Perth, 199, 201, 203, 205 High Street

SUAT recorded a standing building in the High Street, Perth, undergoing major repairs. The work was undertaken between 3rd and 11th July 2008, and was given the site code PE49. Despite drastic alterations, the building preserved many original or early features from the mid to late 18th century onwards, especially in its floor and roof timbers. The east party wall may have preserved masonry from a much earlier building. A second phase of work was an evaluation in the site's backlands carried out in September 2008. Two trenches were excavated. Evidence of a late 18th or early 19th century building was found which had large well constructed basement windows. The building had a sunken passageway on its outside to allow light into the basement. Vaulting was found along the west side of the site which carried a pathway into the north end of the site and to the properties to the north. At the north end of the site a large commercial bread oven had been inserted into the north wall of the basemented building and to the west of the oven the pathway had been bridged over to cross the sunken passageway. A third phase of work, a watching brief on contractors' excavations for groundbeams was undertaken in February 2009. The watching brief revealed further evidence regarding the bread oven, the vaults and the 19th century building. Limited desk based research revealed evidence of the property numbering systems, owners and occupiers, and usage of the site building from the 1830's.

David Bowler, SUAT, 2009