FOR centuries it was a densely populated waterfront area of Hull's Old Town where rich merchants' houses jostled alongside the homes of the poor.

In Second World War bombing large areas were flattened and it was later cleared and redeveloped, leaving little indication
of the rich history that lay beneath.

A new excavation on the site of the Bonus Electrical building, close to Myton Bridge, is changing all that – and may uncover evidence about the life of a religious order that settled in the area more than 700 years ago.

Next week a digger will be used to open up more trenches on the western side of the site – revealing, it is hoped, Hull's first Carmelite friary.

The Carmelites – White Friars – were given land in the area in the 1290s, well before the Augustinians (Black Friars) were given a larger area where they eventually developed their own friary, now the site of the new magistrates' court.

Dave Evans, manager of Humber Archaeology Partnership, said: "The friars made such an impact on the life of the medieval town that we still have streets named after them.

"Even today Blackfriargate forms the northern side of the former Bonus Electrical site which forms this development whilst Whitefriargate is named after the site of the second friary built by the Carmelites in the town, after they had moved from this initial site in about 1310.

"We know very little about the nature and layout of their first site off Humber Street so these excavations are offering a major opportunity to establish whether or not they had built a church here before they moved to their better-known site under the buildings now forming Trinity House.

"The finds recovered so far demonstrate the quality of the evidence which has managed to survive in this part of the Old Town and promise that much more awaits to be uncovered on other parts of the development."

So far a series of small trenches has revealed stone and brick footings of late medieval buildings as well as several cesspits – one of which produced a
small Humberware drinking jug that probably came down the river to Hull from West Cowick, where they were manufactured in the late 14th and 15th centuries.

A 15th century Flemish manuscript illustration shows similar vessels were sometimes used as chamber pots.

Mr Evans said: "Every so often some poor person would have to go and get it dug out and it would either get spread on the town fields or as this was so close to the river it would be taken on a dung boat and dumped upstream.

"You get wonderful preservation, things like well-preserved leather belts, discarded shoes and food remains – everything that passes through you – fruit skins and fruit stones and lots of fishbones and parasites. It reveals more about diet and how ill people were plus it shows the small mammals, the shrews
and voles, which fall in by accidents.

"For archaeologists it becomes a whole microcosm of life."

In the Middle Ages the area was a mixture of shops, craft-working zones and properties owned by both wealthy and poorer households, protected from attack from the Humber by the town wall.

It was close to the Humber Gate, which gave access to the Foreland, where there was a jetty where people and goods could be landed.

The site will eventually be redeveloped as part of the Fruit Market proposals.