Leale's Yard archaeological dig finds mostly 'rubbish'

Only small pieces of medieval pottery were discovered

An archaeological dig at Guernsey's Leale's Yard development unearthed hardly anything of interest.

Four trenches were excavated on what was part of Guernsey's northern island before the Braye du Valle was reclaimed at the start of the 19th Century.

States archaeologist Dr Phil de Jersey hoped to find traces of a settlement on what had been the water's edge.

He said that although "not much" was found, it did shed light on the areas geology and the landscape.

The dig started at the end of 2023 before the planned housing development at the Leale's Yard site.

Dr Phil de Jersey said: "My theory was that people were crossing the bridge throughout history and people may have actually been living there, leaving an archaeological trace in the medieval period or earlier so that was the reason behind looking at that particular bit of the site."

"In fact what we got really just 19th, 20th century household rubbish," he said.

Several pieces of medieval pottery were discovered but the States' archaeology team has no further interest in the site.

"On a big site like this it is important that we can have a look first, because the thing about archaeology is that once it's gone, it's gone forever, it's not something that can be magically recreated," said Dr de Jersey.

"Finding nothing is not necessarily bad news, although there weren't many finds, it did tell us quite a lot about the geology and the landscape before the modern development, so we've got a much better idea now of where the north edge of the Braye du Valle channel actually ran."