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The
new Hereford probation service building in Gaol Street,
designed by Johnson, Blight and Dees, is built on the
site of St
Peter’s School. history
Archenfield Archaeology conducted
one of Hereford’s largest excavations on this site in the summer
of 2001.The area was first developed shortly after the Norman
Conquest when it seems to have been owned by the Bishop of
Hereford.
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Gaol Street
was once known as Grope Lane. On the left is an extract
from rent details of property which once belonged to St
Guthlac's Priory Hereford. By the time of this document
(1540/41) St Guthlac’s property was in the hands
of John ap Rees, or Price. The highlighted property is
a 'garden in gropelane'. This property would have
been to the east of the St Peter’s excavation. |
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Although the earliest features on
the site date to around the 11th or 12th centuries, there were
stray finds indicating human activity in the area at much
earlier periods. Although no proof of Roman period structures
have been found within the area of modern Hereford, Roman coins
found on this site and many others suggest that there was some
activity in the area at that time. The terrace above the River
Wye, on which Hereford is built, is likely to have been farmed
in this period.
Flint tools from the site have
been dated to even earlier periods. Several Bronze Age tools
were recovered as well as some Neolithic ones. Again this might
suggest small farming communities living somewhere nearby.
A group of Mesolithic flint
tools here may be evidence of a settlement site at an even
earlier period. |
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During the excavation the phases of
activity on the site were gradually revealed.
A very early ditch may have been
the boundary between two burgage plots.
Activity intensified and a range of
small-scale industries operated here throughout the rest of the
middle ages.
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The site on Isaac Taylor’s map of
Hereford, 1757. To the west of the site the Gaol Lane led to
the city gaol in the old Bye Gate. To the south is Grope Lane.
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A medieval clay-lined pit being
excavated. This had been subjected to considerable heat and the
clay lining was baked hard.
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A later stage of excavation of this
feature. The clay-lined pit is on the bottom right of this
view. At the top left is a firing pit. The two pits were
connected by a clay-lined tunnel cut through the hard
fluvioglacial gravel which lies beneath Hereford. A fire was
lit in the pit on the left in order to heat something in the
clay-lined pit. We have no idea what the process here was. If
anyone does understand it please contact us.
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In this view the tunnel connecting
the pits has been cut by us. The ‘firing pit’ in the background
has been cut by a Victorian rubbish pit.
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Sketch plan of the feature – ‘K’
334 is the clay-lined pit or ‘kiln’ and ‘FP’ 437 the ‘firing
pit.’
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This is a metal decoration of, as
yet, unknown purpose.
The site was rich in many sorts of
artefacts, a few of which are, as yet, of unknown function.
Many small objects of bone on this
site suggested that bone-carving was an important industry at
some stage.
All artefacts are recorded and then
examined by specialists. Most of the St Peter’s finds are
currently at this stage.
If necessary they are conserved
before being deposited with the local museum – in this case
Hereford.
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A medieval gaming die. Several of
these bone dice were found. They are very like modern dice
except that the opposite faces do not add up to seven.
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A medieval jew’s harp. Musical
instruments are comparatively rare finds as most are made of
materials which easily decay
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A two-piece post-medieval bone
object. The top piece fitted into the bottom piece, which
was hollow. It still smelled strongly of pepper.
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Reporting
This
site will be published in a volume of Archenfield Archaeology’s
Hereford City excavations to be published by Logaston
Press
unpublished desk-based survey
– An Archaeological and Historical Assessment
of St Peters School, Gaol Street, Hereford - Huw Sherlock
and P J Pikes, 2001
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