Friarsgate Archaeological Dig
| Published: 29th October 2007 10:54 |
City boundary ditch proves elusive
S Harrison Developments Ltd, Lichfield District Council's development partner, has employed a team of archaeologists to investigate what lies beneath the site of the planned £100 million leisure and retail development - Friarsgate.
The team from Onsite Archaeology started the excavations in late September and have since dug a number of large trenches so they can search the ground and log anything of historical interest. They are hoping to find the ditch that formed the city boundary in the medieval times. The archaeologists have already investigated areas of the bus station and the multi storey car park, but did not find the elusive ditch.
The team is now excavating outside the Police station and in the garden of a council-owned property, next to District Council House on Frog Lane.
Dave Pinnock, Onsite Archaeology Project Officer, said: "Lichfield is a good case study of the development of a medieval town, and so it is important to carry out this work and to record any findings. So far we've discovered buried medieval plough soil, which shows the land outside the assumed line of the ditch was used for agriculture. We've also found pits and post holes from medieval buildings, and the foundations of a large building thought to date from the 16th or 17th century."
Tempest Ford Garage will be the next site to be explored. This first phase of investigations will last several weeks and any interesting finds will be announced to the press.
Dave Pinnock (Project Officer) and Lauren Mcintyre (archaeologist) in big hole outside the front of the Police Station on Frog Lane.
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