Living Opposite to the Hospital of St John: Excavations in Medieval
Northampton 2014 presents the results of archaeological investigations
undertaken on the site of new county council offices being built between
St. John's street and Angel Street, Northampton in 2014. The location
was of interest as it lay directly opposite the former medieval hospital
of St. John, which influenced the development of this area of the town.
Initially open ground situated outside the Late Saxon burh, the area was
extensively quarried for ironstone during the earlier part of the 12th
century, and by the mid-12th century, a few dispersed buildings began to
appear. Domestic pits and a bread oven were located to the rear of Angel
Street along with a carver's workshop, which, amongst other goods,
produced high-quality antler chess pieces. This workshop is currently
without known parallel. The timber workshop was refurbished once and
then replaced in stone by the mid-13th century. During the late 12th and
early part of the 13th centuries, brewing and baking were undertaken in
the two plots adjacent to the workshop. A stone building with a cobbled
floor lay towards the centre of the St. John's street frontage, and
behind the building were four wells, a clay-lined tank for water drawn
from the well, and several ovens, including at least two bread ovens and
three malting ovens. This activity ceased at around the time that the
carver's workshop was replaced in stone, and much of the frontage was
cleared. Subsequently, although there was still one building standing on
St. John's street in the early 15th century, the former cleared ground
was gradually incorporated back into the plots, perhaps as gardens
adjoining the surviving late medieval tenement. The stone tenement was
extended and refurbished in the late 15th century and was occupied until
c. 1600. Another building was established on Fetter Street after c. 1450
but had disappeared by c. 1550. However, this is the first
archaeological indication for the existence of Fetter Street, and
further demarcation occurred in this period with a rear boundary ditch
being established along the back of the Angel Street plot, separating
the land to the south. In the 17th-18th centuries, the area was covered
by the dark loamy soils of gardens and orchards until the construction
of stables and terraced buildings on the site, which would stand into
the Victorian period and beyond.
