Roman and Medieval Carlisle

In the mid-1970s, Carlisle City Council drew up proposals for the redevelopment of the Lanes, a densely built-up area of approximately 2.8 ha situated in the north-east corner of the city's historic core. At the time, the area was crossed, east to west, by 19 narrow lanes or vennels, the origins of which were obscure. Previous archaeological work in the area, though extremely limited, had confirmed the presence of complex Roman and medieval deposits in this part of the city. Consequently, a programme of archaeological and historical investigation, funded in part by the then Department of the Environment, was undertaken by the Carlisle Archaeological Unit between 1978 and 1982. To this day, the Lanes retains its position as one of the largest and most significant urban archaeological investigations ever undertaken in northern England. The project as a whole comprised a phased programme of excavation and standing-building recording, undertaken over a period of several years, together with a survey of the surviving documentary evidence. Although the fieldwork was undertaken as a single project, for post-excavation and publication purposes they were split into two parts, the northern and southern Lanes. The former principally comprised a large, open-area excavation, consisting of seven separately excavated but contiguous trenches, whilst the latter was characterised by a series of smaller trenches. Additionally, on the northern Lanes, large areas north and south of the main excavation were subjected to salvage excavation and/or watching brief, and several smaller trenches were also excavated in the vicinity. The results of the southern Lanes investigations have been published, and the present volume presents the evidence for pre-Roman and Roman occupation within the northern Lanes.