Finds at Truro dig date back centuries, archaeologists say

Schoolchildren have been helping with the dig

Archaeologists working with building developers have made some interesting discoveries beneath a major new project in Truro.

The Pydar Street development will result in new housing, shops, and a university campus.

Objects found include a military button, clay pipes and a marble with some items dating back to the 1500s.

James Gossip, senior archaeologist with the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, said it was "really exciting".

He told BBC Radio Cornwall: "We have found some great stuff. We are looking mainly at the remains of the 1779 poor house, and that was turned into an isolation hospital for infectious diseases in the 19th Century.

"They [the discoveries] really are exciting. They really bring social history and archaeology together.

The remains of a Poor House built in 1779 have been found

"We are usually looking at sites that are a lot older than this and here we are in the centre of Truro where you don't often get to dig, looking at a site that is 200 years old or so. But we are also finding pottery dating way back to the late medieval period, to the 1500s."

Children from Archbishop Benson School have helped with the dig.

The development will include housing, shops and a university campus

Miss Greenwell from the school said: "It's lovely. We have never done anything like this before. They are having fun finding pottery and lots of little bits and bobs."

Former residents in the area have also been invited, including Sheila Richardson who lived on Boscawen Row between 1947 and 1959.

She said: "It's very exciting and I had the opportunity to go to the actual site where my home was - to actually stand where our house would have been. It was so exciting to do that."

Jamie Carter, a project manager said: "We have found an old military button from an old military coat. We think we have traced that back to one of a handful of military staff who used to live at Boscawen Row.

"There used to be a pipe factory here, for little clay smoking pipes, and we are finding bits of those everywhere. And then digging under the known Victorian settlement, we know that everything underneath that is older than Victorian, and we think we have discovered things that are up to 500 years old.

"It's all very exciting stuff."

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