Newport Street, Worcester

archenfield archaeology ltd

A large site between Newport Street and Dolday in Worcester was excavated in 2005 on behalf of 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 in March and April 2004.

From our initial involvement with this project it was apparent that we were looking at a site with a long and interesting history.

It was decided that this history should be commemorated by a work of public art.

The new building is now completed and carries a series of panels designed by Caroline Hands depicting the story of the area.

With Caroline here is Simon Meiklejohn, who made the panels.

On the left is one of the panel in Simon's workshop.

a history of Newport Street

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.

Panel 1 - Roman Times

In Roman times the river was the main transport artery for people and goods. A slag roadway led from the town and it's ironworks across a flood plain to a ford, usable at low tide.

image copyright Caroline Hands

Plate 2 - Anglo-Saxon Farming

After departure of the Romans, farming replaced industry. Newport Street became an important route when Worcester was refortified in the late Anglo Saxon Period.

image copyright Caroline Hands

Panel 3 - Bread and Ale

Land reclamation after the Norman Conquest provided sites for merchant's houses along the street

image copyright Caroline Hands

Panel 4 - Medieval Entertainment

Medieval city walls enclosed the area. The streets were thronged with activity.

image copyright Caroline Hands

Panel 5 - Dyers

15th - 17th Century, Worcester's prosperity was based on cloth making and water from the river was used for fulling and dyeing.

image copyright Caroline Hands

Panel 6 - Industrial Revolution

18th - 19th Century, the city was overcrowded with people and Industry. Newport street and Dolday became slums before being cleared in 1930s.

image copyright Caroline Hands

Panel 7 - Present Day

Present day, the site has been a bus station and car park and now homes again.

image copyright Caroline Hands

The name 'Newport' 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

The site on the 1884 Ordnance Survey map (click to enlarge)

The area in the 1930s

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

The only buildings on the site by January 2004