House - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

A pre-development excavation in 1996 between Back Lane and Lamb Alley revealed a number of post-and-wattle structures that appear to date, from the twelfth century anda large stave-built house (9m by c. 4.5m) of (approx. ) thirteenth-century date. The house was constructed with large oak base-plates into which large squared posts, which would probably have supported the roof, were inserted. Smaller posts were also used to support the thin plank walls. Two internal divisions separated the house into three areas: a large front room containing a hearth, a smaller back room, and a passageway that ran alongside this second room. The aisle was linked to a stone and wood pathway which led to a cesspit at the rear of the house (Coughlan). Further excavations on the site in 1997 revealed property boundaries delineated by post-and-wattle fences with post-and-wattle structures constructed within them. The full width of one plot (5.5m) was evident within the excavated area, with the extreme north and the extreme south of two other plots also being recorded. A total of six post-and-wattle structures were recorded in the eastern half of the excavated area. Pottery remains have dated this phase to the late 12th/early 13th century. Overlying the post-and-wattle structureswas a large stave-built structure, probably a house. It would have had a maximum length of 12.6m if it extended as far as the present Back Lane street front and was 4.5m wide. The excavated remains, however had a maximum length of 9.8m. The walls of the structure were constructed by placing large, mortised oak base-plates horizontally on the ground. Large, squared oak posts were then set into the base-plates and thin oak planks were attached to the outside of the posts in a clinker-built fashion to form the walls. The posts, as well as supporting the plank walls, would have acted as roof supports. The features in this phase are 13th-century. The latest phase of medieval activity on the site was the construction of stone houses. There are historical references to stone houses on Rochelle Street (Back Lane) in 1260, so the beginning of this phase of activity can probably be dated to the mid- to late 13th century (Coughlan)