Hornby Castle
The new trench opened at the end of the 2024 season has already produced outstanding results with a significant assemblage of finds dating to the early 17th Century and the period of the moated formal garden. These include Frechen stoneware drinking jug sherds, sherds of several Thomas Toft Staffordshire slip ware plates and part of a Westerwald stone ware bottle. The robbed out mortar foundations of a possible building associated with this are already becoming apparent with a George I penny recovered from the floor surface.
In field walking in the nearby park part of a child’s toy horse from the 15th Century have been recovered along with a livery badge of King Henry VII as Earl of Richmond, adding an important clue to the story of the destruction of the building complex being excavated.
New volunteers are always welcome who will be expected to join the Society. Please contact via email: Erik Matthews.
Two trenches were located roughly mid way between the ruined Garden House and the northern boundary wall of the churchyard. That to the west quickly revealed a 1.2 metre wide stone wall foundation and very quickly mortar floors and evidence of a partial suspended timber floor were recovered to either side indicating that the wall had been internal. Dating evidence came very quickly in the form of a significant quantity of Late Medieval pottery with some 67 handles of half pint drinking jugs from the area of the suspended floor. In terms of fabrics Humberware together with products of the Lincolnware kilns to the south east of Lincoln predominated. The full significance of the site did not become clear until part of a network of timber water pipes laid in the mortar floor was accidentally revealed. They appeared again during investigations of the site of the hall undercroft and the kitchens beyond. Other artefacts recovered included the arm of a penanular broach carrying the arms of King Edward IV, a surgical fleam, a significant quantity of dress rowel spurs of 15th Century date and a bronze stylus.
The eastern trench contained heavy evidence of stone robbing for which there is documentary evidence from the 18th Century associated with the construction of the Garden House. There were two significant discoveries the first was a residual deposit of Andenne ware pottery from the Belgian/French border from a number of forms including drinking jugs, jars, bowls and a lamp. The fabric is encountered all over the site and in quantities quite unknown outside of the South East of England. It dates from the Late 11th/12th Century and is a signature of the presence of the Medieval Dukes of Brittany. The second discovery was a horse skull buried beneath a section of flooring dating to the 14th Century. On recovery the horse was discovered to have been decapitated and following discussions with Prof Roberta Gilchrist and Dr Alex Pluskowski at Reading University was identified to be an outlier of a 14th Century horse cult associated with the Order of Teutonic Knights and the Lithuanian Crusade. Similar occurrences are common in the eastern Baltic with odd outliers in Ireland.
Following on from that two further trenches were opened directly to the north which tantalisingly revealed unrobbed Medieval deposits. The first and larger of the two trenches revealed a significant deposit of rubble caused by the catastrophic collapse of a building. The present of scorched and oxidised stone indicated that this had occurred following on from a large fire. Very quickly interesting artefacts began to appear as the rubble was painstakingly recorded. These included a bronze key for opening locked barrels and a lead ventilator cover which had been scrunched up like a piece of waste paper. As time moved on large deposits of 14th and 15th Century pottery some of which retained residues of food and drink were recovered including Flemish redware cisterns for the storage of beer. Once the rubble had been carefully cleared away and found to include a section of strapped moulded mullioned window, fragmentary remains of timber furniture including a bureau which had been tipped over and the legs of a trestle table were preserved by the continuously high water table. This was a interpreted as a store room/scullery associated with a first floor hall above.
In the second of the two trenches a large hearth with chambers filled with charcoal beneath was identified together with a deposit of 14th and 15th Century pottery exclusively jugs. To the west of the hearth a composite stone/timber piece of furniture, possibly a cupboard was recorded. Adjacent to it a large blown glass disc was recovered identified as a linen smoother. The area was therefore interpreted as being a laundry.
