This section is edited from articles published by Colin Hicks on the original Westgate Residents Association Website, which were adapted with their permission from an archaeological desk-based assessment prepared by SLR Consulting Ltd on behalf of Chichester College in 2013. Richard Brownfield has very usefully brought these all together, updated and developed them to create a fascinating tour of the history of the western/St Bartholomew’s suburb.
PREHISTORIC WESTGATE
A Middle- or Late-Bronze Age dagger was found at Westgate in 1931, but no further details of the circumstances of its discovery are given. Two further Bronze Age assets are related to discoveries made during archaeological investigations at 6 St Bartholomew’s Close in 2003 and 2004. These investigations demonstrated the presence of two ditches running on a northeast-southwest alignment, running approximately parallel to the college boundary and the river Lavant. Interpreted as a possible early flood defence, the ditches yielded Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery, worked flint and bone. A third ditch was located in 2004, alongside three pits (one truncated by the ditch and therefore earlier), and a spread of heat-shattered stone, possibly representing a degraded burnt mound. These finds are strongly indicative of the presence of an occupied site in the vicinity of Westgate in the Bronze Age.
IRON AGE (C 2,600 BP – 1ST CENTURY AD)
Three Iron Age assets are recorded within 500m of Westgate. These comprise two findspots of Early Iron Age pottery 430m to the east at the Palace Bastion and at the West Gate itself, and Late Iron Age pottery found 500m west of the college.
THE ROMAN PERIOD (1ST – 5TH CENTURIES AD)
Thirty-one non-designated assets and a single designated asset from this period are recorded within 500 metres of the College.
The initial phase of military occupation in Chichester immediately following the invasion of 43 AD was short-lived. Excavations at both Chichester and the harbour area of Fishbourne attest to the presence of the Second Legion for a period of perhaps no more than a few years. In the later 1st century and well into the 2nd, civic development of Roman Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) took place, with extensive landscaping and construction on top of pre-existing buildings but following the original grid of streets laid out by the army before them.
THE CITY WALLS
The scheduled City Walls represent the earliest designated structure in the city, although only fragments of Roman work and some of the rampart remain beneath later medieval and post-medieval additions. The Roman walls were probably constructed before the end of the 2nd century AD, the south-western corner of the fortified area passing within 50m of the college grounds on the eastern side of the Avenue de Chartres.
The walls were encircled by a series of Defensive Ditches added perhaps in response to the threat of invasion by Germanic raiders. The ditches were constructed in two phases. The first phase has been dated to around 200 A.D. when a rampart faced with a flint wall was constructed, with two ‘V’ shaped ditches surrounding it. The inner ditch was approximately 6m from the wall, the outer approximately 16m. The second phase of ditch construction took place in the mid-4th century, and comprised a bastion constructed over the line of the silted-up inner ditch and a flat-bottomed ditch cut along the line of the earlier outer ditch.
There are sixteen records relating to investigations along the line of the defences around 400m to the east of Westgate and which are summarised below: “The Roman foundations of the Palace Bastion were exposed and recorded in 1932, 1959 and 1985, and a possible robbed out well was found beneath the foundations of the Roman Bastion. A possible bastion was found on the line of walls based on John Norden’s map of Chichester dated 1595.
Excavation of a rampart in 1932 uncovered tips of Roman demolition debris in the structure of the bank (including tiles, mortar, plaster, window glass, nails and pottery dated no later than 2nd century).
The 1959 excavations on the line of defences uncovered the two ‘V’-shaped first phase ditches and an uncovered flat-bottomed 4th century ditch. These excavations also uncovered a non-defensive 1st century ditch beneath the later 2nd century inner ditch. A section through the Roman bank was exposed when a car-park wall collapsed in 1966 near to the West Gate.
The 1963 excavations at the West Gate uncovered the foundations of a medieval gate, leading to a speculative suggestion that the Roman Gate must lie beneath the road. The excavation north of the West Gate uncovered occupation and metalworking debris below a defensive bank and wall. Observation was made in 1964 of possible dressed-stone footings for the Roman West Gate gatehouse in a service trench beneath the Westgate Road. An occupation layer, possibly a smithy, was discovered below the Roman wall and bank during excavations in 1963/4.
