Monument record BUN 018 - Town Ditch, Quaves Lane

Location of the medieval town ditch (monument mapped likely projection of the ditch based on the evaluation results below)

1983: Evaluation revealed the ditch and bank of the town, containing a small collection of pottery. The ditch was found to be at least 18m wide and 4m deep at its lowest point. It was filled with a brown sandy loam throughout apart from a 20cm thick boulder clay layer towards its base. Associated with this was a large number of shells of Helix aspersa (common snail) implying that the ditch had been open at this level for some time before being deliberately backfilled. The boulder clay was most probably washed down from the bank. Not much of the medieval town bank now survives along this stretch. Its upper half has been levelled with the area behind (now a bus depot) and forms a gentle slope down towards the Castle. The small section of bank exposed showed that it was constructed largely of gravel excavated from the ditch and dumped on top of the old ground surface (30cm of leached topsoil could clearly be seen in the section below the bank). A boulder clay layer, about 30cm thick, was also visible at the top of the surviving bank at the W end of the site.
No evidence for the date of construction of the defences was found as this would have come from within and below the bank which had already been removed. The few sherds retrieved from the ditch indicated that it had been filled during C13 or C14.
It is clear from the present contours of the area that the Med ditch was cut into the northern slope of a natural valley along the bottom of which runs Quaves Lane. By cutting the ditch into this slope the maximum effective defence was created by constructing the bank on the top of the slope (S1).

For town ditch also see BUN 007 & BUN 025.