York Historic Environment Record

In 1983 excavations took place at the Judge’s Lodgings Hotel on Lendal, York, in advance of the construction of an extension to the rear of the building. A large area of the hotel garden was investigated, and it soon became was clear that the deposits in the area had been dumped there in the 18th century during the construction of the original Judges Lodgings building between 1711 and 1726. Beneath the 18th century dumps, the earliest deposits seen were dark garden soils interspersed with rubbish pits. Within the garden soils a complete 16th century German made stoneware bottle was found, still with its cork in place. It was later found to be a witch-bottle. This is a short report on the bottle.