Proposed Business School, Elvet Waterside, Durham: archaeological recording (OASIS ID: archaeol3-359681)

Photograhic survey of a 19th-century cottage and garden walls north of Old Elvet, Durham. This report presents the results of an archaeological recording project conducted in advance of proposed work at Elvet Waterside, Durham City. A photographic and drawn survey of Vennel Cottage and a number of garden walls has been carried out. The works were commissioned by Durham University Estates and Facilities Directorate and conducted by Archaeological Services Durham University. The present house probably dates from the second quarter of the 19th century but it incorporates parts of older buildings. In its present form it appears to have begun life as the south end of the large building shown on Wood's 1820 map. The east wall of that structure survives in the west side of the vennel, wall B. It was a brick building, but incorporated the thick stone wall seen in the north face of Vennel Cottage today. It is likely that this is what remains of an earlier building, of unknown date. As presently visible, the wall contains no diagnostic or dateable features. Stripping of the south face, inside Vennel Cottage, might provide more information about this structure. The 19th-century elements of the building are of limited historical interest. Nothing remains of its documented use as a wash house and the interior has been gutted and altered for residential use. All except the eastern walls J and K appear on the 1816 Ordnance Survey Town Plan. The oldest is the section of the vanished building in wall B, which retains some blocked openings. All of the others were clearly built as garden walls. Though there is some variety in size and form, most share the common construction of brick on the inner face and stone on the outside. This is a matter of economy rather than a desire to benefit from the thermal capacity of brickwork, which was often exploited in walled gardens. In such cases, brickwork was used on south-facing walls which receive the maximum amount of sunlight; at Elvet Waterside, brick faces appear regardless of the direction that the wall faces. There is map evidence of some small garden structures abutting some of the walls. Evidence of these was seen only in the east face of wall E and the south of wall H.