Barracks Square, Black Bull Inn

January 1936

BARRACKS SQUARE

BLACK BULL INN

The excavations for the new market revealed how the ground had been filled in from time to time. At the corner nearest the old hospital buildings the depth of the natural soil was found at 9ft. 6ins. Also at the same spot the back roadway, shown on Bradford's map of 1735, was found at a depth of 5ft. 6ins. This was made of large stones which would be most suitable, as the ground was very marshy. The rick yard stood at the corner, outside the present building, nearest to the Arcade.

A number of the holes dug were found to have been quarried for clay, and in some cases had even reached the stone at a depth of 15ft. 6ins. Springs of water welled up in most of the holes, of which there were 50 or more. The digging had been done about the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The filling-in of that period corresponds with so many other places mentioned, viz., dung heaps and pieces of cattle sheds. As usual in such filling boots were very plentiful, some with tops and soles together and even the laces, but the flax stitching rotted away. Some tops were decorated, and pieces of leather cut from the hides and thrown away were in good preservation, in fact as good as the leather of to-day, or even better than some sold to-day. Two bone needles were found and the skeleton of a horse. Only a small quantity of pottery came to light and a fourteenth or fifteenth century spur with the heel strap in good condition. Riveted on to the strap were a number of buckles for decorations. One piece of a fourteenth century encaustic tile was found, also a boar's jaw in good condition.

In 1641 the "Bull Inn" was held by Norton Hanson, and a rent charge of 3/4 per year was given to Ford's Hospital. As this is the last Article on the "Black Bull Inn," I will describe the back way for their farm vehicles and cattle. The "Bull Fields," now partly used as a goods station and part as building land, including Regent Street, Grosvenor Road and Westminster Road, were held by them and derives its name in that way. The road commenced at the west end of the present Arcade, running on the outside of the rick yard, almost on the spot at present used for a road, turning to the south at the corner and running on the front of New Market, then between the "Geisha Cafe" and "Peeping Tom Inn," where it crossed through the site of the factory of Curtis & Beamish to the Grey Friars' Gate, at the bottom of Warwick Lane.

The field out of which Hertford Street was cut in 1814 was called the "Big Crab Tree Field," and was being used as gardens when Hertford Street was made, On the right of the gate were thirteen houses with wooden framework, belonging to Christopher Devonport. These were pulled down in 1643 and rebuilt in Warwick Lane, which, up to that time, was a lane only. This was a boundary of the Grey Friars' burial ground; with just one small place belonging to the Grey Friars, where the bell may have been rung for the dirges. This has been rebuilt and called the "Cheylesmore Inn," once "Bell Inn."

Where the monument of Sir Thomas White stands was a pond, at which their cattle would drink; on the right hand side, now "Sibree Hall" site, were several small fields, two of these, I believe, were called the "Little Crab Tree Fields." A drawing of 1731 shows hay being carted through the Grey Friars Gate to the ''Bull Inn."

About the eighteenth century the Barracks Square was made into a bowling green, and in 1793 the Barrack was built on its site.

Next month I hope to say more about the excavations in the river and St. Osburg's Pool.