Pontefract & District Archaeological
Society
Newsletter No. 2
Summer excavation of St. Richards
Dominican Friary Pontefract
We are now half way through week 3 of our 10 week
excavation of the north aspect of the friary site.
In the photograph you can see our Site Director Simon Tomson
in discussion with the digger driver as we clear approx. 30 m in
length by 7m in width and about 1m in depth.
Simon believes that the first level that we will reach, having
removed the C18th/C19th improved agricultural land [which we
are now clear was used for growing liquorice], will be the
demolition layer of the friary buildings after the dissolution of
the monasteries.
We have stepped the site to ensure stability of the soil and are
digging down to expose the first level. You can clearly see a
change in the soil with clear indications of heating of
limestone/sandstone and mortar is also evident.
There is an increasing range of finds including only medieval
pottery from the C12th to the C15th.
Human remains i.e. skull fragments and human bone are also
present in this layer. These may be Civil War burials dated to
1648 of casualties who have got into the line of fire. These
burials may well be cut into the friary demolition layers.
There are also indications of rubble from the friary demolition.
Cut into this rubble are the remains of trenches on a north to
south alignment which were used for the harvesting of liquorice
roots which continued to be harvested in the Friarwood area of
Pontefract until 1910.
As I am sure many of you will have seen and heard Calendar
went out on Tuesday 9th and on Wednesday morning Radio
Leeds did a good slot which is available on BBC iplayer. On
Thursday there will also be a piece on the BBC web site along
with photos of the dig courtesy of Jim Goodwin.
During the next two weeks we anticipate beginning to expose
this demolition layer and have a clearer view as to whether this
does represent a Civil War burial ground or not.
So this is proving to be a very interesting site and we look
forward to some less back braking archaeology.
David
Chairman