Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find Both a Medieval Dungeon and Roman Burial Beneath a Market Square in England

Researchers are excavating Leicester Market amid the area’s large-scale renovation

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

September 25, 2025

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Beneath a city square in the English city of Leicester, archaeologists have discovered a Roman infant burial, remnants of medieval commerce and a 16th-century civic building’s foundations. Experts think the latter is the bygone Gainsborough Chamber, which was first recorded in the 1500s and home to a dungeon once described as “a most vile prison.”

A team of researchers from University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) has been excavating Leicester Market since July, after the city tore it up for a renovation. The market has been a hub of commerce and community in central England for centuries.

“We’ve found all sorts of archaeology that date back all the way to when Leicester was a Roman town,” excavation leader Gavin Speed tells BBC Leicester. “We found evidence for the very first market, as well. And, perhaps remarkably, we’ve also found a large stone medieval building. This building contained a mayor’s office on the upper floor, contained shops below, and below ground we found evidence for a medieval dungeon.”

According to a statement from ULAS, the Gainsborough Chamber was a “high-status civic building,” which hosted judicial proceedings, political business, feasts and parties. It’s visible in a 1741 map of Leicester Market, per a report by Leicester City Council, but it was demolished around 1748. Researchers excavated what they believe are the chamber’s thick stone walls.

Gainsborough was used as a prison and court of justice as early as the reign of Henry VII—in the late 1400s—according to Mediaeval Leicester by Charles Billson. One parliamentarian’s servant was held in Gainsborough’s jail during the reign of Queen Mary I. Of his experience, the servant wrote: “Immediately as we were come to Leycetter Master Mayor sent me forthwith to a most vile prison called the Gaynsborrow, then offered to put gives and fetters [shackles] upon my legs and so to lye upon hard planks without bed or straw and without company or comfort.”

The archaeologists extracted thick layers of soil from below Leicester Market’s medieval layer, dating to the Anglo-Saxon period—between the fifth and 11th centuries. Researchers will analyze the soil samples to understand more about how people lived during this period, which preceded medieval times and followed Leicester’s Roman era, Speed says in the statement.

Romans invaded Britain in 43 C.E., and they settled Leicester soon after, transforming it into an organized town. The researchers had anticipated uncovering Roman artifacts during the excavation, as Leicester Market lies within the borders of Roman Leicester. But as Speed says, the team’s Roman discoveries in Leicester Market “have surpassed our expectations.”

“Our excavations have revealed the well-preserved remains of two Roman buildings,” he says. “The earliest was a timber structure, beneath which we found the burial of an infant, placed there around 1,900 years ago. This poignant discovery offers a glimpse into the lives—and deaths—of Leicester’s Roman inhabitants.”

The second Roman building, this one made of stone, was constructed atop the site of the timber house. Researchers also found Roman pottery, coins, jewelry and tesserae—cubes of stone used to make mosaics. Commerce in Roman Leicester was booming by the late third century, according to the University of Leicester, but the town began declining in the fourth century, as did the Roman Empire.

Speed says in the statement that excavating Leicester Market is like “looking at a slice through an archaeological cake,” representing some 800 years of market activity. He says researchers even found post-holes left behind by medieval market vendors.

Leicester Market will be rebuilt by the end of 2026, says Leicester Mayor Peter Soulsby in the statement. “Before the market square is paved in porphyry for the future, it’s important that we take the opportunity to learn as much as we can about its past,” he says.

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.