PCA archaeologists from the Newark office have been busy over the last few weeks at Newark Castle in Nottinghamshire, and the work has been turning up some unexpected finds.
Adjacent to the Gatehouse, a substantial section of walling was revealed during monitoring. Early thoughts were that this was a possible outer gatehouse; however, after visits from a Castle expert and consulting various mapping, it is now thought this wall may be part of the fortifications by the bridge that crossed the River Trent during the Civil War.
Elsewhere, during excavations for an attenuation tank, an unexpected retaining wall was exposed. After assessing the stone thickness and style, it is thought that this wall is part of the earliest phase of the stone Castle (the magnificent stone structure that currently stands was probably preceded by an earth and timber castle). This discovery has reshaped our understanding of how the Castle may have looked; the ditch seems to have only partially encircled the Castle.
During investigations to ascertain the route of the wall, the team made a rather exciting discovery. At the bottom of the outflow of the garderobes, a large capped cesspit was revealed. A large, worn millstone was used to cap the cesspit at some point during the medieval period, to make way for a garden.
From Civil War bridges to medieval garderobes, Newark Castle still has stories to tell.
