MEM25015 - Saxon timber structures at St Petrock's Churchyard (Monument)

A watching brief in 2019 exposed a series of features including several potential slots and a post hole. These were sealed by a charcoal layer radiocarbon dated to the mid 8th Century, and may represent timber outbuildings or religious buildings.

A watching brief was undertaken in 2019 during the installation of new drainage and facilities in St Petrock's Churchyard. This included the limited exposure of a complex series of features, which appear to be of several slots and a post hole, possibly representing the foundations of timber structures. The features do not all appear to have been contemporary, suggesting replacement and rebuilding in the same location over a potentially prolongued period. Very little in the way of domestic debris was noted. The features had been infilled and sealed by a single dump almost entirely composed of charcoal (possibly the result of the burning of a structural timber in situ), which was radiocarbon dated to the mid 8th Century, suggesting an earlier date for the sealed features. The structures may have functioned as outbuildings, or as religious buildings, although there is no record of a church here before c.1180 (the dedication of the present church was changed from St Michael to St Petrock in the 19th Century). [1]