During an evaluation at 8 North Walls a section of the foundation/core of the City Wall was found. During the construction of a new twin culvert at Westgate a pit was found on the side of the river. Evidence of Roman occupation was seen during the winter of 1987/88 when a section was cut through the Chichester city defences along the Avenue de Chartres, and finally, in 1987, during the excavation of a section through the Roman rampart at the West Walls on Avenue de Chartres following a collapse, a section of metalled Roman street was exposed. Within the defended Roman settlement and within 500m of the college there are four non-designated assets associated with occupation. These comprise a mosaic floor, a Roman building with tessellated floor, a possible Roman building within the Bishop’s Palace Garden and occupation deposits near the northern walls.”
ROMAN ROADS
Two Roman roads pass within 500m of Westgate. The first is suggested by an earthwork shown as a field boundary on historic maps, which runs in a north-westerly direction from the West Gate. The line of the feature was traced in 1934 and, although no excavations have confirmed it, it is believed that an accompanying ditch was sufficient evidence to indicate that this had formerly been a Roman road. The second is not recorded but runs east west 95m to the north of the college and represents the main Roman road leading from the western city gate to the palace at Fishbourne 1km away.
There is also evidence for occupation outside the western city walls during the early Roman period. An excavation in 1959 on the line of Avenue de Chartres uncovered the remains of an east-west aligned street, to the north of which was a late 1st/early 2nd century building constructed from flint and bonded with clay. The location of this street (to the south of, and parallel with, Westgate) was confirmed by excavation in 1961. A timber lined well nearby was found to contain items from a ladies’ toilet set, including a small square green glass jar and an earthenware pot.
A second Roman street was discovered in 1987 on the line of Avenue de Chartres, running north-south and flanked by the mortar floors and post-holes of timber-framed buildings. The street, which contained wheel ruts, was dated to the late 1st century on the basis of a coin recovered from the road make-up, struck around 91-96 AD. The street had subsequently been buried by the town defences in the 2nd century. The majority of excavations undertaken outside the West Gate were carried out in 1985 and 1987 at the site of the former Theological College on the northern side of the river Lavant.
A ROMAN CEMETERY
Three records relate to these excavations. At the northern end of the site a Roman inhumation cemetery was discovered containing 43 skeletons, one in a lead coffin. The physical extent of the cemetery is unclear, though it is known that it does not extend further to the east than the Avenue de Chartres. It is thought that the uncovered remains probably represent a small sample of a much larger burial ground and complements other known cemeteries outside the North and East Gates. To the south of the cemetery were the remains of two late-1st / early-2nd century timber buildings, a ditch, and a gravel extraction pit. Whether the former Theological College site represents the outer western limit of the early Roman town is unclear. It is known that the 1st / 2nd century settlement extended over ¼ mile southward from the South Gate, and that buildings were constructed outside the city walls in the 3rd and 4th centuries, however excavations further along Westgate have not yielded conclusive evidence for Roman activity and there are no other recorded stratified Roman deposits in the study area.
There are isolated findspots of Roman artefacts within the study area, that of a clay figurine found on the line of the southern wall and occupation debris found during excavations on Fishbourne Road in 1996. Archaeological monitoring conducted during geotechnical investigations at Chichester College in 2008 identified a layer of Roman debris containing roof tile and pottery on the eastern side of the river Lavant. No significant deposits were identified immediately to the north.
THE RIVER LAVANT
In 2012 an archaeological evaluation was carried out by West Sussex Archaeology at the site of the recently redeveloped college G Block, to the west of the river Lavant. This uncovered two former stream channels containing Roman artefacts. It is postulated that the artefacts seen in the test pit may relate to a further stream channel, though the depth of the artefacts was notably shallower at 1.2m below the adjacent ground surface as opposed to around 2m depth at G Block. Excavations elsewhere in the city have demonstrated that the river Lavant was not diverted to its present course around the city walls until the late 9th century AD, indicating that these river or stream channels are not former channels of the Lavant.
