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Allen Archaeological Associates were commissioned to undertake a programme of works off the High Street in Lincoln. The first stage of works entailed a desk based assessment of the site's archaeological potential. This document revealed that the site was in the Roman and medieval suburbs of the city, and was formerly occupied by John of Gaunt's Palace, a high status 14th century merchants residence. |
 John of Gaunt's Palace viewed from the south-west (Hieronymus Grimm 1784)
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| Two evaluation trenches were excavated in the development area, one inside and one to the rear of the existing building. Removal of the floor slab inside the building exposed several phases of well preserved stone walls relating to elements of John of Gaunt's Palace and possible earlier structures. |
 Medieval stone walls
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| A small trench excavated to the rear of the building exposed a substantial build up of 'dark earth' a deposit of Roman and later date which contained substantial quantities of Roman, Saxo-Norman and medieval pottery. This sealed a possible Roman kiln cut into the natural sand at a depth of c.2m. Recent archaeological work in advance of a residential development off Anchor Street, to the west of the site, identified further examples of these kilns, also sealed by a dark earth horizon. A possible medieval keyhole shaped bread oven was also partially exposed. |
 Roman kiln sealed beneath a dark earth deposit. The curved feature at the top of the shot may be part of a medieval keyhole bread oven.
 A number of metal finds from the site were sent for X-Ray to see beneath the rust and corrosion. One of the most exciting has turned out to be a Roman spearhead! The image on the right shows the outline of the spearhead as revealed by the X-Ray.
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