1-2 Redcliff Street

1-2 REDCLIFF STREET, BRISTOL

Archaeological Excavations

Two furnaces used for the casting of copper have been identified. These furnaces would have been used for reheating copper alloy metal in ceramic crucibles for casting into objects. The fractured remains of crucibles have been found scattered around the furnaces and the waste from the casting process (slag) has been recovered from inside the furnace structures. Moulds for making skillets (cooking pans) have been found. One furnace is relatively small and may represent small-scale craft working within a dwelling, whereas the second furnace is much larger and could represent a commercial enterprise of some size. No close archaeological parallels for these furnaces are currently known and they are therefore of considerable importance for the study of 16th/17th-century metallurgy.

Other evidence for post-medieval industrial activity included a substantial dump of clay tobacco pipe manufacturing waste. Stamps on the remains of some of the pipe wasters identify the maker as John Hunt, who was a founder member of the Bristol Guild of Pipe Makers in 1652.

A watching brief will take place along the street frontage and may uncover the remains of the houses which lined medieval Redcliff Street.

Excavation of the medieval Little Thomas Lane

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