Babbu Lacu - Medieval Crossings and Lost Roads

Hello everyone. Fantastic web site Rob, lots of absorbing information, very helpful searchable transcript of J B Shelton's articles from Austin's Monthly Magazine. This subject overlaps a number of other topics and streets so it seems best to start a separate topic. Hopefully the topic title will capture the medieval layout of the area around the river crossings between Spon Street and Priors Mill that existed before the first maps. I have been unable to find any maps plotting the position of the medieval crossings of the Sherbourne and Radford Brook, particularly the locations described in Shelton's articles. Shelton also suggests the possible routes of Catesby Lane and Glower's Lane, then he looked for evidence and found some supporting archaeology. Not sure if anyone has looked at these crossing/road locations in detail and can provide pointers or suggestions? Any help appreciated. So far I have preliminary locations for several river crossings plus Catesby Lane and Glowers Lane based eight extracts from J. B. Shelton's articles, Bradfords Map 1750, Sharps Map 1807, the 1886/87 Ordnance Survey Map. I have these plotted on the 1886/87 OS plan but would like to remove or reduce the range of uncertainties to improve the accuracy. Are there any sketches that would help with Shelton's locations in the Hales Street area, (vaguely recall sketches mentioned on a another post)? Most of the recent development seems to be away from the river crossing area so I have not found any other archaeological record of river crossings? Does anyone know if the opportunity was taken to look for medieval crossings during the recent excavations around the north side of the river Sherbourne in Palmers Lane? I will put my extracts from Shelton's articles in a separate post, there might be relevant information that I have missed? There may be other Shelton records available, not included in the Austin's Magazine articles perhaps?

EXTRACTS from J B Shelton's Articles in Austin's Monthly Magazine - River Crossings Around Hales St/Burges/Palmer Lane February1934 - Excavations in the Burges The name "Burges" is derived from Bridges, there being two bridges at only a short distance from each other, one to carry the water of the Sherbourne, the other the water from Naul's Mill, and called the River Albert. In the digging for Corporation Street, the culvert or bridge was discovered under the tramlines, and is now filled in with concrete. Before the water reached the culvert it flowed beneath the houses......... ....... at a depth of 16 1/2-ft. close by the river, a boat paddle of oak has been found, August 1934 - Benedictine Site, Palmer Lane Guest House I hope to discover a bridge which crossed the river at Palmer Lane end, and would join up to Priory Gate, St. Agnes Lane, Cook Street, Silver Street, and College Square. It is most probable this Lane was Catesby Lane, as a washing-pool (perhaps for sheep) was at the end, and would be near the river, where a certain woman pulled down the gate, and the Leet compelled her to put it up again. September 1934 - Benedictine Site, Wooden Bridge I mentioned last month that the bridge just discovered was recorded in the "Leet Book," but another bridge was discovered about two months ago, of which no record has been traced. This bridge is possibly of earlier date than the "Catesby Bridge," and commenced about 81/2-yards to the east June 1935 Broad Well, Burges Ford, Palmer Lane A FOOTPATH Since the finding of the bridge at the bottom of Palmer Lane, another footpath has been revealed at a distance of about 10 yards to the west of the bridge. A number of piles had been driven in a very marshy place at a depth of about 12 feet, and on the top of the piles large stones of great hardness had been placed, and would probably lead to a narrow foot-bridge crossing the river, thus making four crossings within about 30 yards. A Norman pot was found near here, though imperfect. BURGESS FORD Burgess derives its name from "Bridges," of which there were two in the Burgess valley which carried the river Sherbourne and the river Albert, or Naul's Mill stream, through to the Priory Pool, which worked the Prior's Mill. This relates to a much earlier time than the present Burgess, and points to a ford, and not bridges, being the original road leading to Well Street, Silver Street, and Bishop Street. This ford was at a depth of 12-ft. 6-in. from the present level, and about 1-ft. under the present river bed; it was also about 10 yards to right of the Burgess going towards the north, and lay under the present houses and shops built there in 1792-4. Large beams from old Saxon houses had been placed in the river bed, and sunk so as not to stop the flow of the water, and on these large rough hewn planks 15-ft. in length had been placed, so that horses walked through the water on a solid foundation for feet and wheels. November 1935 - EXCAVATIONS ON SITE OF ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL One important discovery was not mentioned in my article last month. At a depth of 10 feet a large quantity of oak beams and planks were found, morticed together, and at that time (about two years ago) I thought it may have been part of foundations for a building or a bridge, but since finding the wooden ford in the river near the Burges, mentioned a few months ago, I believe this to be a part of the same roadway. October 1936 - EXCAVATIONS IN TRINITY STREET The men are digging through the gardens and orchards (the Chauntry Orchard). As Hales Street was only made in 1848, and named after John Hales (who owned nearly all the sites in Coventry belonging to the Monastery), and Sprigg's Row was built in 1815, it seems difficult to know which way people got to their houses. Speed's map shows on its list No. 22 as Glower's Lane. As this reference number is not shown on the actual map, a query arises, and I have often hoped the day would come when I could trace a road over the gardens. A month ago I asked the men to keep a look out for a pebble road leading towards Priory Gate, now called "Swanswell Gate," and about a week ago this was discovered leading in that direction. The houses standing next the Hippodrome having now their fronts to Hales Street, originally had their fronts at the other side, and even to the time of demolition had part of an insurance plate affixed, which always had to be on the front of property. The archway in the Gate House was filled in about eighty years ago, to make it into a dwelling for a shop. The road came through the arch, across the present Hippodrome, and over this orchard to Catesby Lane and St. Agnes Lane - thus they reached their homes June 1937 - HIPPODROME SITE This site was once the extensive lake called Bablake, and from its depth, varying from 10 feet to 14 feet, I had hoped I might find a boat of the early British period, hewed-out from the trunk of a tree, as three years ago, within about twenty yards of this site, I discovered a boat paddle of this period at a depth of sixteen feet, and only about forty yards from where we discovered a wood ford, or bridge, which is thought to be Roman.

