Pilgrim Street, roundhouse

In 2001 excavations on High Bridge uncovered the remains of a roundhouse, dated by radiocarbon to the late Bronze Age. This is the first evidence of occupation in Newcastle centre before the arrival of the Romans. The roundhouse was at the base of a long and complex sequence of later deposits, separated from the main medieval levels by a thick layer of dark plough soil. The palynological analysis of samples from this soil produced evidence of an open, agricultural environment, quite different from the intensively managed ecology of the medieval urban landscape. It may be no more than coincidence that the roundhouse was found adjacent to Pilgrim Street, i.e. on the Great North Road, but it is possible that the course of the ancient route is making itself known through the discovery of settlement along its line (see HER 1067).