What lies beneath Miller Street Carpark?

September 2nd, 2009 at 01:51pm Host

For the next 7 weeks Miller Street Carpark won’t be your typical carpark – it has become the site of an extensive archaeological dig. Today, Urbis Blogs had a chance to visit the site.

The focus of the dig is on the slum dwellings that once lined the street, leading up to the old Angel Meadow area. Beneath the ripped up tarmac and excavated soil are the ruins of the cellars. These were once houses unto themselves and reports from the 1870s claim that close to 20 adults, with additional children, would be living in a single cellar residence. Steve, a site archaeologist and our guide, had these reports to hand as well as a series of historic street maps and a copy of Engels’ Condition of the Working Class in England. For archaeologists, having this amount of contemporary documentation about a site before you dig is rare. But that’s what makes digging industrial history different – the details are already there, but the dig brings them back to life physically.

The cellars are primitively built and are typically only one brick thick. This is particularly difficult for the archaeologists as when the soil is removed the walls are liable to fall. Bearing in mind that the privy and messy inner courtyard once lied behind the walls, the squalid living conditions for many people in the 19th century is made more vivid. Steve pointed out the routes of various attempts to improve the drainage in the cellars, which must have been a continual problem. He also showed some of the artifacts found on the site including early 19th century beer bottles (complete with marble stop), a doll’s head and, rather bizarrely, a Masonic pipe.

We hope to visit the site again soon and hopefully return with pictures.

Entry Filed under: Local Geography and History, Out and About