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Ancient timbers found near South
Yorkshire's oldest church
Excavations in Conisbrough,
near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, have revealed rare Early Medieval wooden
structures beneath a 1960s housing estate. These include a fence with massive
tongue and groove panels, a wood-lined pit, a track and numerous stakes. Found in late 2002 during
excavations in advance of residential and retail development, the timbers were
known to be pre-modern from associated material. It was thought likely that they
were Anglo-Saxon or Roman. However dendrochronology has now indicated a more
recent date. ‘This falls in the period
we know very little about archaeologically’, Richard Neill, project
archaeologist for ARCUS, tells British Archaeology. A 148-year
dendrochronological sequence has been established from measuring tree rings,
running from AD 425 to 573. This indicates a probable late 6th/early 7th century
date for the felling of the trees. The complex was located on
the spring line at the Magnesian Limestone/Middle Coal Measures contact. The
timber, mostly oak, includes over 5 m of panelled fence, thought to be part of a
channel taking water from the spring. Roman pots of types typically found at
wells suggest the source was used from as early as the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. The excavations were close to
two of the most important archaeological sites in Conisbrough, at St Peter’s
Church and Conisbrough Castle. Extensive remains of a Saxon Minster of 8th
century date are incorporated within the church, thought to be the oldest in
South Yorkshire and of a type believed to have been associated with royal
estates. The castle dates back to c 1180, but is also thought to
incorporate earlier Anglo-Saxon earthworks. Also identified at the
excavations were Medieval 11th to 13th century features, including pits and
field boundaries, perhaps contemporary with a major rebuilding of the church and
the building of Conisbrough Castle in the 12th century. A nearby street,
Wellgate, takes its name from a Late Medieval wellhead structure which still
survives on the site, and from which people in the town drew water until a water
main was installed in 1903. The name Conisbrough means
‘King’s stronghold’. The distribution of its dependant estates by the time
of the Domesday Book (1086) suggests it was once the centre of an ancient
lordship stretching from the River Don to the boundary of Northumbria. Given the
survival of the church, there is the possibility of continuity in Conisbrough
from the Anglian period, through the Viking Age, to the Norman conquest and
beyond. British
Archaeology |
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