Observations at Castle Ditch and Bradninch Place, Exeter, 1986 (Exeter archive site 87)

Exeter City Council, Cotswold Archaeology, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5284/1035224. How to cite using this DOI

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Exeter City Council, Cotswold Archaeology (2015) Observations at Castle Ditch and Bradninch Place, Exeter, 1986 (Exeter archive site 87) [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1035224

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Primary contact

Andrew Pye
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Exeter City Council
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Tel: 01392 265 224

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Resource identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1035224
Sample Citation for this DOI

Exeter City Council, Cotswold Archaeology (2015) Observations at Castle Ditch and Bradninch Place, Exeter, 1986 (Exeter archive site 87) [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1035224

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Introduction

Observations at Castle Ditch and Bradninch Place, Exeter, 1986 (Exeter archive site 87)

Exeter Castle comprised two defended areas or wards, the inner ward was enclosed by a curtain wall and a massive ditch, still partly visible in Rougemont Gardens. The larger outer ward was defended by a rampart and ditch which have left little trace visible on the ground. The nature and precise course of the outer defenses have never been established, though additional evidence for the line of the ditch may be obtained by plotting the distribution of shear cracks in buildings which have subsided over it.

In August 1986, the Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit excavated three small trenches, up to 1.7 metres deep, against the wall of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum to enable structural engineers to examine the foundations and the fill of the ditch. These confirmed that the main shear crack in the building was caused by subsidence over the outer lip of Exeter Castle's outer defensive ditch and that the corner of the building probably lies over its deepest part.

Two augered boreholes were drilled subsequently to establish the full depth of the ditch. The maximum depth logged was 4.1 metres from the modern ground surface, itself thought to be roughly equivalent to the early medieval ground level at the outer lip of the ditch.


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