Owen Owen's Site

June 1936

EXCAVATIONS IN THE CROSS

Since writing my last article work has been going on, both day and night, employing about 50 men. Every five minutes there are tons of material brought to the surface and the work is watched by crowds of onlookers from the edges of the quarry. Electric drills and man-swung hammers and picks are unceasingly trying to reach the depths required, viz., 27 feet at the north end and 35 feet in the south. The correct depth has been reached at the north end and marl has been found beneath the stone.

As usual, in all excavations of any size, wells have been found, three in number up to the present and all about the same period, viz., 16th to 17th century. One well is only 20 feet deep, 17 feet of this being brickwork and 3 feet in the rock. Another is 17 feet but possibly another 17 feet in the rock and marl. This well contained water and was not filled in. A sounding of the depth was not taken from the bottom of the brickwork and it is yet to be found how deep it is sunk. The other well is not yet being dealt with, save at the top which has been filled in with old wood piles and pieces of pottery of the pinched base 14th century ware. At the south-west side, near Broadgate, opposite Messrs. Deans and Simsons, the rock has only been quarried to the bottom of the cellars, then, running a few yards to the east, it has been quarried with a straight side to a depth yet unknown At this place, at a depth of 17 to 18 feet, I have dug out wood piles of a cattle shed, while near this spot either the farmers, or the quarry men of the 14th century, did their cooking. Charcoal in great quantities, small pieces of pottery and bones of sheep, deer or goats, were found in large numbers. A little distance from this, beneath the foundations of Messrs. Allwood's another shed has been found and also a cattle dung heap, 7 or 8 feet in depth, while small pieces of pottery and boots of the 15th century are found in the heap.

Beneath Messrs. West's old shop, nearer Broadgate, is a cellar beneath a cellar, hewn out of the solid rock with a stone top. What this cellar was used for is not yet known. A wall of stone, with clay for mortar, is built up to the roof about 6 feet from the end, and only a small opening is yet made in the wall. Thralls have been built in this cellar about the 16th century. When the buildings are taken down to release the weight that now rests on the arches, Mr. J. Ford, the City Engineer, will have the cellar opened out to see if anything can throw light on its use. Its depth is about 20 feet below Broadgate. Its uses may have been (1) a Saltpetre house, as Saltpetre was found in Coventry; (2) a storehouse for meat, as all cattle not required for breeding or milking were killed off and salted in the autumn; (3) a hiding place during the attacks on the City, or a munition dump; (4) a tomb, as it is very near to the Church.

Only one human skull has been dis-covered up to the present, but 80 or 90 years ago a great number were found in the sewering of Butcher Row.

More of the quarry next month.

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