Central Winchester Regeneration

Save the date! ?
Our next CWR site open day is on 11th November, from 10am-1pm. Guided tours will run every 15 minutes from the PCA gazebo in Abbey Gardens, where there will be a display of the artefacts recovered so far.

The floor surfaces pictured here, 2m below ground level, are associated with large wooden piles driven into the river silts, that may have supported walls. Is this a Roman building or perhaps a Saxon building? With its rudimentary flooring, what was this building and what was it used for?

In Trench 1, beneath two phases of medieval buildings which once stood along Lower Brook Street, excavation was terminated at 2m below ground where we encountered the water table. The deepest deposit in this trench was a black, organically rich layer containing medieval finds. We’ve taken both bulk and column samples from this layer, expecting to uncover a range of organic remains. What lies beneath this deposit? Could it be a long-forgotten river channel, an ancient ‘Brook’?

Meanwhile, in Trench 3, we have floor surfaces at 2m below ground level! These are cut by pits containing medieval finds, including pottery that could potentially be late Saxon. The surfaces are also associated with substantial wooden piles driven into the river silts, that may have supported walls. So are we looking at a Roman building or perhaps a Saxon building? With its rudimentary flooring, what was this building and what was it used for? We’ll keep you posted!

We’re back in action at Trench 1 and on a mission to extend the area, so we can safely excavate to a depth of 2m to reach the horizon of Roman archaeology. As the picture shows, the weather has decided to play tricks on us, and the team are working hard in very challenging conditions.

At the bottom of the picture is the continuation of a medieval wall, with evidence of some masonry being stolen. We suspect they used it in the construction of other buildings nearby, like a good old-fashioned medieval recycling programme!

It’s getting exciting at our Central Winchester Regeneration site!

Our team is hard at work in Trench 3, tackling the challenging task of excavating through thick layers of alluvial deposits to unveil the hidden medieval archaeology beneath!

Our volunteering days at the Central Winchester Regeneration site are proving very popular! 

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Sanjay (second from front) shared his positive and insightful experience on social media:

Having watched Time Team for years, I decided to do a day of volunteering yesterday Pre-Construct Archaeology Limited in Winchester. Three learnings.

? Something I had never done before. Had the usual fears that someone else would do it better. That was bollocks.

? Cleaning animal bones is very therapeutic. Pigs teeth are scary.

? Amazing to touch the very things people were eating, making and burning in the medieval age, just yards from our house. Humble lives in what is now a very expensive place.

Tony Robinson here I come

#learning #calm #focus #nofear

Sanjay Murthy

There are still a few places left if you’d like to help us piece together the past; book your place here: