Monument MPM1011 - Limestone Wall & Brick Foundations, 29-37 Lombard Street

Remnant of a limestone wall and brick building foundations recorded during a watching brief in 2007. Finds included pottery, clay pipe and a sheep's tooth.

A remnant of a limestone wall was observed in a test pit on the site in 2007, but was too incomplete to bear much interpretation. The wall was made of Bembridge limestone but with some harder, finer-grained limestones, bonded with lime mortar. These types of limestone were widely used from the Roman period onwards.

A layer containing a mixture of Post-Medieval and Modern material appeared to be a build-up layer, much disturbed by later building activity. Another layer (4) contained a series of brick walls with concrete foundations which were recorded across the site. Some of the foundations were from the recently demolished building, but others appear to pre-date it.

Most of the site had been disturbed by modern building activity, at least two phases being represented. The earlier building had a cellar in the northwest corner of the site. This was backfilled mainly with slate rubble and chimney pots before the insertion of concrete pads to support a new building at first floor height. Rubble-filled cellars were also seen in the southeast part of the site, and possibly in the centre. These were backfilled mainly with brick rubble. The cellars all had flagstone floors, usually set into a fairly thin layer of concrete which resulted in the retention of water within the cellars. All the walls were made of hand-made bricks, unfrogged laid in English bond.

Pot sherds, clay pipe and a sheep's tooth dating approximately from the late-17th century to the early-20th century, were recovered from an unstratified context

Accession number: 2006/1543

Southern Archaeological Services, 2006, Summary Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at 29-37 Lombard Street, Old Portsmouth, Hampshire (Unpublished document). SPM61.