St Leonard's Hospital, York

Training excavations 2001-4

Welcome to the web diary for the excavations at St Leonard's Hospital, York, run by York Archaeological Trust. If you would like to know more about the excavations or would like to book a place on the final season in 2004, please click the items on the left-hand frame. If you like to look at the previous web diary entries since 2001, please click on the items in the right-hand frame.

For more about the plans for 2004 and the discoveries to date, read on....

December 2003 update

Details of 2004 season now available!

The fourth and final season of excavations at St Leonard's Hospital will take place between Monday 14th June and Sunday 5th September 2004. There will be 1 and 2 week excavation courses throughout, and an artefacts course on 5th-9th July (please note all courses will run Mondays-Fridays). There will be 1-2 day taster courses available every day.

Main results to date

Six trenches are being excavated. Trenches 1-2 have been completed, Trenches 3-5 are ongoing, and Trench 6 is to be dug in 2004.

Plan of the current and proposed additional trenches (click image for larger version)

The original, 1st century earth rampart of the Roman legionary fortress was found in Trench 1, and had been largely removed during the construction of a larger fortress rampart with a stone facing wall; part of a stone interval tower was also investigated. The later rampart was found to date to c.AD200, at least a century earlier than previously thought. Finds associated with the Roman fortress include part of a composite bow, armour fittings and a catapult missile.

Pottery and other finds suggest the fortress was occupied during the Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian (Viking) periods, perhaps using the existing Roman buildings and defences. An enigmatic feature, cut into the rear of the fortress rampart, could be the foundation for a timber staircase providing access to the defences during this time.

According to documentary evidence, the hospital of St Peter (later St Leonard) was founded on this site, in the west corner of the fortress, by 1073. However, a timber building, found to the rear of the fortress rampart in Trench 3, appears to date to c.1000; this evidence may support less reliable documentary evidence that the hospital was originally founded on this site by King Athelstan in 936.

In c.1100 the site was extensively redeveloped. The fortress rampart was largely removed and the debris spread out to its rear (burying the timber building found in Trench 3). A massive two-storey stone infirmary building was constructed on this newly-created open space, using the fortress wall and the stone interval interval tower to form part of the walls of this building. Large timber buildings were constructed nearby at about this time.

In c.1250 the timber buildings were cleared away and the stone infirmary was extended. A large stone drain was built beneath the extension. This part of the infirmary building still stands. The ground floor of the infirmary was devoted to service activities such as cooking and metal-working, with the residents of the infirmary occupying the first floor.

The hospital was largely demolished after the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, and the site used for industrial purposes. During the 19th century the site was cleared and landscaped to form a 'garden of antiquities' with many of its archaeological features on display. The last major addition to the site was a subterranean, concrete World War 2 air-raid shelter.

The huge number of finds (including over three thousand special finds, 400kgs of pottery and 4 tonnes of brick and tile) have provided invaluable insights into the activities that took place on the site, and the lives of the people living there.

The objectives for 2004

In Trench 3, investigation of Anglian/Viking activity will be completed. Following the excavation of the surviving later Roman rampart, the early Roman occupation layers buried beneath it will be examined. Evidence for prehistoric activity may be revealed beneath the fortress.

In Trench 4, the medieval infirmary building and stone drain and the entrance to the Second World War air-raid shelter will be investigated.

In Trench 5, the south side of the Roman Multangular Tower and the north-west end of the medieval infirmary are the ultimate targets. Part of the 19th-century Garden of Antiquities is also being unearthed.

In Trench 6, the structure of the Multangular Tower, including its timber pile foundation, is to be investigated.

Please note that the infilling within these trenches will be removed prior to the training excavation, so that Trainees will be working on these archaeological features from the first day of the dig.