Purbeck limestone grave slabs, stone mortars and other finds from the earliest designated wreck-site with preserved timbers in English waters have gone on display at Poole Museum in Dorset – and an episode of the Time Team series dedicated to the wreck goes online tonight (29 November).
The Mortar Wreck, a clinker-built mediaeval ship, was found by scuba diver and skipper Trevor Small on the western side of the Swash Channel near the entrance to Poole harbour and went on to be investigated by Bournemouth University maritime archaeologists.
In 2022 the site was designated a Protected Wreck, and Divernet reported on the work to excavate the hull, bow and cargo remains. Low-oxygenated water and the protection afforded by sand and stones over the centuries had helped to preserve one side of the ship, which has been dated to around 1250.
The vessel had been carrying a cargo of limestone quarried on the Isle of Purbeck, and the stone mortars used for grinding grain that had given the site its name.
Purbeck limestone is referred to as marble when polished, but two unpolished gravestone slabs were the outstanding discoveries. One was carved with an early 13th-century-style wheel-headed cross and the other with a later splayed-arm or long cross, said to resemble the emblem of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury who died in 1228.
Crack in the hull
Bournemouth University maritime archaeologist Tom Cousins, who led the project and organised multiple dives to the wreck to raise its contents, reckons that a crack in the hull indicates that the ship had been overloaded with the 30 tonnes of stone it was carrying.
“Bournemouth University is in a unique position situated next to one of the oldest harbours and maritime trading routes in the UK,” says Cousins. “We are fortunate to be able to discover wrecks as old as the mediaeval Mortar Wreck.
“As part of our general archaeology degree programme we teach students how to dive. In their second year they have the option to dive these wrecks, and this year we took a group of students out to the Mortar Wreck to practise their survey skills and learn how to become a scientific diver.”
It had been hoped to put finds from the wreck on show in 2023, but only now has the exhibition been mounted at Poole Museum, after its reopening following a seven-year, £10 million heritage-led regeneration project.
“When we first heard about the discovery of the Mortar Wreck we were just so excited to play our part in the whole story, which is to put the items on display to members of the public who may know nothing about the trade in Purbeck stone, or mediaeval seafaring,” says the museum’s collections officer Joe Raine.
The Time Team episode about the Mortar Wreck can be seen on YouTube from 7pm today (29 November). It features the archaeologists’ work from 2019 on, up to the opening of the exhibition. Time Team, originally a Channel 4 TV series, went online in 2022.
The crew spent three years following the progress of the Mortar Wreck project. “One of the best experiences of my life was sitting on that boat, watching a live feed of Tom [Cousins] as he gave me a tour under water, and we got to incorporate that in the episode as well,” says presenter Derek Pitman, who is also an associate professor at Bournemouth University.
“So the viewers can follow me being taken on a grand underwater tour by one of the best experts in maritime archaeology.”
The Mortar Wreck exhibition can be seen at Poole Museum, which is open daily from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.
