Archaeology Notes
Event ID 847406
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/847406
NT58NE184 5514 8532
Archaeological evaluation and engineering investigations along the W side of the Abbey Church Hall in September 2004 demonstrated that the substantial remains of a rubble and mortar structure exist within the northern part of the site, a building that appears on the 1832 town plan. Upstanding walls of this structure were found 0.25-0.5m below the surface, although the associated internal mortar floor and cobbling to the exterior (S) lay considerably deeper at 1.1m below the present surface. In the mid-19th century the structure was known as the 'burnt house', and was thus presumably ruined by that stage. Evidence for a conflagration was indeed found upon the floor surfaces.
The W wall of the structure formed part of a property boundary running at an angle to the existing (aligned NNW-SSE); this runs parallel to earlier property boundaries still existing immediately to the E - evidently part of the system of medieval/early post-medieval rigs within this part of the burgh.
These structural remains overlay deep stratified deposits, including levels of windblown sand.
Archive to be deposited in East Lothian SMR and the NMRS.
Sponsor: Abbey Church, North Berwick.
K Macfadyen 2004
NT 5514 8532 A previous evaluation (DES 2004, 45) led to a general excavation in April 2005 of the northern part of the area along the W side of the Abbey Church Hall during the construction of a new extension. The extent and character of the previously identified structure at the N end of the site (fronting onto Forth Street to the N and Church Street to the W) was more fully revealed. The structure was square with a narrow cobbled sunken pend along its S side. This was accessed off what is now Church Street to the W, and in turn gave access to the entrance to the lower level of the structure at the W end of its S wall. Evidence of wear on mortar floors and scars of former partitions within permitted the reconstruction of the ground floor interior spaces. A small vestibule within the entrance gave access to a passage along the W side of the structure (with evidence for a coal store to the NW) and a larger chamber of the E. The latter had a central fireplace in its E wall. It is probable that the W side of the larger chamber incorporated a stair.
Parts of the cobbled predecessor of Church Street were exposed along the W side of the early building, including a stone-lined drainage access.
The building had evidently been carefully dismantled and backfilled, perhaps following fire damage: the structure was known as the 'burnt house' in the mid-19th century.
Archive to be deposited in NMRS.
Sponsor: Abbey Church, North Berwick.
K Macfadyen, T Addyman 2005
