EWX1106 - St Catherine's Chapel, St Catherine's Hill, Christchurch; excavation 1921

Excavations in order to verify the tradition that a chapel formerly existed within a square enclosure on St. Catherine's Hill, Christchurch were directed by WG Wallace during August 1921. Exploratory trenches found abundant fragments of Purbeck stone with mortar still adhering to them, pieces of stone roof tiles, a few pieces of Purbeck marble, glazed floor tiles and partially glazed Cockscomb ridge tiles and several small fragments of painted glass. However, no worked stone or traces of foundations were discovered. It was concluded that a substantial building had stood on the site but had since been removed and only rubbish left upon the site. It was impossible to discern the size and formof this building. All of the finds associated with the building material appeared to be of medieval date, and the glazed tiles and painted glass suggest an ecclesiastical structure. Documentary evidence recorded in the VCH suggest a chapel stood on St. Catherine's Hill during the 14th century. A shallow well, supposed to be ancient and lying c. 200 yards south of the chapel site, below the brow of the hill, was also excavated to a depth of 6 feet. Only a few fragments of apparently medieval pottery were found. The position of this well could not be determined by John Davey but has been mapped as a point at the head of a small combe 250m SSE of the square enclosure. At the same time three trenches were dug across the north, east and west sides of the square earthwork surrounding the chapel site. This comprised two parallel banks and three ditches. The banks on the north and west sides were constructed from the local gravel and the eastern bank from peaty sand. In clearing out the central ditch on the west side, a single sherd of red medieval coarseware was found at the base suggesting that the earthwork was contemporary with the chapel.