Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-sv6ng Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-18T00:39:37.217Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Forum and Basilica of Roman Leicester

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Max Hebditch  and
Jean Mellor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the mid-1950's attempts were made to solve Leicester's traffic problems by the construction of an inner ring road by-passing the present city centre around the clock tower. The projected line ran through the Roman and medieval towns of Leicester from the north-east corner to the medieval south gate, passing just west of the ancient site of the High Cross (FIG. I ). The engineering work for this road was expected to destroy substantial archaeological evidence of the history of the town, and the City of Leicester Museums, in association with the then Ministry of Works, planned a jointly-financed programme of excavations. The first was undertaken in Blue Boar Lane by Mr. J. S. Wacher. In 1961 Leicester Museums appointed a full-time Field Archaeologist to direct the work of rescue in advance of road building. The work recorded in this paper under 1961–4 was directed by M. G. Hebditch: that under 1965–6, and again under 1971–2, by Jean Mellor. In all its excavations, the Museum staff enjoyed the co-operation of colleagues in other departments of Leicester Corporation, especially those of the Engineer and the Estates Officer. A besetting problem has been the limited area for excavation available at any one time (because of irregular demolition and clearance of the site and the need to leave substantial areas for the support of adjoining buildings).

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 4 , November 1973 , pp. 1 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Max Hebditch and Jean Mellor 1973. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 JRS xlix (1959), 113-14.

2 The NGR of the centre of the insula is SK 583045.

3 Arch. Joum. lxxv (1918), 1-46 (cited as Haverfield 1918 in the list of Early Discoveries below).

4 Kenyon, K. M., The Jewry Wall Site, Leicester (Oxford, 1948), 14–24.Google Scholar

5 JRS xxxix (1949), 143.

6 The author is pleased to acknowledge the assistance of his Museum colleagues, J. A. Daniell and B. H. Waters (who was responsible for much of the photography) as well as the following, who were supervisors at various times: P. Bellwood, Miss C. Mahany, Miss S. Smith, R. Warner. There were numerous volunteers as well as staff lent by the City Engineer. During the excavations the advice of David Clarke, then Keeper of Antiquities, and John Wacher, Department of Archaeology in the University of Leicester, was invaluable.

7 Kenyon, K. M., The Jewry Wall Site, Leicester (Oxford, 1948), p. 10 and section E-F, pl. xxxi.Google Scholar

8 Redcross Street site, JRS liii (1963), 134.

9 JRS xlix (1959), 113-14.

10 For details of columns see p. 81.

11 For other deposits of this sand see pp. 22, 29, 34 below.

11 See further p. 34.

13 The thanks of the Museum and the writer are extended to Messrs. Hardow Ltd., the contractors who built the underpass, for their co-operation; and to all those whose assistance, paid or voluntary, made the excavations possible, in particular the site supervisors M. G. Gribble and D. M. Calow, and Miss R. Walton (Mrs. D. Taylor) who supervised the pottery shed. I also wish to thank Mr. J. S. Wacher for reading the typescript and commenting upon it.

14 For a note on the fragments of column from Leicester see p. 81 below.

15 p. 8 above.

16 Trans. Leicestershire Arch, and Hist. Soc. xxxii (1956), 86-8.

17 The surface of the wide foundation was at 195.5 ft. (59.59 m) O.D.

18 Antiq. Journ. xlii (1962), 7.

19 This also happened in the market hall in Insula XVI. Information from Mr. J. S. Wacher.

20 Atkinson, D., Excavations at Wroxeter 1923-27 (Oxford, 1942), 84.Google Scholar

21 Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 11–14.Google Scholar

22 JRS liii (1963), 134.

23 Kenyon, K. M., The Jewry Wall Site, Leicester (Oxford, 1948), 11.Google Scholar

24 Trans. Leicestershire Arch, and Hist. Soc. xliv (1969), 1-10.

25 1.199 ha (= 2.96 acres).

26 It is noteworthy that these floor-levels are below the sill of the basilica of the baths on the Jewry Wall site (204.40 O.D.). This would suggest that the floor-levels of the baths were raised artificially high to allow for heating systems and drains.

27 Britannia ii (1971), 7. It is also worth recalling the analogous room at the end of the basilicae at Cremna and at Palmyra (Papers of the Brit. School at Rome xxvi (1958), pp. 169, 180) which Ward Perkins (Ibid. 182) sought to connect with the imperial cult.

28 The room suggested (Frere, S. S., Britannia, a History of Roman Britain (London, 1967), 258Google Scholar) for the curia at Silchester measured 62 × 28 ft. (18.89 by 8.53 m).

29 Of known basilicae in British towns those at Silchester and possibly London have an apse at both ends, that at Cirencester only at the east end. At Caerwent, Caistor by Norwich and Wroxeter apses are lacking. Compare the apse in the basilica of the Caesareum at Cyrene, P. Brit. School at Rome xxvi (1958), 139, fig. 1.

30 That used in the foundations and walls in St. Nicholas Street, 1964, was identified by Mrs. J. B. Ferguson of the Dept. of Geology, Leicester Museums, as syenites from Enderby, Croft and Sapcote; in other parts of the forum syenite from Mountsorrel and Groby was recognized.

31 Information from Mr. C. A. Sizer, Dept. of Geology, Leicester Museums.

32 Atkinson, D., Excavations at Wroxeter 1923-27 (Oxford, 1942), 55–107, pl. 73.Google Scholar

33 Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 203–5.Google Scholar

34 Frere, S. S., Verulamium Excavations i (Oxford, 1972), p. 317.Google Scholar

35 Note also the evidence beside the stylobate in Trench 1965 II (p. 27f.).

* We are grateful to Mr. M. D. Card for help in drawing the finds.

36 We are indebted to Miss S. Butcher for the note on this brooch.

37 Oxoniensia i (1936), 64, No. G.3 and fig. 12, 3.

38 Archaeology 18 and 20.

39 This note is contributed by Mrs. M. Guido.

40 Isings, C., Roman Glass from dated Finds (Groningen, 1957).Google Scholar

41 Gillam, 1957: ‘Types of Roman coarse pottery vessels in northern Britain’, Arch. Ael4 xxxv, 1–72Google Scholar

42 I am very grateful to Mr. J. P. Gillam and Mr. B. R. Hartley for examining and discussing the whole of the pottery here described.

43 We are grateful to Miss H. Oldham (Mrs. Bennett) who drew the column-drums while a vacation assistant in the Museum in 1967.