Lauren Phillimore speaks with Stuart Wilson, a Monmouthshire archaeologist who unearthed a lost city near the English border.
How did you get into archaeology?
I’ve always lived in Monmouth and have always been passionate about history. When I was young I had a keen interest in field walking which led to archaeology. I joined the Monmouth Archaeology Society; I loved that they just dug anywhere and everywhere. I now devote as much time as I can to the Trellech site but prior to this I had many part time jobs, including being a toll booth operator on the Severn Bridge. I also previously sold historical manuscripts, which I’d like to return to in order to fund the dig.
What can you tell us about Trellech?
As far we know it’s the largest medieval settlement in Wales, based on the amount of taxable buildings that have been discovered. Trellech was once the largest urban centre in Wales, in the 1200s, before Cardiff and it would have been around the quarter of the size of London. We cannot know exactly how large the settlement was but based on the number of taxable buildings it can be defined as a city. Only secular buildings would have been taxed and this would have excluded poor buildings and government buildings.
How did you find it?
It started with, Jonathan, a local farmer who owned the field now opposite mine. He invited local archaeologists to his field to investigate after moles kept digging up medieval pottery, which prompted me to buy the field opposite at auction. There was an earlier theory that the settlement lay under the modern village of Trellech and was built on a grid pattern, but now this has been disproved.
The most exciting discovery was a large administrative building that was a fortified and moated manor house. Medieval flower pots were discovered there; these are an important discovery in themselves as they highlight the wealth of the people who would have dwelled in the building. These flower pots are extremely rare and none have been previously found west of the River Severn. This tells us the people living here were of great importance and in the top 0.1% of the population, even after Trellech fell into decline. This in turn adds to the evidence of the town’s importance as a whole and its link to the De Clare family who used the town to expand their powerbase and gave it market status. The town also played a part in Edward Longshanks (Edward 1st) capture of Wales. The town’s history goes back much further than this though, to the Dark Ages, before the Normans.
What are your plans for the site?
I’ve got high hopes for its future; I’m waiting on planning permission to build permanent structures in the medieval back gardens on the site, where I’ll be building a resource and education centre. I’m also looking to set up a charity for the site and to increase the level of excavation and funding for the site. By doing so we’ll be able to complete better analysis of finds, including carbon dating and chemical testing. We run an annual dig each summer, which runs for four weeks through July and August. We also sell experience days where people can go along and join in the digging and experience being an archaeologist.
Lost City of Trellech Archaeological Excavations. Info: 012 9162 5831 / www.lostcityoftrellech.co.uk