EWX1916 - Land between West Street and King Street; evaluation 1994

An archaeological evaluation carried out by AC archaeology for the landowner in connection with a planning application for redevelopment of the site, and following an assessment which suggested that the site may have suffered considerable disturbance. Three trenches were excavated by machine, and cleaned by hand. Trench 1 (10m x 1m) and Trench 2 (20m x 1m) were located on the West Street frontage, and Trench 3 ( 20m x 1m) on the King Street frontage of the site. Two substantial post-medieval pits at the eastern end of Trench 1; the filling of the pits contained pottery of probable eighteenth-century date, glass bottle fragments and clay pipes. The pits were cut through modern tarmac and hard core on top of a very dark silty clay loam containing post-medieval finds, on top of natural subsoil. A similar sequence of deposits was revealed in Trench 2, where a complex of pits and quarries was recorded at the northern end of the trench near the West Street frontage. Trench 3 revealed evidence of severe truncation of archaeological deposits adjacent to the King Street frontage. Even so, several pit-like features, including a deep, brick-lined soakaway, were recorded. The filling of one pit contained a small number of exclusively medieval finds, the rest were mixed or post-medieval. No evidence for wall footings was observed. The author concluded that in the vicinity of the West Street frontage there was evidence for extensive disturbance, consisting of puts up to 1.58m deep. There was extensive disturbance towards the centre of the site, of a nature which suggested that it may have been caused by local quarrying for sand or gravel. Similar disturbance was found on the King Street frontage, but more extensive landscaping appeared to have occurred across the area as a whole. The author felt that this was likely to have occurred in the late nineteenth century, as houses are shown on this frontage on an 1887 map. Because of this landscaping, the one identifiable medieval feature encountered during the evaluation was encountered very close to the present land surface. This and any other surviving features of similar date were therefore likely to be affected by development, though possibly in a poor state of preservation.