Archaeology
Summary of Archaeological Results (1 March 2012) - Jones, R,S. (2012) "Preliminary Interim Report on the Archaeological Results at Llanelly House, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
Although there has been a great amount of historical research undertaken on Llanelly House over the years, comprehensive archaeological investigations did not begin until March 2011. These investigations have revealed that Llanelly House, rather than being exclusively the remains of a significantly well preserved Queen Anne and Georgian gentry house with a colourful history built in 1714, Llanelly House also has foundations and significant standing remains that date back to both the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.
The initial archaeological work in 2011, guided by the on-going restoration programme, focused firstly on a program of standing building recording on the interior of the house following the removal of deteriorated plasterwork from a number of internal elevations. This first phase of on-site work managed to record a number of interesting features within the standing fabric of the exposed internal elevations, especially at ground floor level, including a number of blocked in, enlarged and reduced doorways, windows and fireplaces, that pre-dated the 18th-century house.
Following this initial building inspection and survey work, ground work began in April 2011, with the lifting of existing floorboards for the insertion of new floor supports and services, from four of the ground floor rooms, the former Sir Thomas Stepney’s Study, the Great Hall and the two rooms that occupy the south-western range of the house. The re-opening and re-investigation of a series of trial pits dug by engineers in the late 20th century, in two of these rooms had already revealed that below the present floor surface was a series of three earlier occupation layers, defined by layers of alternating demolition and construction deposits, with natural clay not being reached until approximately 0.90 m below the present floor level. Finds recovered from the upper most occupation layer of one of these trial pits (The Great Hall) included several large fragments of 17th-century decorative plasterwork, suggesting that parts of the 17th-century house had been demolished and the floor level raised to the present height.
The trial pit in Sir Thomas Stepney’s Study however told a very different story from the re-opened trial pits in the former Great Hall and the south-western range. This trial pit revealed that the under-floor material was a single fill deposit characterised by demolition material of small stones, mortar and soil. An interesting feature exposed in this preliminary trial pit was a narrow north to south aligned stone built cross wall, which was partly supporting the present floor joists. This trial pit reached a depth of approximately 0.90 m. The fact that the fill of this trial pit was all one deposit, suggested that the floor level in this room had been raised only once and raised a considerable height. It also suggested the possible existence of an earlier low basement area in this part of the house.
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