Hi Bob, welcome to the forum Great minds think alike! One idea Rob and I have for the new year was to plot Shelton's articles on the map. There are a decent number of images from his excavation on Coventry Digital that need tagging to locations too. Catesby Lane is known and is on the opposite side of the Burges to where Shelton was looking. Nat Alcock has a great pamphlet about the Catesbys. The best location source of some of the things Shelton dug up is the Board of Health map 1850 (also on Coventry Digital), which I'm not sure he had access to. There is a lot to tease out of Shelton's work and Troughton's sketches are sometimes helpful because they show what Shelton was excavating. I can't really go into depth right now as I'm up to my neck in wrapping, food prep etc but I'll add more as I get time.

Ok, got a few minutes. What you're asking for is very complicated. While Shelton's articles are important, they are very hard to interpret. Sometimes he was excavating stuff you can see on the 1850 map, at other times he was excavating things that were long gone. Babbu Laccu for instance was of an unknown size and was drained before any records were compiled and possibly as early as Roman times. Even the oldest maps show land that was already heavily man made. Draining for farming and to create ponds and millraces to power mills. Straightening, culverting, building deeper, narrower channels. The rivers were forded originally eg Gosford and Smithford but roads drift from their original locations as bridges are built, walls and gates are fixed or destinations change. So my theory for Gosford is that first a ford was made, then a bridge was built, then a better bridge, complete with a gate was constructed and the old bridge was reused as a foundation for St George's Hall and gradually the road reflected this in a series of shifts to the south. The same would explain the odd layout of the road at Spon bridge. First a ford, then a little pack bridge south of it and finally the bigger bridge we now know, probably over the site of the ford. Where Shelton found the beams sunk in the river I don't know. I do know that he was digging in the area of the priory pond, which had a dam which carried a small road. There are pictures of it. Was Shelton excavating that? Alternatively there was possibly a much earlier crossing taking the traffic from Bishop Street directly to the priory gates (off the Butcher Row)? How long ago was that? Sadly the timbers he found were never tested for dates and were lost during the war. Was Smithford Street the exact site of the Smithford Street ford? I do know that there were two other bridges north of the Ram bridge (connecting Smithford Street to Fleet Street). The north one carried West Orchard but the middle one carried a building, which I believe was at one point a mill. That middle bridge was gone by 1850 but was drawn by William Henry Brooke. Where were people going when they crossed the river? To the broad gate to the castle or to the priory? The two destinations might explain why West Orchard and Smithford Street diverge but might a central bridge have served both destinations until the ford was replaced by the Ram Bridge? When exactly are you looking at? The medieval era, began around 476 A.D. following the demise of the Roman Empire in Britain. It ran roughly a thousand years, ending between 1400 and 1450. Towards the end of that the routes of the main roads and bridges were probably reasonably fixed but at the start there wasn't even a Coventry. Godiva's Coventry would have looked little like the city layout and buildings that survived until even the Speed Map was drawn in 1610. What kind of rivers were the Sherbourne and the Radford Brook? Were they faster, wider, deeper? How much effect did the mill ponds have pushing water volume back up the rivers? What effect has modern upland drainage and stream diversion had on the river flow? What was the effect of the canal construction on the water courses? Confused? Yeah, me too. Determining the earliest routes through Coventry is very much guess work. Shelton was an early archaeologist, without the tools or the rules to nail details like modern experts. Much of his work was sadly destroyed, so we can't even follow some of his theories. Is this a project? School or Uni or PhD? Or are you just interested and want to dig into the issue? I don't want to put you off but it would help to know what depth you want to get to.

