Field Visit
Date 2006 - 13 March 2009
Event ID 884098
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/884098
The aerial photographs taken during the exceptionally dry summer of 2006 showed a remarkable pattern of parching in the grass of the burgh. These include streets delineated by ditches; parch marks delineating the walls of buildings, and back lands full of pits (DP019535). A boundary wall was also picked up running E-W across the S part of the burgh which may be the perimeter of Friars; the house that the earls of Roxburghe built there in the 17th century on the site of the Greyfriars. Three streets are documented in the burgh, King’s Street, Market Street and Senedegate (Innes ed, i, 1851, 452ff.; Martin and Oram 2007) and Martin and Oram have suggested an interpretation of these based on aerial photographs taken by Colin Martin in 1984. Analysis of these images and those taken by RCAHMS in 2006, have revealed two more streets. However, it is not possible to be sure about the identity of the named streets, due to the limited topographical information in the charters. What can be inferred is that King’s Street is an E-W street with properties described as lying on the N or S sides (Innes ed, i, 1851, 473-4), and Market Street has a N-S axis based on similar types of property descriptions, which also mention booths (bothas), or perhaps permanent market stalls on the same street (ibid., 458).
The topography of the burgh and its boundaries
The boundary of the burgh is delimited on the E by a broad ditch about 30m in breadth that may be traced over a distance of c.400m from the Tweed in the N (NT 72045 34170) to the Teviot in the S (NT 72112 33778). In fact it stops or ceases to be visible about 50m short of the rivers at both ends, suggesting that the walls turn a corner to run parallel to each river. A similar broad ditch defines the western limit of the burgh (NT 71158 33778 to 71213 33739) in the haugh below the castle mound. On this basis the burgh measures 900m from E to W and a maximum of about 630m from N to S bounded by the rivers Tweed and Teviot respectively. Stonework may be seen eroding from the edge of the river terrace along the Tweed at NT 71330 33950, and from NT 71535 34135 a low bank may be traced that follows the line of a post-and-wire fence to NT 71830 34198, some distance short of the end of the E ditch. It is suggested (pace Martin and Oram 2007) that this marks the line of the burgh walls on the N, in which case the site of the church of St James (NT 7175 3421) lies out with the burgh limits as described in a charter of Kelso Abbey in the reign of David I (Martin and Oram, 2007, 372). The bank marking the line of the stone-faced earthen rampart on the W lip of the E ditch (as confirmed by the Time Team excavation Trench 3) turns to the SW at NT 72110 33775 to run down towards the Teviot bridge for about 50m. Within these bounds the burgh is dominated on the W by the castle which is situated on the highest part of an E-W glacial ridge that continues E across the burgh, forming a steep scarp on its N at Kay Brae (NT 71700 34030) before reducing to a more gentle terrace, dividing the burgh in two. The summit of Kay Brae is a flat topped area about 180m across from E to W with a less precipitous drop on its SE down to a broad terrace about 300m across between the E rampart and the River Teviot to the W. The Teviot is eroding Kay Brae on the SW and dark soil (presumably from settlement debris) is visible in the river section. To the N there is a haugh along the Tweed about 100-150m wide.
The Streets
Within these limits a number of streets can be outlined from a mixture of aerial photograph and topographic data. The roads are visible as parch marks in grass delimited by ditches on either side. These include a street that would, if it continued on its line, have run from just W of the present bridge over the Teviot (NT71935 33580), suggesting a different site for the medieval bridge. What starts as a broad parch mark running N from the fisherman’s track, becomes visible as two parallel parch marks at about NT 71862 33788 and continues for 40m until it turns NW at NT 71852 33807 to run WNW towards the castle and is lost just E of the line of the public road, near the corner where the Teviot has cut a cliff (NT 71740 33892). This suggests that there has been a significant loss of land to erosion by the river since medieval times. The road measures about 10m in breadth between ditches, and appears to have a wall (showing as a parch mark) outside the line of the ditch (showing a lush grass). A second street runs N from the site of the Greyfriars at the S edge of the burgh (NT 72005 33817) towards the Tweed, crossing the level ground of the S terrace and running down slope to be lost just short of the Tweed (NT 71943 34144). As it runs down the slope, a narrow ridge on which there is a tree coincides with the line of the parch mark, and may be the remains of the road surface itself. At least one connecting street can be traced that leaves the Teviotside street beside the modern public road, just S of an E-W fence (NT 71794 33894), to run across the site in a NE direction along the base of the SE slope of Kay Brae to a point 30m short of the N-S road (NT 71920 34004) that led towards the site of the former Tweed bridge, suggesting there may be an open space here (see below). The alignment of this street mimics closely the topography of this side of Kay Brae, where there is a terrace cut in the foot of the slope. These three roads are easily traced, but a possible fourth also marked by ditches runs N from the back of the rampart that delimits the E of the burgh (NT 72081 33859), converging with the N-S street, but not actually reaching it; it stops short of the post and wire fence that runs across the site. Last but not least within the context of the burgh and its access points, a fifth road running from ENE to WSW on the north side of the burgh is suggested by the presence of parch marks indicative of buildings aligned end-on to it, and a roughly 40m length of parch mark of suitable breadth for a road from 71720 34111 to NT 71757 34118. Colin Martin’s aerial photographs (AP0473 colour slide) show further lengths of parch mark on the same line further W (NT 71609 34078), reinforcing the interpretation of a street on this line. At about that point, the parch mark turns slightly to the SW. This road would have provided a link from the west port to the N-S street that leads to the former bridge over the Tweed.
