History
of the site
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The
provisional area of development at the
Royal Worcester Porcelain
site marked on the 1928 Ordnance Survey plan. The project is
still in the planning stage and the developers, the
Berkeley Group,
will be retaining many of the the historic buildings of Royal
Worcester Porcelain and incorporating them into a
sympathetically designed residential and retail complex beside
the canal. |
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Summary of the archaeological evidence for the site at the start
of the project:-
Roman
Archaeological
monitoring of the extension of the Dyson Perrins museum located a large
ditch around 4.5m wide, running north-south. Its fill contained
iron slag and Roman period (early 2nd century)
domestic waste, and it was considered wide enough to have had a
defensive function. A single inhumation (below, a) was found within the upper Roman fills,
but it was not clear whether the burial was an isolated
individual or part of a larger cemetery. Roman deposits in the
southern part of the site included a pit containing iron slag.
There were enough Roman features to indicate that the general
area of the site was used in the late 2nd to early 3rd
century.
The core of the Roman settlement
appears to have been in the area of the former Norman motte and
bailey, and around the precincts of the cathedral. Excavations
in the 1970s uncovered a Roman occupation level below the floor
of South passage;
Roman pottery was discovered on the south side
of Lady Chapel. Excavations in the area between the cathedral
and College Green revealed the tile-roof of a collapsed Roman
building, along with Roman pottery, and a stone spindle whorl.
A good deal of evidence for Roman
activity has been identified in the immediate area around the
Royal Worcester site, which can be divided into three main
categories: evidence for the Roman road, remains of occupation
and/or industry, and funerary evidence. The Roman road to
Gloucester as shown on the Ordnance Survey map of Roman Britain
must logically cross the valley of the Frog Brook, but as yet
the only evidence for a Roman Road comes from Sidbury (below,
b). Salvage recording uncovered well preserved surfaces of roman
date consisting largely of re-deposited metal working slag.
These deposits may represent the edge of a Roman road uncovered
in 1980, or a metalled surface flanking it. The possible route
of the road is marked c. It seems likely that this is part of the
same road indicated on the OS map of Roman Britain.
Deposits tentatively interpreted
as Roman occupation evidence have been uncovered more recently
on the very edge of the Royal Worcester site, in the area of St
Alban’s School, in the form of plough-soil, cultivation marks
and a cut feature. Remains of a defensive Roman
ditch system were also located in this area (below, d).
Investigations in the St Alban’s
School area have produced evidence indicating it was the site of
a substantial Roman cemetery. A salvage excavation in 1991
uncovered a male inhumation and a dog burial datable to the
Roman period together with pottery and a pair of tweezers
(below, e). Six other burials, all heavily
truncated, were found to represent a total of twelve
individuals. The excavators assumed from the common orientation
of the bodies that they all belonged to the same Roman- period
group. A much earlier excavation in 1860 in the area nearby
(below, f), had identified several Roman urns
containing cremated human bone. The cemetery appears to have
been bounded by a ditch and
bank running NW-SE; a section of both of these was located by an
evaluation trench in 1991 (below, g). A truncated sandbank running
perpendicular to the ditch lay to the south. Further excavation
would address the possibility of the single inhumation (a)
from Dyson Perrins and the cremation and inhumation burials
(f and e) from St Albans all being part of one large
cemetery.
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Roman features in the area
a: occupation and single
inhumation
b: road surface
c: possible route ofroad
d: ditch system
e: group of inhumations
f: group of cremations |
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Earlier medieval
As yet no Anglo-Saxon archaeology
has been found on the site of Royal Worcester Porcelain, but
there have been a number of excavations in the immediate area
which produced evidence for occupation during this period. The
nearest of these was at St Albans School, immediately to the
south west of the site; an evaluation excavation recovered 23
sherds of late Saxon pottery from residual contexts (below, a). Two sites very near by (Albion Mill,
Oxford 2002; 13-15 Mill Street, Archenfield 2004) both produced
11th century pottery. Further evidence of late Saxon
occupation was excavated in the Sidbury area, where pottery
assemblages and radiocarbon gave a date of 900. Largely domestic
in character, there was some evidence to suggest that the area
had been organised into
tenements.
Excavations at Worcester Cathedral in 1970-71 uncovered a
sequence of 22 orientated inhumations beneath South Passage, and
a similar sequence of 14 inhumations in College Green,
both of
late Saxon date.
The paucity of evidence from the
site itself cannot be taken to mean there was no activity here
during the Saxon period.
A charter of 969 refers to a church
outside of the southern wall of the burh within a property or
haga leased by Bishop Oswald to a priest called Wulfgar in
the Battenhall (Sidbury) area: This charter probably
refers to the
Church of St Peter the Great
marked (c) below.
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Earlier medieval
features in the area
a:
residual Anglo-Saxon pottery
b: presumed late Mercian defences of burh
c: likely site of the 10th century church of St Peter
d: line of Roman street |
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Later medieval
The focus of settlement in the
area during the post Norman conquest period was along the street
frontage in Sidbury, and the line of the city wall and Sidbury
Gate (below, a). Part of the gate has been found
during an excavation parallel to the frontage of 71-75 Sidbury.
