Additional Works, Base Court, Hampton Court Palace

In July 2008 Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) undertook a major resurfacing project in Base Court at Hampton Court Palace. This involved the entire area of Base Court, with the exception of the central carriageway and existing pathways. In March 2010, Oxford Archaeology were commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) to undertake an archaeological watching brief in Base Court during additional works following the completion of the resurfacing. The work was undertaken during the installation of new signage and the excavation of a pit for a new floor hub box. The latter was for the installation of a reconstruction of a fountain within the Court, the base of which was uncovered during the resurfacing works. The reconstruction has been based on a fountain shown on a painting of The Field of the Cloth of Gold. A total of 6 trenches were excavated, 5 for foundation pad pits for the new sign posts, and 1 for the new hub with an associated pipe trench. The stratigraphic sequence revealed appeared to generally correlate with that recorded during the resurfacing works. In addition, the watching brief revealed the stepped brick footing of the northern end of the east range of the Court. The substantial nature of this foundation may reflect the location of this range over the backfilled moat of Lord Daubeney's house, the predecessor of Wolsey's Palace. A possible robber cut for a gatehouse of the earlier house was also seen, adjacent to the existing Anne Boleyn Gate. This appeared to correspond to structural remains and robbed elements of the earlier structure, which had been previously identified. The robber cut was itself cut by a polygonal feature, possibly the construction cut for the north-west turret of the Anne Boleyn Gatehouse. The north-south aligned construction cut for the west range of Base Court was observed, and appeared to cut through an east-west aligned cut feature of uncertain origin and date, though potentially related to the medieval building(s) revealed during the recent resurfacing works. A feature relatin to Sir Christopher Wrens remodelling of the Palace was also identified. This was a brick culvert leading from a cast iron downpipe on the east range, to the main east-west aligned culvert on the north side of Base Court. This report is submitted as an addendum to the Post-excavation assessment report for the main works at Base Court (OA 2009).