Trade and Prosperity, War and Poverty An archaeological and historical investigation into Southampton’s French Quarter Oxford Monograph 15

Southampton was one of England’s leading
medieval ports. During the 13th century and again
in the 15th century, its trade in major commodities
such as wine, wool and cloth made it one of the
most prosperous and cosmopolitan towns in the
country. From the later 16th century, however, much
of the international trade was lost to other ports
(principally London) and Southampton suffered a
long decline, until its fortunes revived with the
growth of passenger trade to America in the mid
19th century. During the Second World War the city
suffered devastating bombing, and here, as
elsewhere, post-war reconstruction paid little
regard to the historic character of the old town.
Medieval property plots were widened or ignored,
building heights increased, and the construction of
the Castle Way inner ring-road during the 1950s
sliced through the medieval gridded street pattern.
In 2006 Oxford Archaeology were appointed by
CgMs Consulting, acting on behalf of Linden Homes
Southern, to carry out an excavation in advance of
the construction of apartment blocks in the town’s
medieval ‘French Quarter’. The site covered approximately
0.5 ha, bounded to the west and east by the
historic frontages of French Street and the High
Street (formerly English Street), where an impressive
sequence of medieval vaulted cellars still survived.
These were accompanied by numerous pits, cess pits
and wells yielding significant finds and environmental
assemblages, including rare and exotic items.
The most significant property – Polymond’s Hall –
had a distinguished history and was home to
notable residents such as the Venetian Consul in the
15th century, and poet and hymn writer Isaac Watts
in the 18th century.
This book uses new evidence from the excavations
to revisit many ongoing debates on the origins
and development of Southampton. It also seeks to
provide an evocation of the depth and richness of
the town’s history and an insight into the lives of
the occupants of the excavation area, in the heart of
the late Saxon and medieval town. From the 13th
century onwards, this included 22 tenements that
survived for 650 years.