Kingsholm Legacy Project

Today, under planning permission regulations, the developer has to pay for an investigation ahead of development of a possible archaeologically sensitive site. Finance is included for the writing up of the results for dissemination through journals or books. Previously, much archaeological work was funded the Ministry of Works, (now the Department of the Environment) if the site was already known to be significant or it was discovered to be of importance through a watching brief or observing the on-going work. The funding for publication was a separate issue. During the 1980s much was happening in Gloucester and the surrounding area, and the City Archaeological Unit monitored and investigated these on-going developments. It was under great pressure moving from threatened site to threatened site.  Volunteers contributed greatly on their sites especially from GADARG, the precursor of GlosArch. The developer might provide some material help, but its permission to excavate was the most important factor. Sometimes it might contribute to a short, glossy, pamphlet to show that they were public-minded. There was little or no funding (or time) for writing up fully the results of the discoveries. Henry Hurst produced ‘Kingsholm’ in 1985 detailing the results of his 1972 excavations at Kingsholm Close (44/72), as well as from of 72, Dean’s Way (81/73) and St Mark Street (10/72) (Hurst, 1985), but since then there had been no fully reported project under the old system. The Unit used Glevensis and the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society to publish annual reports of its work, but it was in Glevensis that the interim reports of individual sites were published. Because many, though not all, of the plans and reports from these Kingsholm watching briefs and excavations survive in the Museum archive, members of GlosArch, with the encouragement and advice from Andrew Armstrong the present City Archaeologist, are collating them site by site. This initiative, ‘The Kingsholm Legacy Project’, will form an on-line resource for researchers of the Roman military and later development of the area.  A start has been made with the publication of two of these sites in Glevensis – Sandhurst Lane (9/84: Volume 54, pp.45-62) and Gambier Parry Gardens (9/83:Volume 56, pp. 19-46) – and if enough surviving records are available others will follow. Even if it is not possible to publish the excavation in full some of the records such as those of the pottery type and distribution or the state of human remains will be available and  invaluable to researchers working in those fields.

Hurst, H. (1985) ‘Kingsholm’, (Gloucester Archaeological Reports, 1.) Gloucester: Gloucester Archaeological Publications.

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