Shelton - Priory Pool, Mills, District & Tower

This is the bread and butter of archaeological finds. Not dramatic but real, everyday life. Unfortunately, apart from the items under the 'tower', these items could have come from any time until steel became the norm. People both lost and disposed of things in the river. The pickaxe could have even been left by those three guys in the Troughton sketch, dismantling the dam, as I believe that steel wasn't standard until the 1850s. A big part of archaeology now is dating finds, whether it's from archaeological stratigraphy (dating things based on other items found in a particular layer), carbon dating, tree rings, technology and stylistic dating. One of the things that I've observed is how a great many tools were unchanged for hundreds of years. I know that some of the finds survived the destruction of Shelton's collection and I wonder if some of these described here are at the Herbert and if anyone has tried to date them? Coventry Collections has a museum index alongside the paper archive, which might include some of Shelton's discoveries. Some might have even been photographed. We might find out, if the records ever return online, or maybe it's a task for an intrepid Herbert visitor? Possible find, the large brass bowl pinched at the rim with pliers?

Some additional details The millrace at B extended from the pond to the river off to the right. To the right of B is a shed with a stepped wall to the south. To the right of that is a row of trees. The millrace width was from the property boundary to the south to the second or third step in the shed. I think the second is most likely. The millrace went to the north of the very old mill (to the left of A), under the second mill C/53 and then to the pond. The building at 51 is on the pictures of the pond but by the time the pond was drained it had gained a lean to extension to the west. Thus the BoH map reflects the later building, not that of the sketches. By Shelton's day that building and all those north and west (in the map snippet) of the passage at 52 had been demolished and a new five property terrace had been built, set back from the original property line. To the north of 51 were a couple of small buildings in the sketch, possibly sheds or maybe one of them housed the sluice gate mechanism for the millrace? The additional buildings demonstrate that the pond concluded further north than the property line at 51. On the 1749 map you can see the millrace on the west and east side of the road, before it heads under the mill, making the road even narrower. I believe that the boundary wall he's talking about is to the west east of Beck's ribbon factory at number 9. I'm not sure why it was there. The main boundary wall was to the west of Beck's. The depth of this wall suggests great age, even if the land started to rise at this point. The cattle shed was at number 6 on the map and the tree at number 7. I've roughly located them on the sketch. These seem to suggest that they predate the pond. While the area was probably silted up by growth on the bank it suggests that it was at a much lower level than the buildings seen in the sketch. The top of Smithfield market, where these items were buried was about 258ft above datum. The bed of the river in 1850 was 247.6ft and the surface was 149.2ft. 11 ft down from the top of the market is 247ft. A 0.6ft lower than the river bed and 2.3ft lower than the surface. This disparity demonstrates the deposition on both land and water. We know from other sunken buildings in the city that cultivation activities can quickly build up the land, above and beyond natural deposition and this would have been a good growing area both before and after the pond was built. Dredging spoil of the central areas of the pond may have added to the build up. At a later date the property at 51 was built and the land over the cattle shed would have been part of its burgage plot (large area needed for growing food). The buildings to the right in the sketch were later still and can be seen below (from a Board of Health report). The end cottage, part of Houghs Yard (Court 3), was at 256.3ft . Because the cattle shed was still in situ, it means that the timbers were already below ground level when the pond was created and that they didn't excavate this area to deepen the pond below the natural surface level. We know that the old mill post dates the cattle shed because it was fronted by a courtyard at 253.7ft. The mill needed the higher water level to operate.

