New light on Roman and Medieval Bolsover

Roman, Medieval and Post-Medieval Bolsover

Recording in progress

GAVIN KINSLEY reports on his new investigations of a multi-age site in Bolsover

In 2019 an excavation took place on a development site north of the centre of Bolsover where Roman and medieval archaeological remains were anticipated from previous documentary and archaeological work. Just to the north lie the ‘Town Defences’, a medieval earthwork extending into the development site. A small excavation in 1993 had already provided a glimpse of a mainly 2nd to 3rd century Roman settlement within the western part of the site, but the new much larger scale excavation revealed a very different picture. Although the small open-ended Building 2 may have been of Roman date, direct evidence for settlement was lacking, and the key discovery was a contemporary substantial and apparently empty ditched enclosure with a central entrance. The settlement was now seen to lie outside it in a curved sub-enclosure. The sparse finds indicated a community on the lowest social level, but osteological analysis showed that cattle played a significant part in the economy of the settlement, and the large enclosure may have functioned as a stock enclosure. Up to five medieval buildings, some with associated pits including craft or industrial remains, were also found. Artefacts were even more sparse than in the Roman period and dating of the buildings was obtained from fired clay and charred plant remains. One pit contained the remains of a fired clay structure and some melted lead trails on pottery suggesting an industrial or craft process. The date ranges of the buildings lay variously within the late Saxon to early high medieval periods, but, assuming the two samples taken from Building 1 to be contemporary, its destruction can be dated to the period 1110 to 1190. Clive Hart’s 1988 model for Bolsover’s development (in Bolsover: A Town is Born) comprised the construction of the castle c.1070 and the formation of an early planned town, followed by expansion northwards over the excavation area in the 12th century, and the construction of the Town Defences further north again in c.1215. Though other interpretations are possible, the excavated evidence allows the buildings to fall within the expansion stage. Historic mapping shows that, allowing for later amalgamation, the excavation lay in the backlands of narrow plots of typical urban character, with the main occupation located on the Town End frontage further south. Despite the later inclusion of the area within the Town Defences, the excavated activity has the appearance of one short-lived phase. Given the possible craft or industrial activity also hinted at, it might reflect an ultimately failed attempt at commercial expansion. The best-preserved parts of the Town Defences within the site were preserved in the development, but excavation of a truncated part revealed a stony spread, thought to be the base of the medieval bank, over a buried soil. However, it was found to have been redeposited in the 18th century, and the activity seems to represent one of several breaches of the earthwork, no doubt to improve access to the plots from the north once the defences were no longer needed. The work will be fully published in the Derbyshire Archaeological Journal; meanwhile the author would be pleased to receive any comments on this article via the editor. SLR would like to thank Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC for funding the work and Steve Baker of Derbyshire County Council for his input during the fieldwork and reporting.