Through the excavation of a substantial boundary ditch, likely the remains of the “King’s Ditch” which ran parallel to modern-day Barton Street, we were afforded a window into the development of medieval and post-medieval Gloucester.
The earliest phase of this ditch, represented by the steep-sided and flat-bottomed ditch seen in the centre of the photo, likely dates to the late Romano-British or Early Medieval period. This early ditch also ran parallel to the road as Barton Street follows the approximate line of a road which has existed since the late 1st – 2nd century AD in relation to the Roman settlement of Glevum.
The later re-establishment of the ditch in the 12th – 14th century seems to coincide with the establishment of Gloucester as a borough and was re-used to mark the limits of properties, or burgage plots as they were known, which fronted onto Barton Street. Finds recovered from the ditch provide an insight into the lives of residents. We recovered Malvernian Ware pottery (14th – early 17th century), wheat and oat grains, as well as animals bones, some of which had evidence of gnawing.
This evidence of occupation activity increases following the final re-establishment of the ditch in the post-medieval period in the 15th – 18th century. Here, we find more Malvernian Ware pottery as well as Cistercian Ware (late 15th – 17th century). Similarly, oyster and mussel remains were found as well as increased amounts of animal goat, pig and cattle bones, some of which had butchery marks.
The function of the ditch as a boundary became redundant in the 19th – 20th century when it was partially replaced by a hedge coupled with a probable change in property boundaries following a change in land-use.