ULAS
University of Leicester Archaeological Services

Highcross St., Leicester - excavations on the street frontage

This excavation area was located in a medieval block, and one of the principal streets of Roman Leicester runs underneath the 16th-century Free Grammar School and an 18th-century town house. Highcross St itself was the major North-South street of the medieval town.  Very rarely has it been possible in Leicester to investigate a medieval street frontage, as on most sites the archaeology has either been destroyed by 19th century cellars, or the structural evidence is now under the pavement due to road widening schemes.  The Highcross St frontage had been intensively occupied from the Roman period until the present day leading to the build up of over 3.5m of archaeological deposits. 

Excavation on The Highcross St frontage revealed part of the school which had been demolished in the 19th century, together with a complex sequence of medieval and post-medieval buildings within three narrow plots.  The frontage buildings were probably timber framed, resting on stone foundations.

In the back yards of the properties were the usual range of cess pits, wells and outhouses, together with a number of other structures pointing to specific activities.  For example, one property had a series of stone ovens believed to be associated with brewing and identified as mash ovens and a malting kiln, as shown in the photo.

Finds from the medieval phases included this triangular piece of riveted chain maille of c. 1350-1475, thought to have been a decorative piece designed to be attached to a larger maille garment to enhance its appearance and probably worn by a person of high status.

Towards the closing stages of the excavation, fragmentary evidence for timber buildings tentatively dated to the 10th-11th centuries was identified – the first structures of this period found in the city so far.  The Anglo-Saxon period was also represented by two ‘sunken featured’ buildings on opposite sides of the site, one of these can be seen in the picture below right. Also, a large post-built structure was discovered, perhaps a hall, cutting into a substantial deposit of that appeared to be Roman granite building rubble and tile.

Closer examination of the rubble beneath the Anglo-Saxon features revealed one of the most remarkable discoveries of the excavation – the collapsed wall (below) of a large Roman building. This was almost certainly the macellum (the Roman shopping centre), which mostly lay beneath the modern casino and Travelodge across the road.

The wall had collapsed across the main Roman road and was at least 8m high, constructed of granite rubble with regular tile bonding courses, a possible tile relieving arch and the jamb and arch of a possible window.

Left and below, the collapsed Roman wall seen from above, showing the tile bonding courses and, towards the bottom of the picture, part of a tile arch.

Beneath this collapsed macellum wall, was an earlier Roman wall. This wall was still in its original position, defining the boundary of the edge of the road and the insula block.

Although the presence of the collapsed macellum and precinct wall were an unexpected bonus, almost as interesting was the fact that the insula adjacent to the road (to the left on the photo above) appeared to contain no major Roman buildings, even though it was  more or less in the centre of the Roman city. Fragmentary parts of a possible Roman building were found in an earlier phase of the excavations which would have been in the centre of  the insula, and a cobbled surface laid on top of the original ground level was encountered in many places. Perhaps this was an open area, like a parade ground, or even a religious precinct, with a temple centred in it?

Cutting into the edge of the Roman road, were a series of Roman hearths which may have been used for the extraction of silver from coinage near the end of the Roman period. Shown here is a steelyard complete with a pan, from site. These Roman ‘weighing scales’ may have been used for weighing out such precious metals.