archaelogical dig

In Autumn 2005 Northamptonshire Archaeology completed a 17 week dig on the site to record the archaeology of medieval Hill Street and Bond Street before our construction programme began.

At the corner of Hill Street and Ryley Street the work is uncovering the remains of a house which reached its greatest extent in the 1850s when it was inhabited by a Mr. Jacombs, a silk ribbon-weaver, but it may incorporate much earlier structural remains dating from the medieval period.Next door to this was a plot which was for a long time a garden. However, beneath the buried garden soil lie many pits which are the evidence for earlier rubbish disposal.

The medieval city wall runs beneath Bond Street here linking the former gates at Hill Street and Upper Well Street. The wall has recently been traced through the area of the adjacent Belgrade Theatre development.

There have been several finds including shoes, a jug and a pewter spoon.

latest pictures

Meet The Team (click pic for names)	The town ditch ran for 3.62km around the medieval town and here is 12m wide and 2.5m deep, dug in about 1390. Between Hill Street and Well Street it was kept wet (fed by the Radford Brook) to use for industrial purposes as late as 1518. However, there was a constant battle to keep it free from being fouled with rubbish and muck in general. Mmmm, how lovely! This section across the ditch was the first of three to have been dug on the site. 120 tons of soil was removed by hand! Each section has so far taken 4 weeks to dig and has produced pottery, animal bone (including numerous cow's heads) and the infamous shoes (see above). Much more information lies locked inside the many environmental samples which have been taken. these will yield seeds, pollen, molluscs and insect remains, providing a snapshot of the local environment in the sixteenth century, just as the ditch began to silt up once and for all.