Page 70 - John Barber's Oakham Castle and its archaeology

Appendix D

Oakham Castle Excavation Reports

Editors’ note: Between 1955 and 1959 there were regular reports on the progress of the excavations at Oakham Castle
in Oakham School’s magazine, The Oakhamian, and in Medieval Archaeology. The text of these reports is reproduced
here by kind permission of the School and of the Society for Medieval Archaeology.

J L Barber, The Oakhamian, LXX, Easter Term 1955
In the course of the Summer term it is hoped to continue with the excavations at Great Casterton (now in their seventh
year) and to do some preliminary work on the vanished portions of Oakham Castle.

J L Barber, The Oakhamian, LXXI, Summer Term 1956
EXCAVATIONS
We ... have turned our attention to matters nearer home and have opened up a long trial trench to the east of Oakham
Castle. Both the conformation of the ground and a mediaeval inquisition suggest that at one time there was far more of
the Castle than we can at present see. It was not long before expectation was turned to reality, for our trial trench has
clearly shown that all the evidence is there: it merely awaits the spade. Both outside walls of what was once the area of
the buttery, pantry and kitchens have been identified, and a corridor, in perfect alignment with the northern doorway in
the east wall of the castle, has been brought to light. This corridor from the main hail gave on to at least two rooms, the
floors of which have been clearly recognised. Despite ‘robbed’ walls and intrusions of a later date, all this is perfectly
clear. But two earlier walls have also been found beneath the floors of the later period in the room south of the corridor,
and their lay-out has not yet been clarified. The pottery suggests that these two earlier walls are contemporary with the
original building of the Castle in the late twelfth century, and that modifications or improvements were made later,
perhaps in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Present indications are that once the pottery has been fully studied, it
should be possible to date all phases of construction, and perhaps to identify them with known tenants of the Castle.
A number of boys have taken part in the work and shown an enlightened interest in what they were doing. Many
of them have acquired patience and accuracy in their work, and an incipient ability to interpret the evidence which
their spades and trowels have revealed.

J L Barber, The Oakhamian, LXXII, Summer Term 1957
OAKHAM CASTLE EXCAVATIONS
We have again had a most successful season’s digging, and this year’s work has crossed the ‘t’s and dotted the ‘i’s of
what we undertook a year ago. A forty-eight foot long trench was dug from east to west at right angles to the seventy
foot north-south trench we dug last year. It very soon served to show us the eastern limits of the buttery and the
pantry, whose northern and southern edges we were able to define last season. Opposite to the passageway between
the two and about six feet to the east of where the passage door must have stood, we have come across the kitchens, a
building which nearly always stood on its own as a precaution against the all too prevalent fires of medieval times.
We are not yet sure of its length, but we have firmly plotted the width. It has a paved surround with a central floor of
mortar, overlaid by a thick level of hard-baked clay at the eastern edge, where evidently the cooking took place. Let
into the mortar floor is a mortar-lined pit which it would seem once held a lead tank, whose purpose is unknown. The
kitchens had been rebuilt at least once, as there is a thick layer of burning beneath the present levels.
A number of boys of all ages have taken part, and some of them have begun to show a real appreciation of the
technique of archaeology and of the problems involved. The Headmaster has once more acted as official
photographer, whilst L Revell has very kindly drawn the finished plans. The finds have been almost entirely of
pottery, but this, when fully studied, should help to sort out the dating of the various phases.

J L Barber, The Oakhamian, LXXII, Christmas Term 1957
EXCAVATIONS
It has now been possible to draw the plans and to study the evidence from our two seasons digging at the Castle, and the
general pattern is beginning to emerge quite clearly. Before the tumble-down domestic offices at either end of the Hall
were levelled out and the Hall itself restored early in the 17th century (of which there is both documentary as well as
archaeological evidence), there stood at the east end a pantry 12ft across by 20ft long, separated, by a corridor 4ft across
and 20ft long, leading to the kitchens, from a buttery which was at first 18ft across and 20ft long but was later widened
to 21ft. The kitchens were 9ft east of the pantry-buttery wall, and were originally 19ft across and later extended to 27ft.
Their length has not yet been determined. No excavation has yet taken place at the west end, but the digging of a
trench to feed oil to the boiler suggests that in due course we should be able to trace the outline of the solar block.
There seems little doubt that the buildings we have unearthed at the east end of the Hall date from the late 14th

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