Hello Helen, Seasons Greetings. Thanks for the very prompt responses so close to Christmas. I like complexity so your thought-provoking comments and questions that cover a number of relevant topics are helping. I remember the reconstruction of the centre in the 1960's when new development swept away a lot of history. I now have more time to explore my interest in the lost and covered over early history of the town to ponder the gaps in knowledge associated with the limited and lost archaeology and the limitations of early written records. I am currently interested in the old river crossings to the north of the town in the Hales Street area and the likely sequence of construction of the routes, but left scope in the topic title to look at crossings upstream covering the western approaches. A medieval timescale in the title seems appropriate being almost as broad as the prevailing theories on the possible origins of Coventry. Happy for you to suggest an alternative title for the topic if it would bring in associated matters? Thanks for the suggestions about the other information on Digital Coventry. I have had a quick first look and noticed the 1851 map shows the height of the river bed in feet above ordinance datum in 1850, at the New Buildings crossing of the Sherbourne, not far downstream of Palmer Lane. This might be useful taken together with the archaeological sequence of river beds down to the gravel (from Shelton and excavations at a recent nearby development site). In the recent photograph at Palmer Lane, it is difficult to see if the bricks of the arch are machine made or earlier hand-made bricks but the height of the arch above water level and the shallow depth of cover perhaps suggest a Victorian culvert. There is one photograph on Digital Coventry with Shelton looking into a large culvert or bridge arch through a hole in a tarmac surface. The depth of ground covering the arch is greater than the one recently photographed in Palmer Lane and the brickwork above the arch suggests the parapet wall of a bridge. The culvert is of a size that that could be the Sherbourne but the surroundings aren't visible. Do you have any idea where this Shelton photograph was taken? I couldn't see any Troughton sketches that were immediately helpful. Is the Digital Coventry record of Shelton's photographs and Troughton sketches complete? I will look through some of the other detail in your comments and offer some initial thoughts in separate posts.

Hello Helen, I have been thinking about guesswork, how to avoid confusion and have the following suggestion. (I am learning as I go along here). I suppose the confusion associated with complexity can be reduced by breaking down a difficult problem and going through a process. 1. Consider different scenarios that could answer the problem 2. Break down each scenario to key components parts 3. Put the component parts into order of importance. 4. Consider how well each component is supported by reasoning, precedent, local knowledge, practical constraints, other context, facts that do exist, etc. 5. Consider other perspectives 6. Build a well-reasoned working theory. 7. Refine and adjust the working theory as more knowledge is discovered. 8. End with a well-reasoned and well-referenced theory I think this sort of process is normally skipped through intuitively for most problems. The more complex the problem the greater the need for a structured approach. In practice I think it is easy to jump around between stages 1 to 7. For example, at stage 7 something will turn up that changes the perspective and the process moves back to stage 1, 2 or 3. This might happen several times so the process becomes iterative. I would suggest he important thing is to avoid confusion by having a structure of some sort so that each iteration (set back) maintains overall progress from guesswork towards a credible well-reasoned well-referenced theory. Does this make sense, what have I missed? I agree this time consuming and getting up to and beyond a working theory may be challenging and difficult but this could be a very interesting process.

