M & S, Hereford
M &S in Hereford is in the High Town, the site of the City's Norman market place. The store is built on the site of the northern part of the defences of the original Mercian town. After Hereford was burnt by the Welsh under Gruffydd ap Llywellyn in 1052, Harold Godwinson, who was then made Earl of Hereford, widened and strengthened these defences. Harold was to be the last king of Anglo-Saxon England.
Two trenches were excavated below the basement floor - trench 1 was slightly north and east of trench 2.
When the old Greenlands department store was demolished in the 1960s and the new Marks and Spencer Store was built on this site, there was no archaeological work done, so this project was particularly exciting.
/ Not just archaeology .... but M&S archaeology. Cleaning preserved timber structures beneath the floor of the basement.
/ 'x' is the position of M & S marked on this view of Hereford in 1142. The image was created by Enok Sweetland and based on a model of medieval Hereford in the city's Old House museum.
By this time the new Norman-French market and suburb had developed to the north of the old Anglo-Saxon town. It would be surrounded by a new defensive circuit later in the century.
/ The narrow East Street originated as the road behind the northern rampart of the Anglo-Saxon town. The original rampart was on the left.
/ Hereford's old town hall stood in the market place. Originally of three stories the top one was removed when the structure threatened to collapse. The buildings behind it on the left occupied what is now the site of M&S. On the right is the entrance to Hereford Butter Market before the clock tower was built.
/ A possible northern edge of the Anglo- Saxon ditch still survives underneath the Hereford M & S store. This was recorded in trench 1.
/ Trench 2 cut through the floor of the basement - the archaeologist is excavating timber wattle work. The two circular features are later medieval rubbish pits
/ Exposed wooden wattle. The post on the right formed the north east corner of a building or enclosure.
Similar wattle was found in the Anglo- Saxon ditch when the old City Arms hotel was rebuilt as Barclay's Bank in the 1970s
/ The timber wattle in section - the section exposed was fully excavated and retained for further analysis.
/ The timber wattle was built into layers accumulated over this stone surface.
The surface was laid in a thin band of clay that covered natural gravel. There was no sign of the southern edge to the Anglo- Saxon ditch.
Could this be the space or berm between the rampart and the ditch?
/ Certainly the dating evidence suggested that there was Anglo-Saxon period activity on this site.
'This is a very unusual sherd the fabric is Stafford Ware sometimes known as Chester ware (Fabric 48), anddates from the mid 9th to early 11th century. The form is most likely that of a lamp, although it is possible that it could be a small crucible in which case it is rather thin and has not seen a lot of use.' - Alan Jacobs of Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service
/ 'This appears to be Cotswolds ware (Fabric 57) which was datedfrom the early-mid11th century , with the possibility of them being 10th. They generally continue into the late 12th century but this looks an earlier form.' - Alan Jacobs
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Archenfield Archaeology Ltd
Bastion Mews, Hereford
· borehole survey
Although not original, the walling here gives an impression of what the Hereford walls were like. The city ditch was in front of this wall.Boreholes behind this wall found a very compact layer of gravel – the base of the 12th century gravel rampart which preceded the stone wall.
Immediately to the north of this site was the most imposing of Hereford’s medieval gates – variously known as Bye Gate, Bister’s Gate or Bishopstreet Gate. /
/ The Bye Gate in the 18th century (courtesy of Hereford City Library). On the extreme left is the turret or ‘bastion’ which gives Bastion Mews its name. The left hand side of the gatehouse here was used as the city prison for many years until replaced with a new building in what is now Gaol Street. This is now the Elim Pentecostal Church. history
Publication
This site will be published in a volume of Archenfield Archaeology’s Hereford City excavations to be published by Logaston Press
A note on this project appears in the 1998 volume of the Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club