Owners and tenants – the historical documentation for Nos. 57–64 Redcliff Street and Nos. 88-91 St Thomas Street

Description/Abstract

Report on excavations concentrating on the St Thomas Street frontage, which was found to have been occupied from at least the second quarter of the fourteenth century. The presence of a few twelfth-century sherds suggests earlier occupation in the vicinity. A number of pits had been cut through the natural alluvium and backfilled with fourteenth-century pottery kiln waste of a type belonging to the so-called Bristol/Redcliffe-ware industry. Medieval property boundaries and the rear wall of a house fronting St Thomas Street were identified. Following demolition of the medieval building in the sixteenth century the land was used as gardens until the construction of Warren's glasshouse in the early eighteenth century. Glass production ceased before 1774 and the property subsequently became part of the Bear Inn and, later, a tobacco factory. The archaeological evidence is supplemented by extensive documentary research.