Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc 122

Drawing on an array of evidence about the history of education, beginning with the first appearance of schools as free-standing bodies in the late-eleventh century, the author investigates the provision of education in the region, the siting and layout of schools, the kinds of people who taught, and the school curriculum. The paper concludes by showing how medieval education was transformed first by the rise of humanist Latin in the late-fifteenth century and then by the Reformation in the middle of the sixteenth. Includes

Archaeological investigations in advance of development recovered new information on the nature of Bronze Age and Romano-British settlement and craft activity in the part of the Severn valley to the east and southeast of Tewkesbury. An Early to Middle Bronze Age `D'-shaped enclosure was excavated at one site, while at another a pit produced fragments of a mould used for casting Middle Bronze Age channel-bladed spearheads datable to c.1500--1150 BC. The site occupied by the enclosure was also adopted for a Romano-British farmstead dating to the second and early-third centuries AD. A second farmstead lying 200m away originated in the first century BC or first century AD and was occupied until at least the second quarter of the fourth century. No building plans could be discerned at either farmstead, presumably because the structures were of timber or cob that has left little trace. Includes specialist reports on

Two Romano-British sites were investigated in advance of the construction of a gas pipeline to the north and east of Bristol. A small inhumation cemetery within a system of ditched enclosures was excavated near Tockington Park Farm, the site of a Roman villa. The cemetery and the associated ditches probably date to the late-second or early-third century AD, although evidence for activity continuing into the later-third or fourth century nearby was also found. As the villa at Tockington is thought to have been built in the late-third century, the cemetery may be associated with a phase of settlement pre-dating the villa. The second site, near Westerleigh, was interpreted as part of a Romano-British rural settlement with evidence of activity spanning the first to late-third centuries AD. Four cremation burials of first- to second-century date and a rectangular pit containing traces of a coffin represent a phase of funerary use. Seven other shallow pits containing burnt material appear to be somewhat later than the cremation burials. A phase of activity in the third or fourth century is represented by ditches and a spread of sandstone rubble. Includes specialist reports on

Excavation of land at Kent Place, Sherborne Street, Lechlade, revealed that a ditched boundary, established in the mid- to late Anglo-Saxon period, was maintained by repeated re-digging into the medieval period. The boundary, fossilized as part of the modern street pattern, may represent evidence for a shift in settlement from an earlier Anglo-Saxon focus found to the northwest at Sherborne House to a nucleated settlement which became the medieval town of Lechlade. Includes specialist reports on

The discovery of two medieval Jewish ritual baths (mikva'ot) in the City of London has led to the re-examination of the claim that Jacob's Well in Bristol served a similar purpose. Doubts about the earlier interpretation were raised by the location of the site. Following Leviticus 15:19-24, a mikveh was used principally for ritual purification by the women-folk of the community. Visiting the remote Jacob's Well, in a society often antipathetic, they would have been extraordinarily vulnerable. Further, the previous interpretation of a Hebrew inscription on the stone lintel over the entrance has been questioned. Also the low height of the entrance and the chamber would have made it very restricted for bathing. As Jacob's Well was situated very close to Bristol's medieval Jewish cemetery, it may well have served as a bet tohorah, a house for washing the dead before burial. Further detailed investigation is required if the date, extent and structural sequence of this unique monument are to be understood fully.

The door at the head of the night stairs at Bristol cathedral has the date 1667 formed in nails along its top rail, and has therefore been regarded as dating from the seventeenth century. Detailed examination of the door carried out by Hugh Harrison in 2000 revealed that the door was made in the mid-twelfth century and is of similar construction to the west door at Kempley church which has been dated to 1120--40. It is the panelling fixed to the north side of the Bristol door which dates from 1667. Apart from this addition, the oak door is a remarkable survival from the earliest years of Bristol's Augustinian abbey founded in 1140.