Leicester City Wall in Sanvey Gate: Excavations in 1952

Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 29, 15-29
By kind permission of Messrs. Dryad Ltd., owners of the site, cuttings were made in August 1952 across the presumed line of Leicester City Wall, in its northern sector, on a property situated between Sanvey Gate and Cumberland Street, seventy yards east of the site of the medieval East Gate, which was demolished in 1774. The excavations took place during the fortnight 7-20 August and were carried out under the auspices of the Leicester Museums and Libraries Committee and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The preliminary arrangements were made by Mr. David T.-D. Clarke, Keeper of Antiquities at Leicester Museum, who has also examined and reported on the coarse pottery found in the cuttings. The problem of the City Wall of Leicester was brilliantly assessed by the late Professor F. Haverfield in 1918, and the most recent infor-mation on this subject has been published by Mr. Clarke, who in 1950 cut a section across the eastern defences of the city, in Churchgate. Later disturbance had somewhat obscured the character of the Wall in Church-gate, and it was hoped that the Sanvey Gate site would prove more inform-ative and provide information as to both the character and the date of the defences. This hope has been, in the main, fulfilled; but it became clear at an early date in the excavations that the superstructure of the City Wall had been completely quarried away, a process which probably began soon after the Civil Wars-the last occasion on which Leicester's defences were put to practical test.