| Abstract: |
Community archaeology project undertaken in September/October 2020 as part of The Great British Dig television programme and as a follow-up to the earlier Lenton Priory Project. Trenches were located to target the projected structures thought to be present within the Priory complex, thereby investigating their presence, character, and survival. In addition, putatively ‘blank’ areas were targeted with test pits in order to examine the extent of presumed remains and background character of the surroundings through profile of artefactual evidence. Finally, two cores were taken within a garden on Nazareth Road in order to examine the extent of the cloisters, believed to extend in this direction, and the medieval course of the River Leen. Trench 1 was located at the eastern extent of the main Conventual Church, in an area known to contain a Lady Chapel. The excavation trench identified a substantial (partially robbed) rubble core of a buttress constructed at the north-east corner of the Lady Chapel. The identification of this feature strengthens arguments for a single large rectangular chapel with an apsidal end beyond the east end of the Conventual Church. Previous investigations have proposed several smaller chapels radiating from the east end, admittedly from keyhole investigation only (Hobson and Flintoft 2013). The buttress was observed to cut an undated sub-square posthole or shallow pit. Trench 1 also identified an excavation trench dug by the Lenton Historical Society (supervised by Alan McCormick and Mike Bishop) in 1976–77, which had identified the walls of the Lady Chapel and a burial within its interior (Lomax pers. comm). Relocating this earlier unpublished excavation will help us to better appreciate the layout of this poorly understood part of the Priory. Trench 8, positioned in Priory Park, was in an area where previous investigation had identified post-medieval and medieval artefacts and soil features—surfaces, pits and post holes—relating to the use of the Outer Precinct as a medieval Market and Fair (Davies and Flintoft 2015). Unfortunately, the presence of 19th-century cellared structures and back plots of the former street, Mart Yard, had completely removed the potential for medieval and post-medieval deposits to be present in this area. The remains of the structural foundations and gennal were well-preserved and correlated with the historic mapping for this area. In addition to the completion of the consented scheme, targeted investigations comprising test pitting and a borehole survey, were also undertaken outside the Scheduled Monument with the overall aim of better understanding land use around the Priory Church. A test pit (Trench 10) on the north side of the Conventual Church, in the front garden of 14 Old Church Street, identified a sequence of post-medieval deposits which gave way to an undated sub-soil. This subsoil overlaid a mixed gravel/alluvium, suggestive of a naturally infilled hollow, similar to natural features identified north of Abbey Street during excavations of the medieval market/fair site in the Priory’s Outer Precinct (Davies and Flintoft 2015). This is an area where burials have previously been identified (Hobson and Flintoft 2013), so the lack of burials or disarticulated human remains may suggest that burials become less frequent moving west, away from the east end of the Priory Church and towards the Inner Precinct. In the garden of 25 Old Church Street, beyond the north-east extent of the Priory Church, a test pit (Trench 11) revealed an informative sequence of deposits, comprising a 19th-century outhouse, post-medieval levelling layers and intact medieval soil horizons and a cobbled surface. The pottery evidence suggests that the layer (11021)—immediately above the cobbled surface {11022}—was laid down in the 12th century, indicating that the surface was 12th century or earlier. |
