Context and Results

Context: Watching brief undertaken on the removal of the stone-flagged floor of the 17th century house to allow for the insertion of underfloor heating in the house as part of the process of restoration

Results: Bedding layers below stone floors appear to have been predominantly of 19th century date, suggesting that floors were re-laid at that time. Some mortar-covered stones and patches of charcoal below redeposited clay may be earlier

Notes: (NB Text is derived from excavator's archive draft, but with 90 degree error in orientation of Cardinal Points adjusted and amended.)
Provan Hall is situated in the post-war housing scheme of Easterhouse. The building is of 17th century date and is situated on a terrace on a gentle hill-slope. Provan Hall sits on the north side of a courtyard and the house can only be entered from this courtyard. On the south side of this courtyard, and therefore directly opposite Provan Hall, is a more recent house whose external walls are covered in harling, this house has its rear entrance in front of the building. This more recent building is of fairly standard design, with an internal stairway and rooms off its hall and landing. Both Provan Hall and this more recent house are aligned, on their long axis, approximately E-W.
Provan Hall is quite different. It has three ground floor rooms, all of these rooms are barrel vaulted and are entered directly from the courtyard. Rooms 1 and 2 are also connected directly and internally with each other by an opening at the W side of the wall which otherwise separates them. The barrel vaults in rooms 1 and 2 run across the width of the buildings, I.e. N-S. In room 3, which was originally the kitchen, the barrel vault runs the length of the building ie, E-W. There is a large fireplace in room 3 which occupies the whole width of the room at its W end. Room 1 has a small turret in its NE corner which may originally have held a stairway (there was no positive sign of this and this is conjectural) and thus provided internal access to the upper floors, which otherwise could have only been reached by the external stairway to the upper floor which survives at the NE corner of the courtyard. The turret is visible in the upper floor too (and visible externally of course) in the NE corner of upper room 1. There are 2 further rooms on the upper floor. All the rooms on the upper floor have fireplaces and appear to be larger than the ground floor rooms, no doubt because the upper floor rooms have thinner dividing walls.

Bedding layers below stone floors appear to have been predominantly of 19th century date, suggesting that floors were relaid at that time. Some mortar-covered stones and patches of charcoal below redeposited clay may be earlier. A single sherd of medieval pottery was recovered in the opening between room 1 and room 2. This was the oldest find made on site, but it was not possible to determine exactly where it came from. Floor in kitchen had been bedded in whindust containing gravel, and appeared to have been laid around 8 years before W/Brf. Below this was a black greasy soil that appeared to have a high organic content. A line of rough sandstone blocks were noted running from the N side of the fireplace across the front of the fireplace. A rubble or rough cobble surface was noted in underneath the flagged stone surface in the turret in the corner of room 1. This was covered by a layer of dark brown silty clay. White plate fragments were recovered from under the cobbling