Brislington
Community Archaeology Project
On Sunday 25th July 2010 BCAP members joined with members of the public for their second annual walk to St Anne's holy well and chapel. This event was organised as part of the annual Festival of British Archaeology run by the Council for British Archaeology.
Fair weather brought more than twenty people to the meeting place outside the Kings Arms at 1pm, and the party proceeded to the well where more ribbons were added to the increasing number of ribbons, pendants, and other assorted mementoes already there.
Noting the ribbons etc hanging from the trees prompted some discussion of the Council's proposal to remove the trees from the immediate vicinity of the well, and landscape the hillside into tiers of informal seating, like a small amphitheatre. The public consultation document, can be viewed here.
Immediately on the south side of the metal railings, Steve Drew found a small piece of black flint who surrendered it into the safekeeping of BCAP for identification. Other flint tools have been found locally ranging from the Old Stone Age to the New Stone Age, but this piece appears at first sight to have been worked in a way more characteristic of the Bronze Age. Professional opinion will be sought.
Then the group split into two, one seeking the refreshment that had been kindly provided at St Anne's Church Hall for all the 'pilgrims', while the other ventured to the site of Pountney's excavation in 1914 of what he believed to be the chapel. Nearby, a bronze commemorative plaque was found on the east face of the northern corner of St Anne's House, St Anne's Road, St Anne's, Bristol (currently a Bristol City Council property).
This group inspected the plastered walls of what Pountney claimed were priests' cells, but are actually post-medieval and possibly connected with the pottery. Then an attempt was made to use an overlay of his excavation plan and a modern map to pinpoint the site of the chapel. A good deal of excitement was occasioned by the discovery of several flattened metal discs in the tarmac of the road where the chapel is supposed to have been found. Aluminium studs had been placed to mark the chapel's site, and for a while it appeared we had found them, but one of the more down-to-earth members of the group examined one of them with a penknife, to find that although they were indeed aluminium, they were merely clumps of aluminium foil, squashed by vehicles visiting the industrial estate.
Having rehearsed both sides of the argument about whether Pountney did indeed find the chapel, or simply a pottery, the expedition retired to rejoin the other group and relish the very welcome tea and biscuits at the church hall.
For more information about this site, visit the St Anne in the Wood project.
Credits
1st photo — scene at St Anne's Well (© Ken Taylor 2010).
2nd photo — plaque commemorating the supposed site of the Chapel of St Anne in the Wood (© Ken Taylor 2010).
Text — Ken Taylor (new 25.07.10)
