Pool Meadow to Priory Street

March 1937

I should like my readers to follow the course of the river bed through Pool Meadow. I mentioned the finding of the Mill foundations and conduit in my last article. Just below this Mill, and lying lengthwise of the river course, a large elm tree was discovered and dug out. It lay under the soil at a depth of about six feet, and was about 300-400 years old, and no doubt fell long before the river ran in that course. About twenty yards further on, where a bend in the river occurred, a great number of piles were driven in very close together, as though to carry some-thing of great weight. It may have been a small tower to allow the monks to go through to St. Osburg's Pool, as quite a lot of large stones were round about. Some of the stones were from the Monastery, as shown by the carving, and had been used in the building of the city walls. The ground was of soft clay and soil, and needed piles all the way; in fact, scarcely a yard of the river course was without them.

Very little pottery of 14th to 15th century was found, but a great deal of the 16th century. There were a number of glass wine-flagons of 16th to 17th century, and also a large lead weight with part of an iron ring in the top - this may have been a weight for scales, or for attaching to a chain for hobbling a horse, but it is a very heavy piece.

Coming to Priory Street, a new bridge has been necessary both for depth and width; the old bridge, built about 80 years ago, often caused a block during flood times. Quite a number of people still living remember when old houses, once part of the Monastery buildings, and possibly a part of the Bishop's Palace, stood where the Triumph works are now, on the west side. A painting of these houses can be seen at the Council House. Steps led down to these, and also to Booth & Earle's timber yard. Part of the Bishop's Palace is yet to be seen at the back of the offices opposite Cope Street, and Speed's map of 1610 shows it to have been a very large building. The old graveyard of St. Michael's Church on the New Street side was originally the Bishop's Gardens.

Referring again to the bridge; on the lower side, at a depth of about fourteen feet, the piles of St. Osburg's Pool were found - this is very interesting following on the finding of the mill and conduit. The oak piles are even now in good condition, and four were found. A thousand years makes little difference when the piles are in moist matrix. At the east side of the river, and continuing under the wall near the swimming baths a good length of the city wall foundations can be seen, and scores of oak piles. I am writing more about this next month.