Monument record MDO19400 - 7-9 Millhams Street, Christchurch (site X4); medieval town defences

Excavation at 7-9 Millhams Street, Christchurch, during 1971, revealed rubble in a late 14th-15th century context, indicating the robbing of the medieval town defences.

R. A. Hills directed an excavation at 7-9 Millhams Street Christchurch, during 1971 in advance of development. These excavations were subsequently published as a short note in DNHAS monograph 5 (1).

Five trenches (A-E) were excavated in order to investigate the slope down to the millstream at the rear of the tenement. Only trenches D & E was a random spread mainly of large heathstones below a layer of dark grey sandy soil containing mid 14th-15th century pottery. The rubble spread lay on top of a clay layer containing charcoal and heathstone fragments below which was grey sandy soil containing mid-14th century pottery.

In the light of other neighbouring excavations, the rubble spread was interpreted as deriving from the robbing of the medieval town defensive wall.

<1> Jarvis, K S, 1983, Excavations in Christchurch 1969-80, 29-31 (Monograph). SWX4028.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2011 11:53AM