REPORT ON THE EXCAVATIONS RESULTING FROM IMPROVEMENTS TO THE PATHS AND LIGHTING AT FORT CUMBERLAND
Author(s): Dave Fellows
Fort Cumberland is an 18th-century fort built on the shingle spit of Eastney Point on the south-eastern corner of Portsea Island, Hampshire. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Hampshire monument no. 26723) and is the home of English Heritage's Centre for Archaeology. It has been described as 'perhaps the most impressive piece of 18th-century defensive architecture in England' (Pevsner and Lloyd, 1967).Between November 2001 and January 2002 works were carried out to improve the path network and lighting provision around the fort, and watching briefs were undertaken on the associated excavations. The lighting excavation trench ran from the fort entrance gate to the right curtain sally port. The main trench for the new paths ran from the right curtain sally port around the outside of the parade ground to the Officers' Quarters. The remains of the brick counterscarp wall of the dry ditch were revealed in the lighting trench, truncated to make way for the access road in the 1940s. In the excavations alongside the parade ground, the stratified build-up of the parade ground gravels were revealed, as were the cuts relating to the services to adjacent buildings.The following report details the results of these excavations.
- Report Number:
- 71/2002
- Series:
- CfA Reports
- Pages:
- 9
- Keywords:
- Excavation Post Medieval
