Post Office Excavations

January 1939

EXCAVATIONS ON POST OFFICE SITE

Lying at the rear of the Post Office sorting station is a piece of ground which might be called "No man's land." Bounded on the West with Grey Friars Lane, on the North with High Street, on the East with Little Park Street, and on the South with Cow Lane, it has lain idle for a long period and now is being included in large extensions taking place for the ever growing Post Office. At the present time about one eighth of an acre is being built upon, the buildings nearest being Masonic Hall, and Messrs. Waters Garage.

Some of this ground was once the site of the stables and coach houses of the old Stage Coach Station so well known as the "Craven Arms", but in the coaching time as the "White Bear Inn" for long kept by Mr. Dan Claridge; and another part, was once the garden, shedding and stable room of Mr. Warwick, a greengrocer, whose shop stood in Grey Friars Lane at the present entrance to the sorting office. At some time a very large stone building had stood on a part of this site running from the direction of Messrs. Waters Garage, but as no basements are being made, no dimensions can be arrived at. Near this wall was one of nine dung heaps found on this site. Most of the ground had in the 13-14th century been quarried for clay and sand and after-wards, as was usual, filled up with the dung from the cattle sheds, and out of this a number of boots of the period were found. One boot had a long narrow toe filled with hair betwixt the sole and upper. The leather, which was of calf skin, was as good as the day it was shaped. Another boot, perhaps a girl's, had the upper cut from one piece of leather, and folded over, being stitched at the side, and having a small piece of leather for a stiffening in the heel. The sole had had a heel grafted on, and again this boot was in excellent condition. Leather laces were also found near by. In another place a piece of a leather shield was discovered, and was decorated with embossed work, of St. Catherine's wheel. A number of pieces of pottery, jug handles, a part of a sauce vessel, which had three compartments in, and encaustic tiles of the same period. On the south side before coming to Cow Lane site is a garden, a part of which is to be built upon, once belonging to the "Kirby House." This garden once extended to the old Baptist Chapel, of George Eliot fame, built in 1793. On the demolition of Cow Lane a great deal of stone walling was found and I have often wondered if the Castle of Earl Ranulph and possibly of Earl Leofric and Countess Godiva stood here, where a part of the massive wall is yet to be seen beneath the chimney stack of "Kirby House." This wall ran for a great distance at the rear of the buildings, and a few stones yet bore the marks where some warrior had sharpened his axe or arrows. The diggings for the foundations of the Post Office concluded for the time being at the north side of this garden and the last thing to be found was a large stone wall with foundations 10ft. deep and what appeared to be a large entrance betwixt that wall and another large building of stone. If this was the castle it was destroyed in Stephen's time about 1141, and although nothing earlier than 13th to 14th century has been found as yet, time will tell what may be between these massive walls.

At a depth of about 6ft., four perfect wine flagons of the 17th century were found, one bearing a crest in a ring I.R.

I am expecting to find in about the centre of this garden the "Red Ditch" the first sewer of about the 13th cent. which ran to the Grey Friars, and was found in Union Street in 1825, where the Christ Church Parochial Rooms now stand.

On the ground now built upon, a large stone sewer was found and is thought to be a tributary to the "Red Ditch."

I would like to continue the story of this site, but it may be 12 months or more before other buildings are commenced.

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