Central Winchester Regeneration

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: 

As part of Winchester Heritage Open Days PCA will open the Central Winchester Regeneration site to the public between 12 noon and 2pm on weekdays for a talk/tour with poster displays and finds viewing.

When: 8th-17th September, 12-2pm

Where: Central Winchester Regeneration site, Winchester Bus Station yard, Busket Lane, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 9BA

Our investigation comprises four trenches in what was the bus station, in the north-eastern part of the historic core of Winchester. The trenches target a deep, well-preserved waterlogged archaeological sequence (demonstrated by geoarchaeological boreholes) and aim to inform development proposals for CWR that have yet to be drawn up. In fact, the archaeology will drive and inform the development proposals, and it is intended, longer term, to preserve as much of the archaeological sequence as possible. 

What we expect to find is evidence of the Roman, Anglo-Saxon, medieval and post-medieval town – a classic urban archaeological sequence. As the water table in this area is unusually high, around 1.6m BGL, the site has the added potential of exceptional preservation of organic artefacts and palaeoenvironmental material. Our work here has the potential to address a number of current objectives in research into all periods of the city’s past and is expected to last 4 months.

Mark your calendars for Saturday September 2 and prepare to be immersed in history from 10am to 4.30pm!

Our guided tours will explore Trench 1, where visitors to our first open day will be able to see the progress we have made. This will be followed by a visit to the newly opened Trench 3 containing archaeology below the current water level (water will be pumped out of the trench during the day!).

The interactive activities will take place in Abbey Gardens. We hope to see you there!

Our first open morning at the Central Winchester Regeneration site is on 29 July – come along and see what we’ve found! Guided tours will start and finish at our stall in Abbey Gardens and attendees will get a chance to view some of the finds from the excavation.