A large site at Newport Street in Worcester was excavated in 2005 on behalf the Cabot Homes by the Historic Environment and Archaeology Service of Worcestershire County Council and Cotswold Archaeology with Archenfield Archaeology as consultants. The 2005 excavations followed an initial desk-based assessment by ourselves and an evaluation excavation by the Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service in March and April 2004, excavations were carried out on the site on our behalf by the Historic Environment and Archaeology Service of Worcestershire County Council.

The new building is nearing completion and will carry a series of panels by Caroline Hands depicting the story of the area.

By the early 21st century Newport Street was something of a backwater but has in the past been one of the most important streets in the city.

The name is not derived from any of the places named Newport nor from a 'new port' at some stage at Worcester. It was originally ēa port meaning 'the water gate' and led from the centre of the city to the bridge over the River Severn which was replaced by the current one in the 18th century.

This older bridge may have originally been Roman, repaired and rebuilt on the same iron slag foundations over centuries.

In the late 9th century Æthelred of Mercia and his wife Æthelflaed, 'the Lady of the Mercians', fortified Worcester against the Danes. One of the gates of this fortified town is believed to have been near All Saints church at the eastern end of Newport Street. At this stage Newport Street connected this gate with the bridge.

By the beginning of the 13th century new defences had been built. This wall was greater in extent than the old Mercian circuit and ran to the river just upstream of the bridge.  Newport Street was now firmly within the city.

The site on John Speed's map of 1610

Court 4 Newport Street in the 1930s, looking towards the street.  This court is near the centre of the site.

reporting:

Unpublished report - Newport Street Worcester: an archaeological assessment, Clementine Lovell, Archenfield Archaeology, 2004