The Time Team excavation located both the N-S and Teviotside streets in 2003 (Martin and Oram 2007, Trenches 2 and 3), and this helps confirm the interpretation. However, relating these streets to the documented ones is difficult. There must have been a connecting street from E to W to the N or S of the Greyfriars precinct, but its line is not known, and may have been lost with the construction of a mansion on the site in the 17th century. A pronounced bank, possibly a wall, that runs due W from the E rampart (NT 72075 33871) as far as the entrance to the field on the W (NT 71882 33719), may be a perimeter wall for the Friars mansion house. This is visible on the 2006 aerial photograph (RCAHMS DP019535) as a distinct narrow parch mark. What may be terraces are visible as sharply defined straight edges (c.NT 72036 33763) and right-angle corners that may indicate building platforms or garden features to the S, within the area defined by this boundary feature. A Survey of Floors by William Wyeth in 1736, which covers the site of the burgh and Friars House (NAS RHP 3234), places it to the SW of this terrace, but this may be due to the errors in orthorectifying the plan to fit the OS map. The presence of terraces is visible on the ground and in the terrain model of the site.
A street that led up to the W end of the burgh is marked in the woods by a hollow way that led down towards the burgh’s W rampart, but could not be traced outside the woods, nor is there a dip in the west rampart to suggest the location of a gate. From here it may be presumed a road to have run along the N side of the castle mound to the Tweed Bridge which lay ENE of the site of St James church (General Roy’s map, c.1747-55, indicates this, but Wyeth’s plan of 1736 does not). A hollow way that cuts a diagonal route past the S of the church (see below), still preserves the camber of a road as it leads down towards the site of the bridge and later ferry point, though this may be the post-medieval route and not that of a road belonging to the medieval burgh. The parch mark visible on aerial photographs described above at NT 71733 34117 may indicate the line of this street in the medieval burgh. A street leading up to Kay’s Brae from the W gate and connecting with that which leads N from the Teviot Bridge is logical topographically. Unfortunately the parch marks in the N part of the burgh are poor and there is no sign of this on the ground.
Buildings
The best visible evidence for buildings is along the Teviotside road as it turns to run up onto Kay Brae. On the S side at NT 71810 33822, there is a T-shaped building about 5m in breadth marked by narrow parch marks and a row of buildings on the N side including at least one end-on to the road at NT 71809 33860. This suggests stone footings or foundations of buildings fronting onto the street. The linear parch mark of a wall runs from NT 71826 33845 for c.50m to the NE and a second runs parallel to it from NT 71760 33895 for 90m. These may be property boundaries. Although some stone-based buildings are visible elsewhere, the paucity of parch marks on the N-S street, for example, suggests the majority of the buildings there may be timber framed. The concentrations of pits in the back-lands, presumed to be rubbish pits, start about 11m from the ditch along the road, providing ample space for timber-framed buildings on the street front. However, parch marks of what may be more stone buildings have been located on the E-W street on the haugh at the N of the burgh, one on the W of the N-S street at NT 71929 34072 and traces of several buildings on Kay Brae.
Martin and Oram (2007) have posited a market place where the connecting NE-SW street meets the N-S street leading to the Tweed Bridge. Here the parch marks of the ditches stop some 30m short of the N-S road suggesting an open space. There are some pits here of unknown functions. Those at NT 71920 34024 comprise two parallel rows of pits aligned from E to W, spaced 10m apart and extending over a distance of 30m: somewhat too large for a building. The possibility that these are related to stalls in a market places, referred to as bothies (bothas) in a medieval charter, has already been suggested above (OPS, i, 1851, 458). A large rectangular pit at NT 72005 34052 that extends about 11m from ENE-WSW by 4m in breadth is possibly the cellar of a building and there is an even larger L-shaped pit 5m to the WSW.
The only remaining building relating to the burgh to be mentioned is the church of St James which lay outside the N edge of the burgh according to the documentation (see above). On the ground there is a roughly rectangular earthwork up to 0.3m in height to the NE of Time Team Trench 4 (Martin and Oram 2007, 389), which may be the site of the building (NT 71747 34216), although Trench 6 intended to test this did not locate structural remains. Both trenches located grave slabs indicative of a graveyard (Martin and Oram 2007, ibid.). This earthwork is about 30m from ENE to WSW by 10m transversely.
