Monument record BSE 510 - Preserved archaeological layers, Memorial Tree, Rose Garden, Abbey Gardens

The ground levels have been built-up and the excavated section showed a soil profile made up of a muddy post-medieval rubble beneath a layer of clean, orange gravel and topsoil. The rubble at the base of the excavation was composed of a dense mix of powdered, lime mortar with frequently occurring building-flint and small fragments of limestone; some of which was burnt.

Whilst the limestone and flint could have derived from the destruction of the Abbey’s buildings the deposit was dated by post-medieval roof-tiles and bricks which included examples of ‘whitebricks’, similar to those that make up the frontage of the Georgian buildings on Angel Hill. The layer also included roofing-slate and clay pipe stems; the presence of orange-glazed earthenware pottery demonstrated that the rubble had been deposited no earlier than the 19th century.

The Rose Garden and Bowls Green are located over the remains of the range of clausteral buildings that once stood alongside the Abbey Church. This area was not included in the archaeological excavations carried out by the Ministry of Works between 1957-64, when parts of the ruins were exposed, and thus the ground levels here are visibly higher than those of the surrounding gardens. The full archaeological sequence: the abbey ruins, the post-Dissolution demolition rubble and layer associated with the subsequent occupation1 are therefore likely to be still preserved intact over this part of the site.(S1).