse and Minster House from the south-west, c.1776. BRSMG M940. Moore, Mary Katharine  ‘St. Augustine’s Gateway, Lower College Green – 1882’. BRSMG K380. O’Neill, Hugh  ‘Cathedral and one of the Prebendal Houses’, 1821. BRSMG M1750. O’Neill, Hugh  ‘Back entrance to the Prebendal House from the Cloisters’, 1821. BRSMG M1893 O’Neill, Hugh  ‘The Prebendal House in the Lower Green as now altered’, 1823. BRSMG M1751. Parkman, Alfred  ‘Refectory Bristol Cathedral’, 1883. BRSMG M4008. Saunders, John (of Bath) ‘South front of the same Prebendal House’, c.1822. BRSMG M1752. Street, George Edmund (?)  Photograph of Minster House from the Lower Green, c.1867. BRSMG R394.A.2. Tovey, Samuel G  View of the Gatehouse and Minster House, 1843. BRSMG M4049. 135

Appendix 1 Extract from the Parliamentary Survey of 1649 Transcription in Bettey 2007, p.75 Dr Greenes house Late one of the Prebends of the Cathedrall, consisting of two sellers lyeing under the great hall called the Bishopps hall, one kitching with a loft over it, a little butterie nere the kitching, a little hall, a Parler wainscoated in the first storie; two chambers and a studdy in the second storie; a garret over the aforesaid chamber in the third storie; one little garden walled about lyeing east uppon the Cloysters and west on the little greene. Yearly rent £3 10s 0d. Worth to be sold £30. Length: East to West 64 feet. Breadth: 20 feet

137

Appendix 2 John Taylor’s letter to the Athenæum, reproduced in the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, Monday May 15th and Saturday May 20th, 1882 THE RESTORATION OF BRISTOL CATHEDRAL Mr. John Taylor, the librarian of the Bristol Museum Library, has addressed to the Athenæum the subjoined protest against the proposed demolition of the Minster-house:“Bristol, April, 1882 “A circular from the Dean of Bristol has just been addressed to the Mayor of the same city, and issued to a limited number of citizens, to express the intention of the Chapter to take down a part, or more probably the whole, of what is known as the Minster-house, in order to provide a larger space before the west front of the Cathedral, against the south-west corner of which this condemned house abuts, and funds are requested for furtherance of this design. It is to be hoped that not one penny will be subscribed towards the mischievous procedure. Anyone familiar with Bristol Cathedral, as seen from Lower College-green, must have been struck with the picturesque assemblage of buildings of which Minster-house forms the central piece, between the western end of the church and the great Norman gateway of the Augustinian abbey. The house it is proposed to remove is a fifteenth century building, and comprises remains of the prior’s lodgings; it has a pointed timber roof, with wing braces, which has suffered mutilation but retains its old character, and there are two good oriels, or projecting windows, with a restored Perpendicular window beneath the western gable. The interior has been modernised with plaster additions, but mouldings and other features are in many parts still left in relief. To remove the house would not only be to destroy a picturesque architectural composition and break up the sequestered character of the Cathedral close, bit it would leave only a slim modern tenement to buttress the grand Norman gateway with the two-storied fifteenth century house erected over it. And if this tenement be also removed, as contemplated, it is feared that the whole fabric of the Gate-house will fall for lack of support. At any rate, even with its support, the Gate-house, dissociated from the Minsterhouse, would appear only an insulated and purposeless block of buildings, which might be likely to procure its own condemnation. To render the purposed destruction the more gratuitous, the western portion of the Cathedral is already sufficiently displayed, inasmuch as, as I have said, the Minster-house touches it only at the extreme north-west angle. Moreover, I might almost say there is no western frontage to the Cathedral; at any rate, the two western towers are not yet built, nor are there funds for their building, and the erection should fairly precede the desire to display them. Again, though it be admitted that the rear of the Minster-house, with its stopped windows, as seen from the Upper-green, is by no means ornamental, it is confessedly susceptible of being made so. Indeed, Mr. Street asserted that the house might not only advisably be spared, but made a conspicuous ornament to the place by an expenditure of about a thousand pounds. If a thousand pounds can be found, may we hope it will be for the preservation, and not for the unnecessary destruction, of the building in question? JOHN TAYLOR

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BAR BRITISH SERIE S 669

‘This is an important site and in a city that has seen relatively little (published) excavation of its important medieval past. The publication also includes a very rich array of finds reports, and would be of considerable interest to a range of material culture researchers.’ Dr Hugh Willmott, University of Sheffield

Minster House, removed in 1883, adjoined the south-west corner of Bristol Cathedral. The cathedral was created in 1542 from the former St Augustine’s Abbey, which had been the head house in England of the Victorine branch of the Augustinian canons. Minster House was used as a prebendal house from 1542 and had formerly been accommodation for the abbey’s prior. Most of the house remains dated from the fifteenth century onwards but did include one wall of twelfth century date. The excavation uncovered part of the western claustral range or cellarium, dating from the twelfth century but rebuilt in the fourteenth century, including a bell tower and outer parlour. Evidence for bell-founding and tile production was also found, while there were finds from all periods from the 1100s onwards. This book looks at the history, archaeology and finds, and includes nineteenth century illustrations of Minster House. John Bryant was site surveyor for the 1992 excavation of Minster House. Over his career he worked on many excavations and recorded numerous buildings, also producing desk-based assessments and some environmental impact assessment chapters. He has worked on projects across Southwest England and South Wales.

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