Perth, South Street
No Class (Event)
Site Name Perth, South Street
Classification No Class (Event)
Alternative Name(s) Candlemaker's Close
Canmore ID 70065
Site Number NO12SW 230
NGR NO 117 234
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/70065
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Perth
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
NO12SW 230 117 234
A 20m by 7m trench aligned EW parallel to South Street. There was no evidence of Candlemaker's Close or of any medieval buildings. A 6m to 8m wide and c2m deep ditch was discovered running NS across the site; this is possibly the early medieval western boundary of Perth, part of which was discovered under the Meal Vennel in 1983. Two wells were discovered within the ditch, one of which was a barrel well from the 15th century. Sponsors: SDD HBM, SUAT.
J Burrows 1989.
NO 117 234 A small excavation demonstrated that the large and deep feature cut into the natural, which was found in the 1989 excavation (Burrows 1989), was not a defensive ditch, but more probably a quarry pit. The backlands seem to have been largely devoid of structures until the post-medieval and modern periods, having been used as open ground or gardens. Pits, two property gullies and a stone drain were found, as well as a post-medieval stone well. No trace of the town wall or ditch was found along Canal Street.
A mixed assemblage of artefacts of medieval and post-medieval date was recovered. Two metallic finds of medieval date were found in the lower of two garden soil deposits. One is an iron clench bolt, consisting of a nail and a rectangular or diamond-shaped rove. The function of clench bolts was to secure two or more thicknesses of timber, and they were commonly used in the medieval period in plank-built, wooden structures. The second find from this deposit is a fragment from the frame of a copper-alloy buckle.
Several irregularly shaped pieces of daub with numerous straw impressions were found in the fill of a quarry pit and in smaller quantities in the overlying deposits. Finds from more recent deposits associated with the construction or demolition of the Co-operative Society buildings, until recently occupying the site, include 19th-century bottle glass, fragments of brick, and clay pipe stems.
Sponsors: Perthshire Housing Association, Servite Housing
D Perry and A Cox 1997