This would be number 8 on the map. While higher than the 1850 river surface height by 0.7ft, it's still significantly lower than the pond surface, so these discoveries were also likely to predate the pond and are part of the early priory. The kitchens of the priory were behind and to the east of the Meriden Tavern and it's likely that most of the buildings on New Buildings were... well... new, not just those Shelton mentions. Apart from the mill and the 'funny little building' off Priory Street, no other buildings are shown on the 1610 Speed map. They weren't however necessarily new materials. It's likely they were some of the shifted properties from outside the city wall. They were taken down and moved for the First English Civil War (1642-1646) preparations. Others were built new to accommodate the people flocking to the city to defend it and/or flee the danger of living without protection in the city's hinterland. Most of the ecclesiastical land, stripped during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, remained semi untouched until the war. The reason was possibly twofold. First, the population plunged after the height of the monasteries for various reasons but primarily from plague. That population was repeatedly decimated and didn't recover to the city's medieval height until the 1700s. So homes that were already in existence weren't just unneeded and some were even pulled down rather than cause a problem from dereliction. The land held by the religious groups also wasn't needed for anything important and was used for animals or storage eg the cathedral was being used to park animals destined for slaughter in Butcher Row. A second reason the land remained empty, might have been a certain amount of respect/superstition for formerly religious lands, which seems contradictory to the storage of animals, but people can be odd that way. Cells for monks and working buildings might have dotted the areas round the cathedral but they weren't those we can see on New Buildings. The exception is part of a building on the eastern corner with Hill Top but what it was used for isn't clear. It wasn't part of Shelton's work because it was demolished in 1910. Until the age of trains that could transport fish quickly from the coast, fresh fish was a very expensive delicacy. Salted fish (mostly cod) started life in 1497 but before that fish was dried. Drying cod was probably developed by the Vikings in the 8th or 9th century. Both types of fish had to be soaked before cooking. The creation of dried fish had a problem in warmer, damper conditions than Scandinavia where it was developed. It took too long to dry and was at risk of rotting, so was less available in England. It may even have had a storage problem in our damp environment, making it even less likely to make it to Coventry. The solution was salting the cod, which preserved it and rapidly reduced the water content before they dried it. By 1660, English fishermen were salting more than 150 shiploads each year for the European market, but all that came too late for the Coventry people prior to the Dissolution (1536-1540). Smoking fish was another way to preserve it and a very ancient technique but it wasn't really commercially available till the 17th century. Pickled fish in barrels was also a way of transporting it and this may have been how the people of Coventry saw most of their fish. The obvious local answer was river fish but that was very much the preserve of the wealthy, friars and monks. They guarded it fiercely, hence the letters of complaint about the vulnerability of the prior's fish ponds. Had poachers been caught, there would have been severe punishment.

I've changed my mind about the date of the fish pond being pre Priory Pool. Since it was essentially another hole in the ground and he states "Most of the stonework was in position at a depth of 8 feet from the present level." So he's talking about the base of the pond, not the top of the 2ft wall around it. If the pond was deeper than the 2ft (the rest having been robbed/ploughed out), it could fit in the landscape with the Priory Pool. The land was rising towards the west and the south.

I'm not sure whether an eel spur is part of the eel, a riding spur or a type of hook but by the Priory Pool and the fish pond seems like it might be something fishy. Searching for it just gets me too many articles about heels.

To return to something that I got confused about:- I initially thought that it was the priory's main boundary wall to the west of Beck's factory at number 10 but later realised that it was a smaller wall to the east at number 9. It is very deep, indicating great age but another thought occurs. Might it have been something other than a wall? We know that the priory had primitive sewerage. Drawing a line along the BoH map wall it arrives at what was believed to be a garderobe on the west side of the cloister (small square feature off the Cellarium). Might it have been a very early drain? While solids would be dug out, there might have been a stone lined channel for runoff. No serious proof, just an idea. The depth still suggests great age. This was the main priory wall at number 10, to the west of Beck's factory and likely extended all the way to the wall around the cathedral forecourt. It could be seen in the BoH map and slightly less so in the later maps. The depth may reflect three things, the age and the size of the wall plus the amount of buildings and their demolition above. The size of the wall was both to protect the priory and impress. It would have needed big, deep foundations, particularly this close to the river. On its western side there were the burgage plots of the people living and working on Palmer lane. There appears to be a kink in the wall, that is reflected and even exaggerated in Palmer Lane's route. They may have originally been identical but the shape may have been increased as buildings were rebuilt. The kink, if it wasn't just a feature of the mapping, may have been a minor course correction to ensure the boundary wall met up with the Cathedral forecourt wall. On Palmer lane there could also have been a direction change in burgage plots from running roughly north/south to an east/west pattern, with those closest to the muddy riverbank given slightly more land. A look at the area before the demolition shows how crowded it was on the west side of Beck's factory (distinctive shaped building with chimney).

I wonder what the large sign on the wall centre right was all about, COCAINE ? !

This topic came up in 2024 when the image was first shown. here is what I said then: "Something took my eye which may help to date this photo. My eye was drawn to the low curved wall in the lower half towards to the right. Zooming in shows the words Alexandra and Cocaine. This suggests that a film was being shown, Cocaine 'A decadent, controversial tale of London's seedy underbelly, where an elegant Chinese club host enslaves the weak with white powder' was made in 1922 and the Alexandra cinema had opened in 1917". I guess the film was on general release c 1923?

Thanks rocksolid, I thought the photo was earlier than that.