Site Background

The Tanyard area

The Babbage Report (see Bromyard main section) describes the drain in Pump Street as originating in Sheep Street where it received surface water from the surrounding valley.  From Sheep Street the drain ran down High Street and into Pump Street where after a short distance it went ‘into the fields near Mr Jenks’ tanyard.’

The tithe map and apportionment of 1843 lists James Jenks as the owner and occupier of property on the western side of Frog Lane (number 44 on the tithe map).  No name or land use is recorded for this property, the northern part of which lies within the present site.

A John Jenks of Grendon Bishop had purchased some land in Linton township in 1771.  His son James, and grandson, also called James, were tanners and landowners in the Bromyard area (Williams, 1987, p145).

At the 1841 census one of the Pump Street houses was occupied by Elizabeth Jenks, listed as of independent means.  Also in the house were her two twenty-year-old sons, James and John Jenks, both described as tanners.  Other inhabitants of the house were John Gwilliam, a clerk of 60 and Joseph Grice a 60-year-old currier.  Also in 1841 the register of the Bishop of Hereford records that the house of James Jenks in Bromyard was one of the places licensed for Methodist worship (Waller, 1980). 

By 1851 the household had shrunk to James Jenks, aged 34, his 32-year-old wife, Sarah, and John Gwilliam.  In this year also, Jenks’ house, The Tan House - shown left as it appeared in July 2004, was the location of the Wesleyan Methodist chapel, which had no stated minister.  The room in the Tan House, which was used as a chapel, could seat 100 people and also served as a Sunday School for 45 pupils (Waller, 1980, p93).  In 1857 a new Wesleyan Methodist chapel was opened in New Road and was known as Jenks’ Chapel (ibid.).  (The Primitive Methodist chapel was also in Pump Street in 1851).

The census of 1861 casts more light on James' scale of operation by describing him as a tanner employing ten men, two boys and one woman.  His household comprised his wife and her sister, Mary Griffiths, and a 22-year-old house servant, Ann Wood.

Jakeman and Carver’s Directory of Herefordshire for 1890 lists, under the heading Tanners – Jenks, James, Tan House, Pump Street, Bromyard.  Kelly’s Directory for 1900 lists Thomas Day as the tanner in Bromyard.  By 1903 the site is marked ‘Tannery (disused)’ on the 1:2500 OS plan.

Extract from the 1903 OS 2nd edition 1:2500 plan

In 1905 the local Nuisance Inspector reported that he had received a complaint about liquid manure from the yard of the Falcon Hotel next door percolating into the Tanyard pits.

The Tanyard site was sold by a Mr Wells to T E Mitchell in 1917 but continued to be known as the Tan House.  In 1954 it boasted the only grain drying plant of its type - belonging to Messrs J W Williams - in a radius of 14 miles.

Before its most recent use as a car park, the site was as a chemical warehouse owned by Messrs Bayers.

The Quaker Burial Ground

To the north of the tanyard was the Society of Friends meeting house with a small burial ground.  The southern part of this was within the development area.

The 2001 Fieldwork

Fieldwork in 2001 took the form of three trial trenches distributed across the site and a brief examination of the standing structures.

Trench A was located at the eastern end of the site in order to look for evidence of burgaging on Frog Lane.  Trench B was located at the north-west corner of the site, within the area where burgages were believed to have faced onto Pipe Lane.  Trench C was in the north-east corner of the site.

None of the trenches produced medieval material and trench C was totally devoid of archaeological features of any sort.

In trench A the upper layer of very recent material (including plastic bags) sealed the previous topsoil which contained no evidence of recent disturbance.

Several post-medieval features (with clay pipe in the fills) were present, but were only partially excavated due to their extremely waterlogged condition.

Trench B contained the well preserved wooden remains of a tanpit.  Tanpits were expected in this area.

Although few in number the animal bones recovered from the Tanyard provided useful information regarding the morphology of the cattle during the post-medieval period.  The horncores represent the kind of deposit to be expected in an industrial area of the town where tanning and allied trades such as hornworking would have been practised. 

Both of the buildings on the site are on the tithe map of 1843 and appeared to have had at least two phases of works, if not more.  Some of the work on both was quite recent.

Building A appeared to have been heightened at some stage, as there was a change in brickwork on the east gable and the roof over the site entrance passage and the north-west corner of the building had been rebuilt.  Building B has also had major refurbishment at the east end of the building including elements of the south elevation.

The 2003/4 Fieldwork

The fieldwork in the winter of 2003/2004 was primarily concerned with the identification and removal of human remains from the disused Quaker burial ground on the northern edge of the development area.

Quakers were the first non-conformists recorded in Bromyard –they established a meeting there in 1668.

The Meeting House in garden of number 16 Broad Street was built in the early years of the 18^th century.  In 1744 land was purchased of John Beck and conveyed to John Harris and others in trust for a Meeting house graveyard.

This is one of the skeletons in the old burial ground.  Ten intact skeletons were recovered and two partial ones which had been disturbed.  Four more  skeletons were left in situ, three lying north to south and one beneath them, east to west.

Only those remains which would have been disturbed by the development were removed.

plan of the part of the burial ground excavated

The other part of the 2003/2004 project was the archaeological monitoring of groundwork associated with the new development on the site.

 Bibliography

Reporting

Unpublished Report - The Tanyard, Bromyard, Herefordshire:  archaeological evaluation - Huw Sherlock and P J Pikes, 2001

Unpublished Report - The Tanyard and Quaker Burial Ground,  Bromyard, Herefordshire: archaeological excavation and monitoring - Daniel Lewis, Huw Sherlock and P J Pikes, 2004 - a-

This report is available at the Archaeological Data Service site: to view or download the report click here

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