NHER 64891 (Monument record) - Remains of walls associated with St Protase's and St Gervase's Church

November 2011. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of excavation of three trial pits within footprint of proposed extension to north of church.
Two of these trial pits were placed against the north wall of the nave in order to assess the nature of the church wall footings. The easternmost of these exposed the western face of a north-to-south aligned wall which aligned with an infilled or altered area of the nave wall and was almost certainly associated with the former north chapel. It was made of flints in approximate irregular courses in a cream coloured sandy lime mortar. It also incorporated a single fragment of black ?lava stone. The pit to the west exposed a north-to-south aligned line of medium and large flints associated with a pale cream coloured clayey mortar. This material was not substantial enough to be a wall, but potentially represented the traces of the footings of one.
A brick culvert along the bottom of the church wall was left in place, which made it difficult to establish the exact nature of the main church wall footings.
The third pit was excavated approximately 5.00m to the north of the church wall. This revealed deep soils but no distinctive horizons that could represent graves or other features. A few fragments of human bone were however recovered at a depth of 1.30m, suggesting that burials almost certainly lie nearby (albeit potentially disturbed).
All three trial pits reached undisturbed natural deposits, which were encountered at between 1.30m and 1.70m below ground level.
The small number of finds retained included post-medieval brick and tile fragments, a small fragment of lava stone and a flint flake – all of which are likely to represent construction debris associated with the church. The human bones were reburied within the test pits.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 May 2021.