13 Broad Street,Bath

In July 2006 Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out archaeological monitoring on level reduction at the rear of 13 Broad Street, Bath, after the demolition of a rear extension and before the construction of a new one (NGR: ST75006510). The building was to be erected on a concrete raft and monitoring was completed when formation level for the new building was reached. The work was commissioned by Nicholas Magniac Associates Ltd. as an archaeological mitigation of the site works to meet planning conditions. After demolition it was clear that the original extension had been built over a thick layer of mid- to dark grey garden soil which represented the garden of the property before its construction. It utilised the buildings on either side as north and south walls so the only footings were those running east-west on the west end. The dark soil produced post-medieval pot sherds and a small collection of clay tobacco pipe stems and bowls, the pipes all attributable to John Tylee who was active locally 1690 to 1702. Removal of this soil revealed the existence of an underlying yellow brown silt which was either an occupation deposit or the fills of a series of intercutting pits (or both). This produced animal bone and one sherd of 11th-12th century pottery. It was at least 0.20 m thick at the west end (and probably much thicker) but at the east end of the site was absent. A pit was recorded here, cutting the natural clay that was found at formation level here. To the west of it, a rubble raft of unknown thickness was at the same level, although their relationship was not observed. This predated the construction of the present house but is otherwise undated. Formation level was only 0.10-0.15 m below the top of these earlier deposits, the bulk of which (of unknown depth) remain in situ under the present development.