EARLY MEDIEVAL (5TH – 11TH CENTURIES AD)
The archaeological record for Chichester in the early medieval period is limited. Within 500m of Westgate there is a single recorded asset; a ‘silver coin of Alfred’, discovered in 1871, around 125m to the northeast of the college near to the Theological College. This single find perhaps does not reflect the importance of the burh during this period, though it is likely that most activity took place within the defended core of the town; this archaeological study area falls outside that area, in Westgate Fields, and as the name suggests it was most likely fields or pasture at that time.
Recent archaeological work has indicated that the river Lavant was canalised around the city walls during this period. In the ‘Burghal Hidage’ produced around the start of the 10th century or possibly earlier, Chichester was assigned 1,500 hides, and by the time of the reign of Aethelstan (925-939 AD) the city had acquired a Mint, hinting at the importance of the borough.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD (11TH – 16TH CENTURIES AD)
The Domesday Survey of 1086 does mention Chichester, though unusually for a county town the account is brief, recording it under the land of Earl Roger de Montgomery. At the time of the Conquest in 1066 there were 97½ ‘haws’ and three crofts returning £2 8s. 11d. A total of 135 haws were attached to outlying manors, 37 of which were in the Rape of Chichester and three in the Rape of Arundel.
The city was granted to Simon, Bishop-elect of Chichester, in 1204, and subsequently granted to the citizens of the city by Edward II in 1316. Between these times the boundaries of the city underwent considerable change, with a northward expansion after 1278. It is known that there was a town ditch around the northern part of the city in the vicinity of the castle, as there were continual disputes regarding its ownership and maintenance throughout the 13th century, but except for the boundary formed by the river Lavant, the southern and western limits of the city were undefended.
The later medieval defences were constructed in the 14th century to include the western city limit. Excavations in 1959 at two locations demonstrated that the ditch was 15m wide and 2.4m deep, and that until later in the post-medieval period the river Lavant flowed through the ditch along the western walls.
THE WESTERN SUBURB
The character of the western suburb of the medieval city has been demonstrated through a number of excavations which fall within the study area. Evaluation and watching brief at the site of The Tannery located two rubbish pits containing domestic refuse, and linear depressions thought to be caused by ploughing. A little over 100m to the east, during investigations at 6 St Bartholomew’s Close in 2003, another medieval pit was seen containing pottery of 11th – 12th century date, and a linear ditch thought to be a drainage feature.
The following year a limited excavation demonstrated the presence of three phases of medieval activity on the site between the 12th and 15th centuries, comprising pits and postholes some of which appeared to delineate a property or field boundary. Further field boundaries and pits were uncovered during excavations at the Theological College 200m to the east, also to the south of Westgate. The pottery from these features suggested that activity had occurred between the late 10th and 16th centuries.
An evaluation in 2010 at Mount Lane identified a single medieval pit. There are findspots of medieval artefacts at the southwest walls and Fishbourne Road.
The focus of occupation outside the town walls was concentrated near to the West Gate, with St Bartholomew’s Church (or St Sepulchre’s Church as it was also known) at its core. The first mention of this church occurs in 1227, but the original structure was destroyed during the Civil War siege. This event eradicated much of the western suburb of St Bartholomew.
In the medieval period the assets and activity at The Tannery would have been situated within fields to the south of the Lavant (the course of the river having been changed at a later date), adjoining those on which the college campus would later be built. There is therefore a potential for archaeological deposits to extend into the college site although any such remains are likely to be confined to agricultural features (boundary ditches, pits) and dumps of domestic refuse.
Richard Brownfield 2025
Sources
- “A brief archaeology of Westgate”. Colin Hicks. October 2015.
- “Prehistoric Westgate”. Colin Hicks. December 2015
- “The Romans and Westgate”. Colin Hicks. January 2016
- “Medieval Westgate”. Colin Hicks. February 2016.