|
Excavations were undertaken adjacent to the Motte at Ty'n y Mwd, Aber, by the G.A.T. The area comprised a small field which topographically seemed likely to have formed the castle bailey. The remains of a three-unit hall house were identified. This had undergone a number of alterations, the last of which was probably undertaken in the fourteenth century. Initial excavations in January 1993 were occasioned by a planning application for a residential development on the south side of the motte; the application was subsequently refused. Further excavations were undertaken in November and December of 1993 in order to clarify the nature of the structure identified in the earlier assessment. The work was funded by Cadw (Welsh Historic Monuments). As part of the initial assessment, a geophysical survey was conducted on the site. This entailed a fluxgate gradiometer survey, a resistivity survey and a ground penetrating radar survey. Each of the surveys encountered localized subsoil conditions (glacially derived igneous boulders) which distorted the results which were, on the whole, unproductive and are not presented here.
Assessment Excavation January 1993
Three trenches were opened and excavated entirely by hand. These were located in order to investigate a number of linear anomalies revealed by the magnetometry survey. Trench A measured I3 m x 1.5 m. trench B 12 m x 1.5 m and trench C 4 m x 3 m. Building foundations up to 1.2 m wide were observed in trenches B and C, The small scale of the excavations were insufficient to allow for any conclusive interpretation of the nature of the building, but the circumstantial association of the foundations with pottery sherds of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries suggested the likelihood that the building might be medieval in date.
Excavations in November and December 1993
A total area of 120 m2 was excavated. The excavation trenches consisted of a main trench of some 8O m2 with further trenches (trenches G to J) subsequently excavated to recover the complete plan of the building. On completion of the excavation, the plan of a rectangular building aligned north to south and consisting of three units with winged projections at the north and south ends could be postulated. The component units of the building comprise a south wing 10.8 m x 5 m internally, a central unit measuring 1 1.2 m x 8 m internally, and a north wing measuring 13 m x 5 in internally (Figure 7). It is suggested that the structural remains represent a three-unit hall house, comprising a central ground floor hall with storied wings at each end.
The only surface indications for the existence of the building comprised the incorporation of the external wall of the north wing in the modern field wall. The majority of the building had been robbed to a single course of its foundations while some stretches of the wall had been entirely removed. There was some variation in the width of the surviving foundations so that the east wall of the hall unit measured 0.90 m wide while the remainder of the foundations averaged 1.10 m wide. The facings of the foundations were composed of large sub rounded boulders with a rubble infill in a brown, silty, clay matrix. The south end of the east wall of the main hall appears lo have been truncated and was butted by the north wall of the south wing. Evidence of the existence of a north wing was suggested in two instances. An internal dividing wall seen in trench I gave the dimensions of the central hall, and details of the dimensions of the wing could be deduced from the identification of surviving coursing of the north wall still visible within the later field boundary. The use of mortar in the walls of the north wing is discussed below. No evidence was recovered of floor surfaces associated with the use of the building.
A brown silty clay soil, up to 0.40 m deep, overlay the building foundations, the upper 0.25 m having been reworked during ploughing. The depth of ploughing corresponded with the top of the building foundations. The foundations were constructed on an old ground surface of silty clay which overlay a subsoil of river gravel. In the north end of trench G the original ground surface had been truncated and a cobbled surface overlay the sandy natural subsoil at this point. At a later stage the resulting depression had been back filled with a deposit of mixed angular stone and plough soil. The truncation of the original ground surface may have resulted from prolonged use of this area as a path, subsequent to the abandonment of the hall house, with the cobbles representing the latest surface in this sequence. The path probably led to a small building to the south east which is shown on the mid nineteenth century tithe map
The Metalwork
There is a small assemblage of metalwork, the principal find being a bronze ring brooch 0.30 m in diameter, of thirteenth- to – fourteenth century date. The brooch was recovered from the interface of the old ground surface within the south wing of the building. An Edward 1 'Star Marked' Halfpenny of 1335—43, Class 4, from the London mint, was recovered from the spoil heap as well as a bronze bell-chape.
The pottery
Approximately 400 sherds of pottery were recovered during the excavation. There were no stratigraphically sealed contexts. The pottery assemblage appears to have been well mixed with the plough soil and the sherd size and abrasions suggest more than one reworking of the soils. Finds were recorded in three context groups; the plough soil, the soil horizon which had accumulated over the building foundations below the present plough soil and the interface of the old ground surface. The groups are mixed in date and there is a large amount of residual material. The assemblage is overwhelmingly post-medieval, mainly dating from the nineteenth century, but eighteenth- and seventeenth- century wares are also present. A pottery report was prepared by J. Edwards of Chester Archaeology and is contained within the site archive at GAT.
Thirty sherds of medieval pottery were recovered, comprising two main fabric groups: pink/while wares from the Ewloe area of Clwyd and red/grey wares produced in Cheshire. The red/grey wares are known to have been in use in the second half of the thirteenth century and are paralleled with wares found from excavations at Diserth castle, Degannwy castle and Rhuddlan. The pink/white wares probably first occur in the first half of the fourteenth century and continue into the fifteenth century. The significance of the pottery assemblage is considered below.
