D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport

Archaeological watching brief

July 2007
GGAT report no. 2007/053
Project no.P1195
A report for Newport City Council National Grid Reference:
by Steve Sell BA ST 3103 8835

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The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd

Heathfield House Heathfield Swansea SA1 6EL
 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

Contents
Summary 2
Acknowledgments 2
Copyright notice 2

1 Introduction
1.1 Development proposal and commission 3
1.2 Location and topography 3
1.3 Historical and archaeological background 3
4

2 Methodology
6
3 Results 7

4 Conclusions 8

Reference 8

Illustration
Fig 1 Location plan 5

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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

Summary
An archaeological watching brief was carried out outside the Old Post Office, High
Street, Newport, on the groundwork for repositioning the D-Day Landings memorial
presently located in John Frost Square. The excavation required was not of sufficient
depth to reach archaeological levels, and only modern materials were encountered.

Acknowledgments
The project was managed by Richard Lewis BA MIFA and the fieldwork was
undertaken by Steve Sell BA of the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
(Projects). The report was prepared by Steve Sell with assistance from Paul Jones of
GGAT Illustration Department. Thanks are due to Terry Jones of Newport City
Council, Engineering and Construction Division, and to Jason Shannon of Allan
Griffiths, the contractors, for their assistance during the project.

Copyright Notice
The copyright to this report is held by the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
Ltd, which has granted an exclusive licence to Newport City Council to use and
reproduce the material it contains.

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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

1 Introduction

1.1 Development proposal and commission

Newport City Council have received permission to relocate the D-Day Landings
memorial stone, presently erected in John Frost Square, to a site opposite 9 High
Street Newport. (Pl App No 07/0421).
A condition attached to the planning consent states that ‘a suitably qualified
archaeologist is present during the undertaking of any ground disturbing works in the
development area, so that an archaeologist (sic) watching brief can be conducted’.
The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd (Projects), was commissioned to
carry out the work, which was undertaken on 5th July 2007.
1.2 Location and topography
The relocation site, at c10m OD, is situated outside the Old Post Office at the northern
end of High Street, in the centre of Newport, at NGR ST 3103 8835, some 200m to
the west of the River Usk and 150m to the s outhwest of Newport Castle.
The solid geology of Newport is mixed, with Old Red Sandstone in the north and
Keuper Marl in the south. The River Usk is tidal, its immediate environs consisting
of estuarine mud flats, and former salt-marsh.
1.3 Historical and archaeological background
There is little evidence for human activity in Newport during the Neolithic and
Bronze Age periods, but during the Iron Age a major hillfort was established at the
Gaer, 2.5km to the southwest of the present development.
Despite the establishment of the military base at Caerleon 4km to the northeast no
direct structural evidence for Roman occupation has been found at Newport (Jones
2005, 9).
The first castle in Newport was constructed in timber at St Woolos c1090, with the
present position being occupied during the first half of the 12th century. This castle
was replaced in stone at the beginning of the 13th century. The town began to
develop as a port centred on the Town Pill just to the south of the Castle. The town
grew rapidly, and soon began to spread beyond the original limits, within the
protection of the castle, towards Stow Hill and the original settlement.
The town, based on the castle as the administrative centre of the Lordship, continued
to grow in the later medieval period, despite the depredations of Glyndwr at the
beginning of the 15th century. During the early post-medieval period it was,
apparently, of less importance as a port than Chepstow, Cardiff and Swansea, but by
the end of the 18th century the town had begun to grow rapidly to complement the
industrialisation of the region, firstly with the opening of the Monmouthshire Canal in
1796 and the expansion of the docks in the first half of the 19th century, initially
closer to the town centre, but moving ever further south, until by the time the
Transporter Bridge was constructed in 1906, the docks at Newport were almost
entirely located to the south of the town, between the confluence of the Rivers Usk
and Ebbw (ibid 12).
The relocation site for the memorial stone is located within the market quarter of the
medieval town of Newport, close to the site of the market house, which is thought to
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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

have been built c1585. Newport Castle is some 150m to the northeast and the
truncated Town Pill , which originally extended as far as High Street, lies some 200m
to the southeast.

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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

New location for memorial

GRID

N
Based on the Ordnance Survey 1:5000
Landplan with the permission of The
Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery
Office, © Crown Copyright, Glamorgan-
Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd, Licence
0 500metres

Figure 1. Location plan

 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

2 Methodology
The watching brief was undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the
Institute of Field Archaeologists’ Standard and Guidance for Archaeological
Watching Briefs (1994) and the GGAT Manual of Excavation Recording Techniques.
The excavated area was cleaned and examined for evidence of human activity and for
artefactual evidence, and was noted and recorded photographically as appropriate
using a Kodak DC215 Zoom digital camera.
A full written, drawn and photographic record was made of all archaeological
contexts, in accordance with the GGAT Manual of Excavation Recording Techniques.
Contexts were recorded, where applicable, using a single continuous numbering
system, and are summarised in Appendix 1. Finds were selected according to the
GGAT Manual of Excavation Recording Techniques discard policy; but no material
from this project was retained.

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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

3 Results
The excavated area consisted of one of the circular design panels in the pavement
outside the Old Post Office. Its diameter was 2m. The overall depth of excavation to
accommodate the memorial varied between 0.55m and 0.70m. Services occupied
much of the northwestern side of the excavation, where the depth reached was less.
The sequence here was as follows:

Table 1: northwestern sector

Context No Description Depth
001 Paved brick surface 0.09
002 Mixed concrete bedding 0.09
003 Concrete slab 0.20
004 Mixed concrete bedding 0.09
005 Sub-base 0.07
006 Concrete Limit of excavation

On the southeastern side of the excavation the sequence was different (see below).
Beneath slab 003 was a mixed make-up layer of probable recent origin (007), which
was removed to a maximum depth of 0.70m

Table 2: southeastern sector

Context No Description Depth
001 Paved brick surface 0.09
002 Mixed concrete bedding 0.09
003 Concrete slab 0.20
007 Composite layer of redeposited material of recent 0.30m to limit of
origin (concrete, marl, slate, gravel, mortar, excavation (c0.70m)
charcoal, small stone etc)

The only finds occurred within layer 007, and consisted of sherds of stoneware of
probable 19th century date. The concrete layer 006 appeared to dip below make-up
layer 007, which is likely to have been brought in to level up the site prior to
excavation for services on the northwestern side of the site. Contexts 004-005
represent the upper backfill of this trench, or are associated with modern ducting
running along the northwestern edge of the excavation. An earlier pavement level is
represented by slab 003, with the present ornamental brick surface and its foundation
layer (001, 002) being part of recent refurbishment of High Street in connection with
the pedestrianisation of this part of Newport.
Excavations prior to the removal of the memorial stone itself in John Frost Square did
not reach below the concrete foundation upon which it was seated.

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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

4 Conclusions
The results of the watching brief confirmed that the groundwork required for the
memorial did not reach archaeological levels, and thus had no effect upon the
archaeological resource.

Reference

Jones C, 2005, Newport City Centre Redevelopment: archaeological assessment,

GGAT Report no 2005/076, Swansea

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 D-Day Landings Memorial, Newport: archaeological watching brief

Appendix 1: Context Index

Context No Type Description Period

001 Structure Paved brick surface Modern
002 Layer Concrete bedding for 001 Modern
003 Structure Concrete slab Modern
004 Layer Concrete bedding for 003 Modern
005 Layer Modern foundation layer, ‘sub-base’ Modern
006 Layer Concrete Modern
007 Layer Composite make-up layer, redeposited Modern