The Archaeological Society, on January 14th 2007, started its first dig for many years at No 32 Broomgate. The owners, Rita and Dominick Sciallo, had for some years wanted to investigate their back garden. For a number of years they have been digging up an enormous amount of Victorian pottery and assorted artefacts from their garden. Indeed, some of the pottery that they found was Medieval and that aroused the interest of the Archaeological Society.
The Society has always been interested in this area of Lanark as it has been involved in a number of excavations in the area most notably the car park opposite the house, which was the Society’s first major excavation. in that excavation the Society found the course of the Puddin Burn, several 17th century house foundations and evidence of a 14th century bowl furnace for producing Iron. The Society also dug in 34 Broomgate inside the house when it was being renovated. In the middle of the front room floor a pit was found with a Medieval key and its lock! Other discoveries included and 18th century Beggar’s badge in the shape of a thistle. The Society also dug in Daisie’s Café where they found some 14th century Medieval tiles.
However the strongest reason for excavating the garden of 32 Broomgate came about from the discoveries made next to the Clydesdale Inn. Here the Society discovered one of the cloister walls of the Franciscan Friary which was founded in 1330. Apart from which a great deal of pottery was found as well as bones of the various animals that the monks ate.
The wee two trenches- one of which was exposed by Dominick during tree planting. this trench has revealed that Cox’s garage wall was constructed on the rubble from the Monastery. In the fill of the trench mid-Victorian pottery has been as well as a few pieces of Medieval pottery. One of those pieces goes back to the 12 century.
The other trench was laid out after a resistivity survey was done by Alan Paton. The survey revealed the path which we subsequently discovered. The trench is four by three metres and initially the Victorian level was removed. The main features discovered after two Saturday’s work are as follows: a well defined path running east – west through the trench, three wooden posts aligned along the south side of the path banded by a thin nibble wall on the west. The wooden posts might be remains of a greenhouse, which once stood there. Plenty of finds have been made in the big trench, most of which are Victorian. These include a wide selection of pottery varying from the ubiquitous Willow Pattern to sponge wave. The sponge wave was made by applying decoration by sponge, a task that was carried out in Dickensian conditions by small boys. Some Victorian clay marbles were also found as well as a small clay cat. Other interesting artefacts included a large complete bone pin for holding a lady’s bun in position and an array of different pieces of clay pipe.
The seventeenth century levels have been fully investigated. There were two coins found in this level—a billon piece of the reign of James VI c. 1590 before he became king of Great Britain and a two pence piece or Turner of the reign of Charles I—the Turner was the equivalent of a farthing in England. The Medieval Levels have so far proved very interesting— a piece of Medieval window glass was found probably of the late Middle Ages. It is plain glass and would have come from the Friary , another piece of glass was found and this was also of the same period but came from an actual glass. Other finds from the Medieval levels indicate that industrial activities took place in the vicinity. This might account for the flakes of charcoal found in profusion in this level. The main industries that took place in this area appear to be bronze / copper working. Bronze slag and pieces of copper sheeting have been found. Working of iron also took place here as iron slag and iron nails have been found. The pottery that has been discovered includes a piece of Coulston ware from the East of Scotland, dating to the 12th Century. Much of the pottery is of the 14th Century date and there maybe pieces of pottery imported from England and the Continent.
Other finds in the Medieval levels include a small bronze decoration probably from a casket, a bronze pin and some lead. Several animals bones have also been found. So far, no Medieval rubbish pits have been discovered suggesting that this area was cultivated. A clue is that the pieces of pottery are quite small. This area of land probably belonged to the Franciscan Friars whose Monastery was founded by Robert the Bruce in the year 1322. The Monastery survived until the 1570s when the lands were taken over by the Lockhart family. The section of the Ordnance survey map shown above dates from 1858. The area that we are digging in is due south of the area marked Franciscan Monastery. Since the map was drawn about 150 years ago, many changes have been made in this area, buildings altered.
If you want more information then please
mail us or write to:
The Secretary
Lanark and District Archaeological Society
Hopebank
18 Hope Street
Lanark
ML11 7NE
Telephone 01555 662683