Gloucestershire County Council’s archaeology team was given the chance to explore an area where the Kimbrose Triangle meets Southgate Street before work begins in the summer to connect the Docks to the city centre in a more defined way.
And although they made a number of significant discoveries, they were frustrated in their search for the line of the old Roman wall. The section between Parliament Street and Ladybellegate Street is the only piece of the city’s Roman wall that has not been physically accounted for.
It was hoped that the recent dig may uncover it.
Gloucestershire County Council project officer Paul Nichols said: “We found Roman deposits about one metre below the pavement level. The earliest deposits were soil layers containing shards of Roman pottery and fragments of wall plaster.
“Above that was a mortar floor surface, which we believe was the internal floor of a Roman building.
“We didn’t find any evidence for the Roman wall, suggesting that we were just inside the line, but it’s also possible that parts of it may have been recycled and used to build later buildings. It was certainly a worthwhile exercise and we will be providing a full report that will be of benefit to city planners.”
Kimbrose Triangle and Southgate Street are to be pedestrianised to form a link between the city centre and the docks’ designer outlet centre.
The nearest remains of the wall are inside Gloucestershire Furniture Exhibition Centre on the corner of Southgate Street and Parliament Street, and Blackfriars. Henry Hurst uncovered the wall at Bearland in 1969. It runs under Berkeley Street, to the nearest corner of the Cathedral, to St Aldate Street, through King’s Walk, Brunswick Road, and Parliament Street.
“They could have been just inside the city wall, if the wall is there,” said Gloucester Civic Trust’s Nigel Spry. “It may be that it’s been taken away during later periods to use in other buildings.
The site in Kimbrose Way is rich in later history too. It gets its name from St Kyneburgh, who was apparently killed and thrown down a well near the city’s south gate.
Wanting to remain a virgin, she fled an arranged marriage and was adopted by a Gloucester baker.
But the baker’s wife killed her out of jealousy. St Kyneburgh’s chapel was built there and later converted in the 16th Century into almshouses by Sir Thomas Bell, who ran a cap factory at the nearby Blackfriars Priory after its dissolution.
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