ULAS
University of Leicester Archaeological Services

Medieval Sanvey Gate

The Town Defences

A large stretch of Leicester's defences has recently been excavated by ULAS. This work was carried out for Thomas Fish and Sons Ltd as part of the Leicester Square housing development.

The medieval defences followed the line of the Roman defences, and most likely also reused the Roman structure where possible.

During fieldwork, a section of the Roman town wall was exposed to the north of its original position. The wall had toppled over and had been reused in a later period as a property boundary. Whether the wall collapsed or was deliberately toppled is uncertain, but we know that Roman buildings were in ruin and their stone was being robbed during the medieval period.

Beyond this wall ran a series of large ditches. These were repeatedly redug from the Roman period into the medieval period. The medieval ditches appear to have been wider in profile than the Roman ones.

Inside the town

A single burial was excavated at Sanvey Gate, shown left. This was found just inside the defences, and adjacent to the line of the medieval street Torchmere. The burial was aligned east-west in the Christian manner, the hands and feet are very close together, and it seems likely that the body was buried in a shroud rather than a coffin. Although thought to be medieval, further work will be carried out to confirm this.

Also inside the town, the excavations uncovered evidence for deep wells including a timber-lined example, and rubbish pits. Some late pits were seen cutting the silted up town ditches.

Outside the town

Just beyond the defences, and right on the north edge of our site, we uncovered a medieval building, as seen here. The stone wall foundations can be seen on the left, and to the right a stone well, both reusing Roman building materials.

This building can be seen in the foreground of the picture, left. As shown, the building fronted onto Sanvey Gate which was a medieval street. That the building was so close to the town ditches is important. By being just outside the town the owners may have avoided taxes, although other work on Sanvey Gate has also exposed medieval settlement expanding beyond the town boundary.

The Finds

In the medieval town ditches organic material survived including bone, insect remains, seeds, leaves, twigs, and even worked leather and timbers. The leather was pierced with holes for stitching and may have been a shoe or other clothing. Analysis of the timbers can tell us what woodlands were being exploited, and how they were managed. The plant material provides information about the ancient environment, with the plants indicating that the silting up medieval ditches were rough ground with abundant weeds, and perhaps full of water for much of the year.

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