Around 100 people came to Grimsby’s Fishing Heritage Centre last week to see the finds from the archaeological dig in the town earlier this year.
The dig took place over last winter at the Freshney Place leisure scheme development to excavate an area for a large water tank to be installed.
The initial finds included around 4,000 leather scraps and even shoe soles, brilliantly preserved due to the conditions of the ground. There was also plenty of pottery, and unsurprisingly, fish bones and oyster shells – the typical diet of Medieval Grimbarians!
Additional finds, including a whetstone for sharpening tools, an iron key, and some iron nails were also on display, building a picture of what was happening in that area of Grimsby’s Bullring between 1200 and 1500AD.
The finds were brought back temporarily by members of the York Archaeology Team, one of whom was on the dig through the winter, and BWB Consulting, who are currently looking at the draft report that has been produced, detailing the finds, and bringing the dig to life.
Other finds remained at York Archaeology for the moment, but will be brought back to Grimsby once the organic materials have been stabilised. These finds include:
Patterned leather belt hilt: If you imagine a belt through the top section, you can see two holes through the hilt which will have had some sort of fastening. The hilt is likely to have held a T shaped tool, regularly used by the wearer.
A pair of tweezers: used for de-boning fish or personal grooming.
Trader emblems: these small objects are only about 12mm high and were sewn on to clothing to show that someone had a “license” to trade. There were two found in a deposit at the site.
As part of the dig, cubes of deposited soil etc were removed without being excavated. These were taken to York Archaeology and carefully rinsed through, so that items within the cubes could be gently separated from the soil / mud. This is a technique that is used not only for finding things like seeds, but there are also occasionally some other small finds, such as these emblems.
The team at York Archaeology took x-rays of these to define the details, and Zoë Richardson from York Archaeology team created some lino prints so the relief in the metal could be seen more clearly. These appear to show a cockerel and a dog.
The long term plan is for the finds to be brought back to Grimsby and put on show, but this won’t be for some time, as the organic materials need to be stabilised. In terms of things like the leather, this means slowly drying out key finds, like the full leather soles and wooden posts, which has to be done over several months.
Cllr Bob Callison, Cabinet member for Environment, Tourism and Culture, said “Seeing things like this just builds our knowledge of how our town evolved, and particularly of the Flottergate and Bullring area. It’s great to see these artefacts will be coming back to the town, and I know there’s plans to put things on show for lots of people to come see.”
The update comes as Grimsby launches its bid to become Town of Culture in 2028.
“The work we’ve done at Freshney Place, whilst uncovering a new part of Grimsby’s story, is due to the investment being made in Grimsby town centre’s future,” continued Cllr Callison.
“Culture spans many things, and understanding more of our heritage and our past is all part of investing in the pride in our town.”
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