Hello Helen I have put together some initial thoughts, my perspective and suggestions on the open questions in your Christmas Eve comments about the Sherbourne and Watermills. It is accepted that Babbu Lacu is a name of Anglo Saxon, Old English origin so it seems likely that the lake acquired its name between 410 and 1066 and consequently existed after the Roman period. The timing of the arrival of the mills might be relevant. Historic England reports that there were more than 5,000 water mills recorded in England in 1086 and charters indicate around 50 water mills in England by the early 7th century. The forum topic on the St Osberga Saxon Nunnery starting with the question from Garbut, the response from Rob Orland, the rational for St Osberga's founding in 700 CE (Bassett, 2001, Dugdale Society) and the discussion about its location, all resonate. Most of the suggested locations for the St Osberga nunnery are just downstream of the confluence of the Radford Brook and River Sherbourne at the narrowest part of the valley between Hill Top and Barr's Hill. Perhaps Babbu Lacu approaching the narrowing of the valley provided a natural feeder for the first water mill in Coventry? Has anyone considered if the first water mill might have been established by the nunnery, then perhaps redeveloped and upgraded to become the mill listed in Doomsday (later the Priors Mill perhaps?). This fits with the pattern in the Historic England report that many of the 5,000+ mills in Doomsday were ancient locations that had been redeveloped several times. It seems likely that Nunneries with saints, relics, pilgrims, mills and the need to trade for income would have been reliant on roads linking to regional centres. Regarding a road over a dam at the Priors Pool, I would be grateful for pointers to any information or a map showing the position of this please? The likely age of the earliest roads meeting in the centre might be a good indicator of the age of the settlement. I suppose that generally, the peak flows on the rivers today should be much greater than in Saxon times. The speed of rainfall run off from all the impermeable areas of extensive modern development is much greater today. In Saxon times the forest and fields would have retained much of the rainwater for longer, by absorption or soaking away and migrating more slowly as groundwater to the rivers. Another variable might be differences in the frequency and severity of significant rainfall events over several hundred years. I guess the annual volume of water flowing down the rivers might have been similar to today but that the flow might have been more consistent without the peaks and troughs associated with the run off from modern development. The section in the County History Volume 8 on Coventry Mills mentions 13 or 14 mills by the 13th century and refers to the Coventry Leet's attempts to deal with the associated flooding in the 1440's. Also mentioned is the problem of keeping the river channels clean and free from obstruction. It seems likely that flooding and mill pools would have been less of an issue for the earliest roads that pre-dated all of the mills except for perhaps one. So, the route of the earliest roads is more likely to be the most direct or efficient line between origin and destination ,allowing for any constraints of topography, to minimise journey time. If Shelton's timbers were a sunken wooden ford, on the Burges to Bishop Street route, it might have been perhaps 50 or 100 metres long to cross both streams and the likely marsh or shallow lake between. So, there could be plenty of waterlogged timber still preserved in the ground for archaeologists to hopefully find and test in the future. In the mean-time the position of the route and depth of the timbers recorded by Shelton might imply a theoretical age of the crossing and the route it was part of.

Hi Bob, great to know that you're serious about detail Like you, I've thought long and hard about Coventry's earliest design. There is very little to go on because so much of the city has been repeatedly built upon or dug up and disposed of. I'm not sure how much original earth exists. Trying to imagine a lake in the St John's area, spreading to the Burges and to the priors mill isn't impossible but it wipes out a lot of the roads. I've wondered why the east/west roads cross the river three times. Spon Street crosses the river at the chapel to run along the drier land north of it but then at Fleet Street it crosses back to the south of the river before crossing back to the north at the end of Gosford Street. To me the route looks like one taken after the river was partially under control and the centre was worth visiting. Looking at the height markers on the 1850 map it's possible to see the lower areas, including round the St John's church. We can even see the lower areas in photographs of flooding in Spon Street and Hales Street. But if those areas were still a lake when the roads were laid out, why cut through the lake and not skirt it? Did the soil level around the roads rise faster than the roads themselves? It's quite possible. Ground floors of buildings in other areas of the city ended up below soil level due to accretion in a much shorter timeframe. Looking a the river on the Samuel Bradford map it's possible to see that the river meanders fairly naturally before it enters the city walls. There are hints of natural meanders within the city including the mill pools (Priory Mill and Earl's Mill) and just before the river heads under the Burges. Would those suggest an original water route from before man's intervention or just a lot of time after the rivers were created after the lake was drained? Other areas, including the stretch that runs from the wall to where the river crosses West Orchard, look very man made. It doesn't hint at where Babbu Lacu was entered by the river. I can imagine that the Burges started life as a natural dam, creating the lake and providing a logical causeway. That would explain why the river was crossed there. There is distinct difference in height on either side of the Burges which leans me against the idea that the lake stretched as far as the Priory Mill. I see no reason why one side of the road would accumulate soil faster than the other. I have loads and loads of questions but no answers.

Part 2. There are some very interesting Troughton drawings that aren't on CD including one of men working on the sluices for the then filled in Priory Mill pond. However they all represent the city we'd recognise from the map and nothing much earlier. One thought that I'd had for the wooden ford was that it might have been further east than the Priory mill dam. The river might have been fordable there while the sluices weren't open. If you follow New Buildings through the later Saw Mill and towards the Swanswell Gate, it might have been a route for traffic that was too big/heavy to go over the dam.

