Excavation by N Riall for Waverley Borough Council, MSC and Arundel' House Securities Ltd in advance of redevelopment. A trench on the floodplain terrace produced evidence consistent with use for agriculture in the 12th and 13th centuries. Another nearer the street frontage produced a sequence of features from the 12th century or earlier to the mid 20th century. The main features were a section of the town ditch and a double flued updraught tile kiln. The ditch lay about 45m south of and parallel to the main east–west street, the Borough. It was V-shaped, approximately 10m wide and 2m deep; the fill contained material dated from c1150 or perhaps earlier to 1500. The evidence is consistent with the ditch having been dug in the 1130s, when Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, had the street plan and burgage plots laid out south of the castle. The kiln was probably for roof tile only. A thermoremanent magnetic date of AD 1235±15 was provided by A J Clark and makes this the earliest known medieval tile kiln. Indeed post-excavation analysis now suggests that it was originally constructed c1160-1175. (206, 209, 213)