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Somerset Historic Environment Record

32047

Public access:

It is unlikely that there is anything to see unless this event took place on a site (see link above) where there may be details of access. Otherwise please assume that the site is on private land. [Information last updated on 29 May 2012]

Details:

In June 2005, the excavation of a number of boreholes and test windows was monitored in the Mary Mitchell Garden and the Masons' Yard at Wells Cathedral.

Five window samples between 2m and 6m in depth were excavated in the Mary Mitchell Garden. Several substantial archaeological features were located, but no building foundations. WS2 revealed a sequence of thin deposits dominated by crushed stone and stone dust mixed with clay, resting on the natural head deposit. This sequence fits the description of what deposits would be expected from the successive episodes of construction and renovation of the buildings on the site and may well contain deposits relating to the pre-Norman minster and the later medieval choristers' house. A similar sequence was seen in WS3, but at a shallower depth. Occupation deposits in WS4 and WS5 were thought to relate to activity around the pre-Norman minster. In WS1 a large and hitherto unknown negative feature, 2.5m in depth, was located. The lower deposits of this feature were very wet, suggesting that it may have been a wet ditch or a well. The depth below ground and the stratigraphy suggest an early date, probably before or contemporary with the pre-Norman minster church.

In the Masons' Yard, four rotary boreholes were excavated, with a range of depths from 4.3m-7m. RH1 cut through two possible walls, one above the other, at 3.4m and 4.4m below the present ground surface. The wet deposits in RH2 are likely to reflect leaching from the masons' slurry pit. RH4 lies within an area marked as a pond in the late 18th century, so unsurprisingly, the deposits here were wet. RH3 also contained deposits associated with a large wet negative feature. It may be that these two boreholes fall within a watercourse which is known to have flowed south-westwards from the springs, the pond being the last vestige of the stream to have been diverted or culverted. {1}

References:

Record created on 29 May 2012

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