Whilst undertaking excavation works on our Greengates Junction site in late 2020, our site team happened upon something a little more exciting than rock and debris!

On the site of the former Roebuck pub, a 19^th century coaching inn and toll bar that was torn down in 2013, we unearthed a large cast iron crown that had been buried beneath the land surrounding what is now Farmfoods.

Local experts estimate the artefact could date as far back as the 1830s, when the Roebuck Inn was a coach house and the site of a toll bar where taxes were levied for the Crown on goods travelling through the area. Others have suggested that the crown could have been used for decoration during either Queen Victoria’s Jubilee or Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

Site engineer Fahd Mahmood (left) and Friends of Greengates member Michael Frazer (right) with the artefact

Howard Civil Engineering has since given this historical find a good clean and a lick of gold paint, as requested by the Friends of Greengates community group ahead of their Platinum Jubilee celebrations this weekend.

Main image: Friends of Greengates member Julia and Howard Civil Engineering trainee engineer Oliver Maundrill.