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Rutherglen Town Hall

No Class (Event)

Site Name Rutherglen Town Hall

Classification No Class (Event)

Canmore ID 161399

Site Number NS66SW 73.01

NGR NS 614 617

NGR Description NS c.614 617

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/161399

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council South Lanarkshire
  • Parish Rutherglen (South Lanarkshire)
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District City Of Glasgow
  • Former County Lanarkshire

Archaeology Notes

NS66SW 73.01 c.614 617

NS 614 617 The demolition of a 1967 office block extension at the rear of Rutherglen Town Hall required an archaeological watching brief. The excavation by JCB of four linking drainage trenches and associated doglegs was monitored between May and June 1999. No archaeological features of medieval date were encountered: the only features being of modern origin.

Sponsor: South Lanarkshire Council.

A K Maule 1999

NS 6138 6170 An evaluation was undertaken of the archaeological potential of the site of Rutherglen Town Hall (NMRS NS66SW 73.00), ahead of redevelopment of the site which lies in the heart of Scotland's first royal burgh. Five trenches covering a total area of 74m sq were excavated to a maximum depth of 2.4m. The trenches were located both within the extant Victorian Town Hall building and externally, where a 1967 extension had been demolished in 1999.

The excavations produced mostly 19th and 20th-century site levelling and construction evidence. A medieval garden soil, which produced a sherd of 14th-century Scottish White Gritty Ware and burnt daub, survives under the E wing of the Town Hall. A truncated pit also produced a sherd of the same fabric, and a further sherd was unstratified. Two sherds of post-medieval reduced ware were also recovered from a predominantly 19th-century levelling deposit.

Full report and archive lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: South Lanarkshire Council.

S Durning 2001

NS 614 617 Excavation was undertaken between January and July 2002 during redevelopment of the 19th-century Town Hall of Scotland's oldest royal burgh of Rutherglen. The Town Hall is located on the N side of the High Street and to the E of the church.

A large open area excavation of some 8 x 18m ran parallel to and some 6m behind (N of) the High Street frontage. Four phases of occupation could be determined. Upper levels revealed the footings of the rear wall of the predecessors of the existing E wing of the Town Hall - 19th-century commercial properties fronting onto High Street. These footings overlay the remains of a small stone-walled structure with a cobbled floor, also of 19th-century date.

Despite truncation of most upper levels (with the exception of isolated deposits of backland soils containing some early post-medieval pottery), a large number of features were found to have been cut into the natural sands that underlie the site. A series of some 30 pits of varying characteristics were excavated, the majority containing pottery of 14th- to 16th-century date (including a partly reconstructable 3-strap handled and spouted jug). Post-hole alignments were revealed that suggested structures running N-S back from the High Street frontage. However, it proved impossible to define the original extent of the buildings to which they related. Groups of stake-holes were identified in some areas, although it was difficult to establish certain alignments.

A little to the N and W of the main excavation area, at the NE corner of the N wing of the Town Hall, further remains exposed during monitoring included parts of a N-S aligned, clay-bonded wall that in turn overlay a large sub-circular pit. The latter contained multiple fills from which were recovered over 200 sherds of c 14th-century White Gritty ware, including probable kiln wasters suggestive of a local manufactory. A complete wrought iron barrel padlock with applied strips of copper alloy, of similar date, was also recovered from this feature.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: South Lanarkshire Council.

F Baker and T Addyman 2002

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