EDO4956 - Staggs (Site X12), Christchurch; excavation 1976

Keith Jarvis, for Poole Museums, directed an excavation during march-June 1976 on the Staggs site (X12), Christchurch. The area available for excavation was a tenement strip behind the High Street frontage, the site provided an excellent opportunity to examine a cross section of the early town. An area measuring 45m x 10m was mechanically stripped of topsoil and an area 42m x 7.7m was then excavated. Most features were cut into the natural sand and gravel and sealed by topsoil. The SW area comprised an 18th century dump deposit adjacent to late medieval layers whilst the NE area revealed four late medieval structures. In summary, the site produced a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age assemblage of 172 worked flints recovered from residual contexts, including a barbed and tanged arrowhead. One sherd of Early-Middle Saxon pottery identical to the pottery from the late 6th-7th century cemetery at Bargates was recovered in a residual context. Several residual sherds of late Saxon/Early medieval pottery were revealed. Traces of the defences were identified retrospectively in a trial trench. Considerable 13th-16th century occupation was indicated by the fragmentary plans of eight structures, probably mainly outbuildings. Two hearths, a well, many pits, property boundaries and two arcs of a late 13th-early 14th century enclosure trench were also excavated. Part of the site was terraced in the early 18th century and several 19th century features were excavated.