EDO4902 - Royalty Fishery House, Avon Buildings, Christchurch; evaluation Trench 1 2002

ASI Heritage Consultants were contracted by Bournemouth and Hampshire Water to conduct an archaeological evaluation within the grounds of Royalty Fishery House, Christchurch in advance of residential development. The work was completed on 15th March 2002. Three trenches 4m x 1.5m were located as near as possible to the footings of the proposed new building. Excavation proceeded in 200m spits until the upper surface of interpretable deposits were revealed and examined. No artefacts or soil samples were retained. The evaluation uncovered no evidence for human activity on the site at any period before the 19th century. Trench 1 was located at the northern end of the site, aligned NW-SE and excavated to a depth of 600mm. C. 470mm of 20th century soil lay above a buried soil layer 100mm thick containing no artefacts. This lay above natural gravel. (1)