What’s going on under this Leicester market?

The sounds of picks in the earth and the delicate brushing of dirt from fragments of history have, just temporarily, replaced the bellowing of fruit and veg traders at Leicester’s market.

Behind 10ft-tall hoardings, a team of archaeologists are enjoying every minute of their rare opportunity excavate a large city centre site once walked by prehistoric people, Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Victorians.

This week the city council revealed the remains of a “vile” medieval dungeon had been uncovered during a dig, alongside the grave of a Roman infant thought to be nearly 1,900 years old.

The dig, which began in July, has several weeks left to run and could yet unlock more secrets of our past.

Dr Gavin Speed, who has led the dig, said: “We’d go even deeper if they’d let us.”

The dig is being carried out as part of a £7.5m project by the council to create a new market square.

Dr Speed, from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), said he had been digging holes in Leicester for more than 20 years.

He cited the discovery of Roman mosaics in the city a few years ago as “fantastic”, as well as the infamous and “incredible” discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park in 2012.

“But this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to investigate the market space, which we never normally get near to looking at,” he added.

Among many archaeological highlights, the discovery of a Roman child’s burial site stood out to Dr Speed.

“A human infant was buried below the floor of a timber building,” Dr Speed said.

“To us, with a 21st Century mindset, this may seem a very odd way of behaving but it’s not to the Romans.

“This was a practice that was seen elsewhere. I can think of two examples within Leicester itself.

“Most children and adults were buried outside of town in designated cemeteries, but presumably newborns and infants were not deemed appropriate for those areas.

“This human infant was deliberately placed below a floor surface, then an opus signinum – a Roman concrete – covering was placed on top.

“We’re uncertain of the date that happened as yet, but we believe it was about 1,900 years ago.

“We don’t know if there was any ceremony [around the burial], but we do know the infant was carefully placed below the ground but no artefacts were placed with it.”

Dr Speed said specialists would, in time, analyse the remains to determine the sex of the child.

Fast forward hundreds of years to the medieval period and a dungeon is unearthed.

Just yards from where drinkers are now enjoying a pint in the Corn Exchange Wetherspoons pub, two members of the ULAS team have been rooting around the remnants of the Gainsborough Chamber’s prison.

The chamber was a high-status landmark civic building, which served as a venue for judicial proceedings, mayoral business, feasting and celebrations, until its demolition in about 1748.

According to a book about medieval Leicester, written by historian Charles Billson, one of the unfortunate prisoners in 1533 wrote: “Master Mayor sent me forthwith to a most vile prison called the Gaynsborrow, then offered to put gives and fetters upon my legs and so to lye upon hard planks without bed or straw and without company or comfort.”

“I think we can safely assume it wasn’t very comfortable,” Dr Speed added.

“The walls are extremely thick. It was built to last and that’s why it still survives today.

“Our team are busy working through the layers in the dungeon. We have a record from someone kept here in what he described as a vile prison.

“He had chains fitted to his legs and he described having to lay on a hard board without any straw – and with no company for him down there.

“It’s a tiny room and it’s quite deep, so it will be interesting as we work our way through.”

The ULAS team is logging all it can find before the market site is repaved and traders return in late 2026.

So what else has the ground under the market offered up?

ULAS explorations have identified the cobbled surface of the original medieval market, and signs of the earliest wooden market stall.

They also found prehistoric tools and Roman tiles and kilns, which were the first ever found within Leicester, known by the Romans as Ratae.

ULAS archaeologist Amber Furmage said: “We had a whole variety of finds from the Roman period onwards.

“This is the south-east corner of what was the Roman city of Leicester.

“We’ve had Roman pottery but then finds from the medieval period and onwards – we’ve had coins minted in the time of emperor Constantine II and a post-medieval wig curler – which was used to do exactly what the name suggests.

“So many other finds are giving us a real insight, an amazing glimpse, into how people lived their lives.”

The university team revealed their finds to the public for the first time this week, and ULAS site director Joseph Peters said many more passers-by had since been stopping to peer through small grates in the hoardings to see the dig for themselves.

“The market holds a strong place in people’s hearts here in Leicester,” he said. “We’ll be working on this for the next few weeks.

“There’s so much still to find out and we will be collecting our records and making a report which will be accessible to the public.”

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has stressed the archaeological discoveries would not impact on the wider scheme to revamp the market, and he hoped some of the finds would eventually go on public display.