Remains of the day

Fourteen families, often each numbering well over a dozen, existed in unspeakably cramped conditions, sharing one privy and one water pump.

The cottages were so minuscule, they must have had some sort of stacking arrangement for sleeping.

In 1940, St John's Court - like so much of Southampton - was razed to the ground by Hitler's Luftwaffe.

Following the bombing raid, there was no time to clear the site properly.

So most of the rubble was quickly shifted before the area was grassed over and turned into a small park near the water's edge.

Then this summer a Southampton City Council community dig, designed to give enthusiasts a taste of archaeology in practice, uncovered two houses, each seemingly smaller than a Lilliputian handbag.

"I doubt I would be able to lie down in some of these rooms - even diagonally," says Dr Matt Leivers (a towering giant

of a man) thoughtfully, tipping his head on one side.

The archaeologists knew the remains were here from historic maps.

First the topsoil was cleared away with a JCB, before the volunteers got cracking with their shovels, trowels and buckets.

But the foundations, made up of slabs of limestone and rows of red brick, were clear to see.

"The degree to which the walls of the cottage have survived is surprising, which bodes well for what's underneath," said Dr Leivers. "We were expecting them to be more smashed up."

The outline of the outer walls of the cottage is easily visible as a brace of teenagers scratch away at the earth.

That they have survived is even more surprising when you consider how these houses were swiftly thrown together on the cheap as Southampton rapidly expanded. The fact that they made it through to 1940 is amazing - they would have brought today's building inspectors out in a nervous rash.

Archaeologists also unearthed an impressive range of artefacts, each of which was washed and logged. From this they are able to form a picture of how the area's inhabitants lived.

In one corner was a large stash of oyster shells, from an age when the now delicacy was a cheap source of protein for the poor.

They found 18th-century pottery and glass, but some of the artefacts are tiny - and you have to marvel at how the youngsters have spotted them in the soil.

Buttons, pins and a small metal figure 3 (possibly a door number) are all now seeing the light of day for the first time in decades.

And there's medieval pottery from France and Spain.

Also a tiny blue bead - which must be all of three millimetres across - which was probably once part of a piece of jewellery.

Before the cottages were built, there was a pub called The Angel there during Tudor times and diggers have found some parts of broken clay tobacco pipes, used by drinkers to puff away as they downed their ale.

The very cream of the finds are probably a medieval jug, plus a tiny sliver of engraved glass, thought to be medieval Venetian glass.

The majority of the work carried out by the City Council's archaeology department is on projects where developers need to find out what's below the soil before building on it.

But once a year they hold a community dig, when the public can take part and for which the only qualification required is enthusiasm.

About 100 volunteers, both young and old, attended the two-week dig. Some come for a whole week, some for just a couple of days.

On site there's a continuous scraping noise as trowels make slow progress through the soil. Each person has a rubber mat to kneel on as they toil with their back-breaking work.

Many are members of the city council's Young Archaeologists' Club (Britain's fastest growing youth organisation), who receive regular newsletters and attend monthly meetings.

"It's particularly nice to do something of this age as most of this more recent stuff gets bulldozed away," said Dr Leivers.

On a previous occasion, director of the St John's Court dig, Jessie Russel, and a team found rubble and melted glass under the concrete in Lower High Street.

One of the joys for Southampton's archaeologists is that they get to see some of the city's hidden treasures.

The medieval town was one of the most important ports in the country and home to dozens of super-rich merchants.

Many of their homes, including the ones that used to stand along Western Esplanade, are no longer there but the vaults have survived.

Jessie excavated what was once the medieval mayor's house, a huge structure by the standard of those times.

"Southampton has very important medieval archaeological sites as well as important surviving remains. "Where it loses out to places like York is that so much of it is not immediately obvious.

"Although it's there, it doesn't confront people at once because most of it is under their feet."

Once the dig is finished the findings will be compiled in a report. "It's important for a community like Southampton to know its past," says Jessie.

This week council head of archaeology Dr Andy Russel said the dig had proved such a success, they were keen to repeat it next year and try to find the late Saxon defences believed to be below the cottages.

"This was probably the biggest community dig we're ever run covering 100 square metres. We discovered artefacts dating back to 1350."

Asked if Orchard Homes, who sponsored this year's dig, would put money behind one next summer, spokesman Nick Eagle said: "I expect we will... if they ask us nicely!"