Excavations in Broad Street, Reading

Between February and April 2002 Oxford Archaeology carried out excavations at 90-93 Broad Street, Reading (NGR SU 7142 7342) in advance of a new retail development. The excavations revealed a cultivation soil and ditch that may have represented activity within the grounds of the Saxon minster; a small assemblage of mid-Saxon pottery was recovered from later deposits, including a single sherd of Ipswich ware. Medieval gravel pits and a bell mould pit were revealed within the back yards of tenements fronting Broad St and Chain St, immediately to the north of St Mary's Churchyard. It is likely that the bell mould pit was for the casting of 13th century bell for St Mary's. The pits contained exceptional assemblages of bird, fish and animal bone, suggestive of primary butchery and skinning in the vicinity, as well as the presence of a high status household. There were also notable assemblages of 11th- to 13th0century pottery and 16th- to 17th-century glass. Excavations at 7-8 Broad Street (Market Way), Reading, revealed part of a possible 16th- to 17th-century tavern or inn, situated behind the street frontage. A stone cess pit and cellar were revealed, built in the 16th century and demolished in the 17th century. A large collection of pottery associated with the serving and consumption of drink, fine Venetian-style glassware and few early clay pipes were recovered from these features. Limited evidence of medieval occupation was also found, in the form of rubbish pits, although much of the site had been severely disturbed by the construction of the Corn Exchange in the 19th century.