Archaeologists share Victorian and medieval finds from Winchester site

Pre-Construct Archaeology led tours to one of the Central Winchester Regeneration dig sites, sharing Victorian and medieval finds from the trench next to Coitbury House.

Trench one of four, at one meter deep, has unveiled the gutter remains of a Victorian alleyway and a medieval property next to Tanner Street.

Trench one (Image: Adele Bouchard)

After digging up the treasures, the team spends an extra 50 per cent of their time on post-excavation, cleaning up the items and producing specialist reports for their client Winchester City Council.

READ MORE: Archaeologists find medieval well beneath Upper Brook Street car park

Victorian finds (Image: Adele Bouchard)

Regional manager of Pre-Construct Archaeology, Paul McCulloch, was pleased with the public interest in the project, with more than 100 people visiting the pop-up stall in Abbey Gardens on Saturday, July 29 before being shown around the dig site.

Mr McCulloch said: “We’ve got a number of opportunities that we think will engage people on site. We’re running a series of open days and may add a few more and we’ve got people volunteering on the finds and environmental processing which has proven very popular.”

Pre-Construct Archaeology led the first open day of the Central Winchester Regeneration excavations with a tour of trench one by the bus station.

Here you can see the gutter remains of a Victorian alleyway surrounded by obliterated medieval walls.#winchester #Archaeology pic.twitter.com/9HBmPyLnlC

— Adele Bouchard (@adele_bouchard) July 29, 2023

Caroline Rogers, from Soberton, attended the open morning with her archaeologist daughter. Mrs Rogers was intrigued to see what had been uncovered, having worked in the site area for the city council 25 years ago.

Caroline Rogers (Image: Adele Bouchard)

She said: “It is what we kind of expected as my daughter is an archaeologist but it’s still fascinating. It’s really good to get the community involved like this because there’s no point doing it if you’re not going to share what’s been found.”

On show at the PCA stall were items cleaned up from across the sites including broken pottery and floor tiles which will eventually be sent to museums in Chilcomb and Winchester.

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PCA team members Maisie Marshall and Cameron Hardie (Image: Adele Bouchard)

The first trench can only be made a meter deeper so the surrounding buildings don’t collapse but the other three trenches will have a much longer excavation period with the archaeologists able to go as far as four or five metres deep.

The team previously unearthed more than 1.5m of a timber-lined medieval well below Upper Brook Street car park.

The inaugural open event marked the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology which runs from July 15 to July 30.

The next events will be on Saturday, September 2 and October 7.

As an archaeological-led project, the excavation process will dictate how the Central Winchester Regeneration development goes ahead. For more information go to pre-construct.com/category/central-winchester-regeneration/.