Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 95 (2002), pp. 100-6 



A Possible Outer Bailey Ditch to Marlborough 

 Castle: Excavations at Marlborough College 

 Pool 



by Michael Heaton 1 and Bill Moffat 2 



with a contribution by Lorraine Mepham 



A watching brief and limited archaeological investigation within Marlborough College precinct revealed a 

 ditch, pits, a robber trench and other features, all datable to the 12th- 14th centuries from ceramic evidence, 

 primarily sherds of Kennet Valley coarsewares. The ditch was interpreted as defensive, perhaps that of a 

 possible second bailey of Marlborough Castle. The pits were probably cess pits dug in the backland of a 

 medieval burgage fronting the High Street. A preliminary evaluation had failed to identify stratified deposits. 



INTRODUCTION 



The authors were commissioned by Marlborough 

 College to maintain a watching brief during 

 groundworks arising from the construction of a new 

 swimming pool on the northern edge of the college 

 precincts, on the edge of the Kennet floodplain, 

 centred on NGR: SU1840 6875 (Figure 1). The 

 work was subsequent to an archaeological 

 evaluation (Asi 1999) carried out in the winter of 

 1999 by the authors, which recovered large 

 quantities of medieval pottery but failed to identify 

 stratified deposits or features. Nonetheless, the 

 County Archaeological Service recommended, on 

 the basis of the artefactual data alone, that 

 groundworks be observed. That decision was 

 proved to be wholly justified. 



At the time of the works, the site, which lay just 

 above the terrace edge of the floodplain, comprised 

 an expanse of level lawn within an area of heavily 

 landscaped sports fields, bordered on its south and 

 east sides by college buildings set into deep terraces. 

 The work comprised supervision of topsoil 

 stripping, observation and recording of deposits 

 revealed, and limited archaeological investigations 

 of selected deposits. The full planning report (ASI 



3168) has been deposited with the SMR, and will 

 also be posted at the authors' website: 

 www.archaeology.demon.co.uk. 



The known archaeological and historical 

 development of Marlborough, though not yet fully 

 understood, has been summarised by Haslam 

 (1978) and is not repeated here. However, two 

 related features of the town's historical morphology 

 are pertinent to the present work: the proximity of 

 the site to the motte and bailey of the Norman 

 castle, generally accepted as being represented by 

 the college Mound (cf. Creighton 2000, Field et 

 al. 2001), and the alignment of Bridewell Street; 

 and historical allusions to a second (outer) bailey 

 added to the north-east side of the castle precincts 

 but not represented topographically now (Bradley 

 etal. 1923, Haslam 1978). 



RESULTS 



Stratigraphic data 



Overburden and modern disturbances comprised 

 localised topsoils, a concrete path, numerous high 



1 ASI, Furlong House, 61 East Street, Warminster BA12 9BZ -Pathfinders, 25The Hollows, Lower Woodford, Salisbury SP4 6NJ 



