The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1904-01-22
DISCOVERIES IN NEWGATE.
Part of a Roman Wall 9nearthed il
op5on-

-SiiSS''
Pail Mall Gazette: The excavations III
connection with the new Central Sessions
house to be built on the sit Of NewgataJ'
have taken somewhat longer than was any
| ticipated, owing to the remarkable depth
to which previous structures have oeer
| found sunk in the ground. Nearly every
cubic foot of the vast area mas had to be
| broken up by the pick before the shovel
could be employed, the brick walls and
| cement foundations of former buildings
completely covering the site to as great a
| depth as twenty feet below the pavement
, level.
In the work of demolition the laborers
have constantly come across pieces OF
stonework and Roman walls, which had
evidently been used by builders to make
the foundations of even older structures
han Newgate; but the most important
discovery was made a few days ago when
the Workmen engaged in eXcavating Oper-
atoms immediately under the old prison
yard area came unexpectedly upon q mass
Of hard material below the foundations
of the now demolished structure which
seem to have extended to quite remark
able depths and in all sorts of unlooke ed
for directions. The extraordinary hard
ness of the substance encountered where
1t was thought nothing tougher than
London clay would have to be dealt with,
occasioned some surprise and as the work
was carefully proceeded with a portion Of
the old Roman wall was gradually
brought. 1t was, moreover, in as nearly
perfect a state Of preservation as possible,
being in this respect very different from
the fragments revealed against the Adult
ing buildings on another portion Of the
site. The authorities, of course, expected
to come across the latter. which are very
1nuch broken up by previous builders, but
the fine specimen of the old London wall
which mas just been unearthed under the
very foundations of Newgate is quite an
unexpected find.
The newly revealed portion of the wall,
which used to extend from Lud2Atc on
the west to the tower on the east. and
from London wall on the north to the
ihaIneS on the south, IS some fifteen feet
nigh and eight broad, being made of
Wtat modern builders would call Kcntish
rag, or a rubblc cemented together with a
sort oil concrete in which lime predomi-
llateS, as was usual in Roman mortar.
ms substance is intersected every three
rect from the foundation upward by the
customary "bondins' of two rows or lay
ers OF red Roman tiles, each measuring
some seventeen inches in length by twelve
III breadth, being from one and onc-half
to tWo inches in depth. When the work.
mans plckaN has broken them they look
as '11aky' as pie crust. yet the men say
they felt "as hard as iron when the tools
struck them.
Some yards of the wall have evidently
yet to be brought to light. and in this
connection 1t seems a matter for regret
that some steps canno be taken to pre-
serve such a fine stretch of ancient ma
sorary. Today the eXcavated portion puts
one in mind of some fine Old castle ruin.
the illusion being heightened by the fact
mat immediately on the top OF the old
Roman wall is some masonry which Is
evidently Of a medieval period. The wall
Itself goes right down to n very black
soil, which leads some to think that there
may nave been a sort of backwash of
the Fleet somewhere in this neighbour
mood in former times.
Against NeWgate street a portion Of the
medieval New Gate, which formerly eX-
tended across the present th~oroughfare,
put which Dance pulled down in ITO
when building the lately demolished pris-
on house, has just been unearthed. All
excavations in connection with the cree
ton OF the new Sessions house, however,
VIII soon be complete. Indeed, the foun.
cations on which the central tower will
rest, and for each of which some fifty
thousand bricks nave been used, are prac,
tically finished.