The building at Ty’n Y Mwd
The object of the excavation was to confirm the presence or absence of significant archaeological remains and there fore, in consequence, no in situ stratified deposits associated with the building were removed and the excavation was halted at the horizon of the building foundations. The suggestions offered here for the building sequence are therefore necessarily tentative.
The lack of precise dating evidence for differing phases of the hall house at Ty'n y Mwd is unfortunate. There is some potential for recovering stratified deposits at the north end of the building should excavations he resumed at a future date. There are indications that the hall had been modified on a number of occasions. The east, wall of the central unit appears to have been truncated at its south end, and it is suggested that the use of mortar in the north wing represents a later alteration. Where mortar was observed in trench I and in the northernmost wall of the building, there was evidence of surviving coursing and the mortar affixed the coursing to the foundations. On the other hand, elsewhere only the foundation course survived and it may be that all the walls were originally mortared. If this were the case, however, it might be expected that spreads of mortar would be recorded elsewhere on site but none were found. There are a number of possible scenarios for the sequence of building activity of which two alternatives suggest themselves as the more likely: (1) three phases of construction, the first phase represented by the surviving east wall of the hall which was then Truncated by the addition of a wing on the south end, and finally a further alteration involving the addition of a mortared wing on the north; (2) two phases of construction, with the south and north wings having been added simultaneously to the existing building.
Hall houses in North West Wales
The dimensions of the hall al Ty'n y Mwd are comparable with those of several high-status hall houses in north-west Wales. It is of similar dimensions to the two unit hall house at Gogarth, the medieval residence of the bishop of Bangor (Hague 1956: 9-22). At Penrhyn Castle. Llandygai. Caernarfonshire, the original medieval hall has much in common with the hall at Ty'n y Mwd. The evidence from Ty'n y Mwd suggests two wings of unequal size at north and south ends, where as Penrhyn has two equally sized projecting wings. At Penrhyn both wings are stoned with a vaulted cellar at the north wing (Hague suggests that this may have been a medieval insertion). The dimensions of the central unit at Ty'n y Mwd are remarkably similar to those for Penrhyn and Gogarth. This may imply a fairly standard width to halls, in general, no doubt reflecting the constraints imposed by the techniques employed in the roof construction.
Dating evidence from the hall at Gogarth is ambiguous; architectural fragments appear to suggest an early fourteenth-century date, although Hague's assumption that the manor of Gogarth is post-1282 is premised by the incorrect identification of the manor of Gogarth with Garthgogo, which is in fact in the old county of Denbighshire (Richards 1969: 73). Hague dates the hall at Penrhyn castle to the early fourteenth century (Hague 1959: 29) on the basis of a sketch drawing which it is believed shows the hall prior to the alterations made by Samuel Wyatt in the 1780s. This shows two early fourteenth-century windows and Hague believed that the hall was probably built by either Tudur Hen ap Gronwy (d. 1311) or his son Gronwy ap Tudur (d. 1331).
Dating evidence for the sequence of construction at Ty'n y Mwd cannot he determined on the basis of the artefactual assemblage. There is, however, some documentary evidence which may throw some light on the matter. In 1289 £20 was spent on 'rebuilding the houses of Aber and Bala which had been unfortunately destroyed by fire' (Anon. 1863, 192). More specifically a reference of 1303-4 (PRO, E101/485/30) refers to repairs to the Hall and Chamber at Aber:
In preparing the site of the hall and chamber (at Aber) at task 85. To masons supplying carriage of stone, setters, porters, and in carriage of sand at task by William of Kyrkbv and Ithell of Bangor masons in the 3rd year of Prime Edward £17. 9. s. 1d.
Total £17. 17s. 3d.
Also in 37 barrels of lime made it Wikes (Wig in the same parish) next Aber by Thomas of Wykes, 46s. 8d. and in carriage of the said lime from the Kiln to Aber at task 6s. 8d
Total 53s. 4d
Also in iron and steel bought for the smith of the same for mending the mason's tools and for bars of windows, chisels, nails, hooks and hinges for doors in gross 1 1s. 9d.
Total 11s. 9d.
Also in purveying and cutting timber in the wood for chests for the Solar and Garderobe and hoards bought for doors at task 16s. 0d. and for carriage of the same from the woods to Aber at task 10s. 0d.
Total 26s. 0d
Total of the expenses above £22. 8s. 3d.
The available evidence suggests that the hall had undergone a number of alterations during its use; the final form of the building is suggestive, of a fourteenth-century date: the hall no doubt constituted one of the principal buildings of the Llys complex during the thirteenth century. There is no evidence at present to suggest that any of the court buildings were maintained much beyond the early fourteenth century (Johnstone 1997) although the available evidence cannot at present resolve the date at which the hall was abandoned or dismantled. It is quite conceivable that the remodeled hall at Ty’n v Mwd influenced the design of the hall at Penrhyn castle
|
