Refining the Biography of a Marketplace Tenement: a Recent Excavation and Archaeological Interpretive Survey at 'The Marlipins', Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

Informed by a scheme of recording and excavation directed by the author on the site of the ‘The Marlipins’ in 2003, this archaeological survey brings significant new evidence to bear on the structural history of one of the country’s oldest surviving vernacular buildings - last surveyed over 80 years ago. The discovery and identification of several new structural features relating to The Marlipin’s earliest -12th-century – phase, is used to drive forward a reassessment of the intended function and layout of the Norman building, leading to a revised interpretation (also drawing upon recent work on urban townhouses in Southampton) that it started life as a first-floor hall. Interpretation of buried archaeological remains provides the opportunity for the structure’s complex history to be compared to the dynamics of a wider streetscape within the commercial heart of one of the south coast’s busiest medieval ports, whilst also providing some of the first insights into the range of exotica imported into the late medieval town.