Newport Street Excavations

NEWPORT STREET EXCAVATIONS, WORCESTER

Progress Report

The first stage of post-excavation for Newport Street is now complete. The major aspect of this work has been to try and assess the sheer volume of artefactual material that has been retrieved from an excavation of this size - most of it to be studied in detail, which takes a considerable amount of time. The bricks taken from the numerous different walls and floors of different plots and phases within Newport Street provide the largest collection from any excavation in Worcester, with nearly 2000kg retrieved. The dating of the walls will help to provide a more refined chronology of building developments in the City through the Medieval and post-medieval periods, which is of considerable importance and a useful resource. For other artefacts, such as pottery (174kg) and clay tobacco pipes (1470 fragments), we can see in greater detail aspects of production, trade and exchange from the Roman period onwards (for the pottery) and the 17th Century onwards (for the pipes), with examples of pipes from Cleobury Mortimer, Bristol and Gloucester. The pottery also tells us about the quality of life within this area of Worcester, what types of vessels were used and how rich or poor the people were, and what types, styles and imports could be purchased.

The environmental evidence also tells us a great deal about the development of the site, especially from the Medieval onwards. The animal bones provide a great deal of information on both common domestic species such as cattle, sheep, horse, pig, cat, dog and rat and the slightly more exotic, with small numbers of cod bones and a single dolphin vertebra recovered. The larger plant remains (such as leaves and seeds) did not survive extensively, although the pollen did. Initial results tell us that from early on, this area was not cultivated at any time, although it was often an open, wet meadowlands landscape. The appearance of cultivated crops also demonstrates that these were harvested in the surrounding countryside, and with so many appearing in the cess-pits excavated, formed a major aspect of diet.