Between 12th June and 1st September 2002, York Archaeological Trust will be providing another great opportunity for archaeology enthusiasts to excavate in the historic heart of York. The excavation will take place on a site that is expected to reveal important evidence dating from the Roman through to the medieval periods.

About the Site …

The site occupies the western angle of the former Roman legionary fortress. Its boundary is formed in part by the stone fortress defences. Close by is the 'Multangular Tower' which still stands to a height of over 4m; and the Anglian Tower, a mysterious addition to the fortress defences which is thought to date to the late Roman or Anglian periods. The buried remains of the Roman earthen rampart and perhaps a road and buildings all lie within the area to be investigated. It is hoped also to shed insight on what happened hereabouts in the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian (Viking Age) periods, when the fortress appears to have been a royal stronghold. The hospital of St Leonard was established in the 11th century by William II. It flourished until the Reformation as the largest hospital in England in terms of inmates and staff; in the 14th century it maintained up to 18 clergy, 16 sisters and female servants, 30 choristers, 10 private boarders and 140-240 poor sick people. This staff list gives some idea of the range of religious, spiritual, medical, social and charitable roles which a medieval hospital might fulfil. Part of the hospital complex was rebuilt in the 13th century, and a gate, chapel and infirmary with vaulted undercroft survive up to first floor level on the excavation site. These fine structures, and the remains of an adjacent, massive building below ground, will be investigated as part of the fieldwork.

Excavation report from 2001

(For a more detailed account of the excavation see the site diary.)

Three trenches were excavated:

Trench 1 was positioned to locate interval tower SW6 - that is, the sixth of six stone-built interval towers along the south-west side of the later Roman fortress defences.

Trench 2 had a particular aim of investigating the construction history of the medieval hospital’s infirmary block, part of which still stands to gable height.

Trench 3 was designed to examine the whole range of activity from the establishment of the Roman fortress through to the World War 2 air-raid shelter.

The only information on the Roman fortress was obtained from Trench 1. At the north-west end of the trench the turf rampart of the early Roman defences was observed. The north-west wall of tower SW6 was also unearthed, its surviving top barely 0.5m below the surface. The wall stood to a height of at least 1m with its internal facing stones still in place Inside the tower mortar floors, occupation deposits and demolition layers had built up, suggesting that the tower had remained in use for a long time.

The medieval hospital

Column bases found in Trench 3 indicate that the north-east end of the infirmary block dates to around 1100, and may have been the first hospital building in this area. In Trenches 1 and 2, the excavation generally reached the construction level of the 13th-century standing building, revealing the massive pier foundations in the undercroft. A massive stone-lined drain was observed running across Trenches 1 and 2; it seems to have taken waste water out of the hospital towards the river. This drain was capped with flat lintel stones except where it would have supported the north-east wall of the hospital, where it was vaulted to provide extra strength. The medieval floors within the infirmary generally did not survive in Trenches 1 and 2 because of later disturbance, but in Trench 3 a series of thin, mainly mortar, floors was exposed; these were still unexcavated at the conclusion of this year's excavations.

Other clues about the medieval hospital came from the large quantities of demolition debris, mostly found dumped on the infirmary floor in Trench 3. There were lots of roof tiles, including some of massive decorated ridge tiles, and many glazed floor tiles, some of them decorated. Quantities of decorated medieval window glass were found in Trench 1.

After the medieval hospital

In Trench 3 successive cobble and rubble surfaces, hearths and drains were found overlying the hospital demolition layers. The associated finds point to a range of industrial activities.

In Trenches 1 and 3 a wall foundation was discovered, linking the columns along the north-west side of the standing building. Apparently the reason that this standing part of the infirmary and chapel survived the Dissolution was because it was retained in use as a house, the archways on the north-west side being infilled to form an exterior wall. A plan of 1831 shows the building still in use as a house, but, unfortunately, later activity had removed all traces of floors within this building.

The Victorian Garden

In the 1840s the Yorkshire Philosophical Society acquired the site, and it formed part of what is now known as the Museum Gardens. A massive brick wall, found at the north-east end of Trench 3, appears to have formed the boundary between the YPS garden and the property to its north-east. The site was cleared, and at least two phases of archaeological excavation were carried out; it is this work that originally revealed the full extent of the infirmary block, although in the process the numerous small trenches disturbed much of the medieval hospital’s below ground remains. Curiously, large quantities of sheep leg bones were found in the fills of these Victorian trenches, perhaps disposed from a tannery nearby. Several of the infirmary undercroft column bases were found intact by the 19th century excavators, and it seems these bases were left exposed in order to form features of interest. Later the garden was improved by the addition of a curving masonry wall in order to emphasise the medieval features. In one case, the medieval column base was built up by placing two medieval half-capitals on it to form a second tier (Plate 4): this feature was first revealed by Time Team in 1999. The revised garden layout is depicted on the 1891 Ordnance Survey map, which also shows that the curving wall retained a bank along the north-east side of the site, planted with trees. It is likely that these improvements were undertaken in 1887, to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

The air-raid shelter

Over 20 civic air-raid shelters were constructed in York during World War 2 and one of these was built there, alongside the city's Central Library, the entrance stairway at the south end was located by Time Team in 1999. It was presumably at this time that the Victorian garden was filled in and turned into a lawn. Part of the air-raid shelter was revealed in Trench 3; evidently it lay in a machine-cut trench at least 27m long and over 2m deep, with a flagged stone floor and reinforced concrete walls. When the shelter was no longer needed it was bulldozed, the shattered upper half being pushed into the bottom of the trench. The site has remained as a lawn since then.

Future work

The discoveries made during the 2001 season exceeded all expectations. The archaeological features were very informative and often well preserved, and the range and quality of the finds was exceptional. If this were not encouragement enough, continued excavation of the existing trenches will surely provide excellent evidence regarding the Roman fortress, the medieval hospital and other episodes of activity in this part of York.

Further reading:

For an introduction to York’s archaeology, see R.A. Hall York (Batsford/English Heritage, 1996).

For Roman York see P.J. Ottaway Roman York (Batsford/English Heritage, 1993).

For information on the medieval hospital, see N. Orme and M. Webster The English Hospital York University Press, 1995; C. Rawcliffe Medicine for the Soul (1999) and Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England (1995).