Hello Helen, thank you for the responses, lots to think about. Yes, I agree with your thoughts on Babbu Laku, with perhaps a slightly different perspective on some aspects of sequence and timing. I found the engraving of the Priors Mill pond and now realise where the dam was so, will follow up with some ideas another time after a bit more searching for information. I can see that my first post described a wider area of interest for road crossings, beyond that implied by the topic title, because the initial focus was on the Burges and Hales Street area further to Shelton's articles. My inconsistency, but additional thoughts and ideas as a result. I have been thinking about your prompt to consider the bridges and fords to the West of the town. I like your sound reasoning about the probable sequence of crossings at Gos-ford, Smith-ford and the importance of the positions of each ford, as an indicator of early routes. Also your search for partially lost routes from town gates to key destinations in the centre via crossing points on the Sherbourne. Using your ideas I have a sketched out 5 possible routes and a preliminary scenario with a rational to suggest how each route might have existed at different times in the history of the town. Not sure if further progress has already been made with your initiative, based on better knowledge than I have? If not I would be happy to share my outline scenario for anyone to provide comments, adjustments, ideas, supporting information or problems with any of the potential routes?

All ideas are valid Bob I'm just throwing out possibilities in the hope that something might fit. We're trying to reverse engineer centuries of humanity and poor record keeping. Shelton's digs are important but need to be logged by location and depth. There's a lot of evidence that the real land level was different from what we know of. Land was excavated for stone, sand etc and then filled in with rubbish. Then built upon multiple times. I know that at least once Shelton found 'part of the castle' that later excavation determined was a garden feature. I'm working from the position that If I can see something in the 1850 map, it helps anchor invisible stuff.

OK, I am waiting for an answer to a copywrite query on the use of the 1750 Bradford map as the base for sketches of the western approaches. Following on from the initial posts 1,2 and 3 about river crossings and the location of Shelton's excavations in the Hales Street area (extracts in post 2) I have the following initial sketch with a request for any suggestions or supporting information etc. The Key to the lines and ovals follows and includes sources, descriptions, speculations and questions about areas of uncertainty. For a scale reference the Hales St frontage of the Opera House is about 20 metres in length (22 yds) Hello Helen - In an earlier post you mentioned that the position of Catesby Lane is known. Is it long enough to show on the 1225, 1400 and 1610 map layers of the HC "Street Maps of Coventry Through The Ages"? Alternatively is there another plot of the position please? Key Red Dash - Possible unknown lost lane? - Based on Shelton's description Aug 1934 and property boundaries 1750, 1807, 1851, 1886 Purple Dash - Possible Glower's Lane? - Based on Shelton's description October 1936 and property boundaries as above Yellow Ovals and Line - Range of uncertainty - Shelton's Feb 1934 excavation point 10 yds east of Burges (& also see June 1935). Shelton mentions the crossing location 10 yards east of the Burges in two later articles but where is the account of the original excavation? Was this a Sherbourne River or Radford Brook Crossing? Green Ovals and Line - Range of uncertainty for Shelton's Nov 1935 excavation point St John's Hospital grounds. Seems more likely that Shelton was referring to the historic grounds of the hospital/school that previously extended across Hales Street? So this is possibly the Radford Brook crossing (upper yellow oval)? Red Oval on Line - Estimated position for Shelton's Aug/Sept 1934 excavation point Palmer Lane/Lost Road at river crossing Adjacent Red Ovals - Shelton mentioned (Sept 1934 and June 1935) two other crossings 8.5 yards east and 10 yards west of the possible Lost Road location, (at the river end of Palmer Street) Purple Ovals and Line - Range of uncertainty for Shelton's Oct 1936 excavation point Chauntry Orchard (mentioned in Trinity Street article). Where was the excavation in the residential gardens formerly Chauntry Orchard? Blue Dash - Estimated former line of Radford Brook based on maps 1750, 1807, and property boundaries Blue Line - Approximate line of River Sherbourne Black dotted lines - River crossings (bridges, footbridges, fords)

Hello Bob. This sketch is from the book "Twentieth-Century Coventry" by Kenneth Richardson. Don't know if it is any help, it does not say where it came from. A reference in the Coventry Standard 1780 refers to the sale of a large and commodious Dye House situated on the River Sherbourne with a cart or wagon road leading to where Bablake or Spon Gate lately flooded, adjoining the afore mentioned premises. (Which was a new build mansion house and Eagle and Child public house all on the south side of Fleet Street.) You may be able to tie this up with your map.

This is a map I have with some documents to do with the Belgrade Plaza dig from some research I did on my family name Yardley (incidentally Bob my ancestors were running the Bastille Mill in the 17th century). This is property in Hill Street showing the course of the Radford Brook in 1748/9 superimposed on a modern map. Don't know if it can help.