Two trenches were then opened to the east and north east of what had been identified as the hall undercroft. It became clear very quickly that it was the site of a timber framed kitchen with a half timber superstructure above a low stone sleeper wall. Within was a series of ovens for a range of purposes including making pasties, pastries and bread. The northerly trench included a hearth for roasting, a timber tank for holding live fish or crustaceans before cooking and a sink with a timber drain. A significant assemblage of artefacts was recovered from the kitchen floor including six kitchen knives, a 14th Century worked bone dress button, food bones and a selection of 14th and 15th Century pottery.
Other material from the kitchen floor was more surprising including eight arrowheads including one recovered from within an oven, part of a carved marble stone capital circa 1200 and clearly intrusive, stone ammunition from a heavy calibre cannon or bombard and evidence of a major fire including cremated bone, heavily charred timber and a plume of ash caused by the roasting hearth collapsing into the room.
If that were not surprising enough two sherds of a fabric of Early Glazed ware pottery originating in the Aachen region of Germany were recovered from the kitchen floor together with what is now believed to be one are of a walrus ivory cross with a chequer board design. These intrusive items were the first indications of high statues Pre-Conquest activity at the site which was to feature in more recent work. It was decided to investigate this by cutting a section through the kitchen floor where it was free of ovens and other structures. This involved the removal of a 1 metre by 1 metre area which revealed beneath 25cm of rammed mortar an earlier timber floored and stave walled structure. Small heavily decayed fragments of the stave walling survived along with a section of floor which had been well preserved as a consequence of a spillage. This has been recovered for C14 dating.
Following on from that it was decided to locate a trench to the south west in an area of poor vegetation growth to try to locate the moat it having previously proved fruitless. It did locate the moat but quite unexpectedly it also located the robbed stone foundation of a substantial tower some 4.2 metres wide. It proved possible to partially extend the trench to explore the tower interior, a task not yet completed because of the groundwater difficulties.
The tower was found to be originally ashlar clad and to have butted up to the waters of the moat with brackish water leading to a deposit of sand at its foot. Within the wall thickness a series of flues were identified which could be filled with charcoal and lit and used as a primitive source of central heating. On the inner face of the wall a corridor was identified with a knife blade down embedded in the floor as if thrown. There was also a 30cm depth of ash caused by the tower having burned down in which were odd deposits of early stone hand gun shot.
In terms of the moat area, the location of a gate house with associated pivot bridge was discovered, together with a “drawbridge pit”. The ground water conditions ensured that the collapsed bridge super structure as largely preserved. Within the moat was a pet cemetery dating to the period of infilling with three spaniel type dogs lovingly interred in makeshift coffins. These could be dated by associated coin evidence to the period 1800 to 1812. Below and associated with the bridge wreckage were the skeletons of eight hunting dogs of a mastiff type breed, two pet dogs including a greyhound/whippet type dog which had been killed by an arrow and two very large mastiff type dogs identified as guard dogs, a male and a female. The male had a blade would to its right forepaw and the finds were associated with a smashed Lincolnware Pottery drinking jug from the 15th Century and also a deposit of ash which had fallen from the burning building into the moat.
As a result of the continuing ground water difficulties involving the Tower it was decided to open a fresh trench in the area suspected of containing the chapel following on from the discoveries when the adjacent kitchen trench was excavated. The heavily robbed foundation of a geometrically shaped building aligned east west was located including a clearly defined nave and chancel. The nave contained a network of five substantial post holes which can be identified as the site of a bell frame. The chancel had a raised floor with an apse aligned east/west with evidence of a pew. An alcove foe an altar at the head of the apse and an early ceramic drain to drain the piscina. The critical discovery lay directly to the south where a section of the mortar raft upon which the chapel and other buildings sat was taken up. This revealed a network of paired post holes over 1 metre deep scribing the bow end of a bow sided building aligned completely differently to the Later Medieval buildings above. Tantalisingly a small section of timber floor with the ghost of a pair of furniture legs was recorded. During the excavation of the Chapel two sherds of residual Pre-Conquest Pingsdorf pottery and part of a Pre-Conquest worked bone stylus were recorded and in view of the survival of timber in the post holes it is hoped to sample for C14 dating as soon as the ground water situation allows.