The medieval city wall and ditch (b and c) are known from
cartographic and archaeological evidence to cut across the site
of Royal Worcester Porcelain; these sources also mark the
position of a corner tower (d). The wall is clearly marked on
the map of 1651. The section of the wall which runs from Frog
gate (e) to St Peter’s church (f) appears on the 1651 map of
Worcester as the boundary of St Peter’s churchyard. This is
supported by archaeological evidence: the new canteen at Royal
Worcester Porcelain is described as being built on foundations
of the medieval city wall, and a geophysical survey of the Dyson Perrins Museum building detected what was thought to be the city
wall using ground penetrating radar. Medieval deposits predating
the city wall have also been uncovered in the vicinity of the
Dyson Perrins Museum. There is likely to have been medieval
housing fronting onto King Street (g) and thus an area of
medieval occupation within the footprint of the site.
The section of the wall between St
Peter’s and Sidbury Gate can be identified on the 1884 Ordnance
Survey map as a continuous property boundary forming the eastern
edge of the churchyard and extending north towards Sidbury.
Excavations on the site of Royal Worcester Porcelain would
almost certainly encounter remains of the medieval city wall and
ditch. |
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Post Norman Conquest
a: Sidbury Gate
b: City Wall
c: City Ditch
d: Turret
e: Frog Gate
f: St Peter the Great
g: housing
h: Castle wall
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The Civil War
The site
itself lies just on the edge of the area that was the focus of
the siege of Worcester during the Civil War. The network of
trenches, redoubts and ramparts established to defend the city
lay to the west of the canal, although it is possible that
tunnels and other siege works were established in the area of
the site to attempt to breach the defences. The line of the
Civil war defences is shown on the 1651 map south of the castle,
running in a straight line from the city wall by St Peter’s
church to a corner bastion in the Diglis hotel area. The bastion
consisted of an angular earthwork projecting from the defence
line and is also marked on the map. Remains of both the defences
and the bastion are potentially within the area of the site; the
hypothetical location of these defences is . Defensive features believed to date to the
Civil War were uncovered in the vicinity of St Albans School,
consisting of a substantial ditch and possible bank on its north
side. To the north-east a U-shaped ditch and contemporary pebble
surface and palisade trench parallel to it are certainly part of
the Civil War defences. |
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Approximate position of the defences of
Worcester during the Civil War |
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The available background
archaeological evidence shows a high potential for the presence
of archaeological features or deposits relating to the various
uses of the site over a considerable length of time.
Cartographic evidence suggests the course of the Roman Road from
Gloucester ran somewhere through this area, and parts of what
may be the same road have been uncovered at Sidbury to the north
of the site. There is good evidence for the presence of a Roman
cemetery: inhumation and cremation burials found at St Albans
School, and a burial from Royal Worcester itself, may be part of
one large cemetery covering a substantial portion of the site.
This would certainly tie in with the location of a Roman Road in
the area: Roman cemeteries often lay close to roads, and if the
Roman defences indeed formed the foundation of the later castle
ditch then the cemetery would have been just outside of the
defended core of the settlement. Baker raises the issue of a
possible Romano-British origin for St Peter the Great (Baker 1980, 37):
the charter stating the clause of Battenhall describes a
stręte (Roman road) running through the area; this has to be
the road located by excavations at Sidbury. If there was a Romano-British church here then
it was likely to have been sited within a cemetery beside the Roman road; this marks out a
large portion of the site as a potential Romano-British burial ground.
Charter evidence demonstrates the
position of the site outside of the late Mercian defences, and
also confirms the location of the early church of St Peter the
Great somewhere within the area of the site. The later medieval church
must have been built on the same site; there may well be
evidence of both structures and their respective cemeteries in
the north-eastern corner of the site, where the 19th
century church of St Peter stood until 1976. Sections of the
medieval wall and ditch have already been uncovered on the site.
Cartographic evidence clearly
illustrates the line of the Civil War defences and bastions
running right across the site; this could be located by
excavation.
It appears that some areas of the
site were occupied during the 18th and 19th
centuries, and the outline of a street can still be traced. Some
of the original buildings constructed after the establishment
of the Royal Worcester Porcelain factory on the site during the
early 19th century still remain intact; others retain
parts of their original structures within the later additions
and rebuilds. There are a substantial number of buildings of
significant historic importance and interest which certainly
deserve further evaluation. |
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Information
on archaeological work in Worcester City is available at the
Worcester City Museums website |
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reporting
unpublished
report - Royal Worcester Porcelain Factory: An Outline Heritage
Appraisal with Brief Notes on the Built Heritage - Richard K Morriss and Huw Sherlock
unpublished
report - Royal
Worcester Porcelain Factory: An Archaeological and Architectural
Heritage Assessment -
Clementine
Lovell & PJ Pikes |
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series - Worcester archaeology, Royal
Worcester Porcelain |
