Find Spot MPM276 - Johnson and Johnson site, Paulsgrove

Site of the former Johnson and Johnson Factory, Southampton road, Paulsgrove. A trench across the grass in front of the building in 1981 revealed a ditch containing Iron Age pottery, bone and calcined flint. Roman pottery was recovered from another trench and one possible Saxon sherd was found in the spoil heap. The buildings were demolshed in 2001 when a watching brief revealed a pit, one piece of worked flint, and a fragment of Iron Age pottery.

Site of the former Johnson and Johnson Factory, Southampton road, Paulsgrove.

During construction on the site in 1981 a trench across the grass in front of the building revealed a ditch running north to south which contained Iron Age pottery, bone and calcined flint. In another trench to the west, Roman pottery and one possible Saxon sherd was found in the spoil heap. Work undertaken by Portsmouth Museums Service. Museum accession No: 1981/373 [1].

A watching brief carried out by Southern Archaeological Services during the demolition of the buildings on the site in 2001 showed that the area had been extensively disturbed between the 1940s and 1980s when the existing buildings were constructed. The topsoil and underlying brickearth had been removed from much of the middle and western end of the site and along the northern boundary, and many of the buildings sat directly on Head deposits. As a result most surviving archaeology would have been severely damaged or destroyed. Imported levelling and topsoil at the southern edge of the site suggests that potential archaeology may be preserved below. An Iron Age/Romano-British ditch was observed in this area during fieldwork in 1981.

Only two features were observed on the site during the watching brief, and these were in the south and east-facing sections of the cellar of building 12 in Area B2. A small pit, feature 8, contained one worked flint probably Mesolithic or Neolithic. This feature appeared to be sealed by brickearth, although this may have been redeposited due to disturbance from the construction of the building above. The other feature was a possible east-west linear which had lost all relationships above and was very indistinct. The only piece of pottery, dating to the Iron Age, was found on the surface of Modern disturbance in Area B2. [2]

Residue including fragments of flint, chalk, undiagnostic charcoal, mortar, and coal were found on the site. Context 9 appeared to be possibly prehistoric, with a few fossils and the land snail Ceciloides acicula present. [2]

The archive for the 2001 watching brief is held by Portsmouth Museum Service under accession no 2001/1.

Further investigation during a watching brief on the site in March 2003 revealed no archaeology [3].



[1] Portsmouth City SMR Cards

[2] Southern Archaeological Services, 2001, Summary report on an archaeological watching brief at the former Johnson and Johnson site, Paulsgrove, Portsmouth. January to May 2001

[3] Tony Molloy, 2003, Summary Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at the Former Johnson and Johnson Site, Paulsgrove, Portsmouth

Brading, R, 2001, Summary report on an archaeological watching brief at the former Johnson and Johnson site, Paulsgrove, Portsmouth. January to May 2001, 2001/1 (Unpublished document). SPM78.

Molloy, Tony, 2003, Summary Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief at the Former Johnson and Johnson Site, Paulsgrove, Portsmouth (Unpublished document). SPM41.

Portsmouth City Council, n/a, Portsmouth City SMR Cards, SU60NW62 (Index). SPM1.