York Archaeology Online Collections

Items

• P0559 Land adjacent to Female Prison, York Castle
  Deposits of Anglo-Scandinavian date were identified. They included a number of burials indicating the presence of a previously unknown cemetery from this period. Two of the burials were excavated and further inhumations could be seen in the sides and bases of features penetrating to a penetrating to a lower level. A number of post-holes which may have been of medieval date were recorded and interpreted as part of a linear structure, which may have been the rampart and timber palisade of one of the post Conquest timber castles. Several post-medieval graves containing articulated human skeletons were excavated. These were probably part of a cemetery for executed criminals who were hanged at York Castle and probably date from the period 1802-1826. A mortar spreads was thought to have been associated with the construction of the female prison. Modern deposits between 0.40m - 1.60m in depth were removed by machine. 18th and 19th century maps indicate that part of the walls of the castle wall were located here, but no remains of it were found.
• P0340 York City Walls, adjacent to 18 Hunt Court
  Observation during the reconstruction of a brick retaining wall at the base of the rampart revealed post-medieval property boundaries constructed in stone and incorporating a number of architectural fragments.
• A0834 4-7 Monk Bar Court
  To the rear of the properties clay deposits were observed in borehole cores which may have been part of a Roman or later rampart butting the rear face of the legionary fortress wall. To the front of the property the deposits were organic and pottery dating to the 11th/12th century was recorded.
• A0845 City walls, buttress at chainage 693.1
  Observation of a trial hole adjacent to a buttress revealed rampart deposits to a depth of 0.50m, the depth of the foundations.
• A0872 City walls, buttress at chainage 1681.8
  Observation of a trial hole to examine buttress foundations revealed rampart make-up at a depth of 0.50m.
• A0543 1 King's Square
  Foundation trenches within the basement of this building close to the south-east gate of the Roman fortress were excavated. A sequence of pits and dumps from the 12th to the 16th century were excavated. The lowest features were cut into a series of clay dumps from which only Roman pottery was retrieved. This may have been the top of the Roman rampart but the small size of the excavation precluded definitive identification.
• A0318 7/9 Aldwark
  Natural deposits were encountered approximately 3m below ground level. Overlying a pre-Roman soil deposit were the remains of a 1st century turf and clay rampart based on close set horizontal timbers. Part of the wall of the fortress was located by this excavation. This comprised two phases of wall footing, probably dating to the 2nd and 3rd century. The upstanding wall had been heavily robbed in the Anglo-Scandinavian period. Levelling of the rampart and pits dating to the 12th/13th century were recorded. A clay surface and rubble deposits in the south-east of the trench were associated with a 16th/17th century building.
• A0292 City Bank, Toft Green
  An 18th century brick wall was removed by contractors and it was observed to have truncated the City Wall rampart. Some signs of an earlier, medieval building were seen also to have been cut into the rampart.
• A0451 City Walls, Toft's Tower
  Excavation revealed the sequence of development within the tower to be largely of post-medieval date. A probable medieval rampart and possible medieval parapet were identified.
• A0785 City Walls, Tower 9
  Remains of an earlier stone tower were revealed during excavations to allow underpinning. The underpinning scheme was altered to protect the surviving masonry.
• A0501 16 Parliament Street
  Part of the fortress wall and the rampart behind it was found to survive to a height of 2.50m. The wall has a stepped plinth at its base. Anglo-Scandinavian material had built up against the wall's outer face and a 10th century timber building had used the Roman wall for support. The Roman wall was partially robbed during this period.
• A0209 City Walls, Tower 11
  A detailed record of the tower was made and the upper levels of rampart were examined during consolidation work.
• A0016 Walmgate/Willow Street
  A section through the city rampart was examined by this excavation and the natural ground surface appeared to drop at least 2m between the city walls and the churchyard of St Peter-le-Willows. The excavators recorded a charcoal burial and several graves. However, on reassessment of the site archive these features have been interpreted as a charnel pit with the recovery of disarticulated human bone. A cobble surface, which was the medieval precursors to Long Close Lane/ Willow Street was also the likely boundary to the burials. The burials are almost certainly a part of the churchyard of St Peter-le-Willows which lay to the north of the medieval road. The remains of a building were interpreted as part of this church. A building fronting the medieval street front was also found along with several pits and a well. A post-medieval building and cobble surface indicate at least a partial blocking of the street during this period. A Victorian cellar was also encountered.
• A0318 5/7/9 Aldwark
  The foundation of a part of the fortress wall, a construction pit for a stone-lined well, some small pits and some clay which may have been part of the rampart were observed in contractor's pits.
• A0368 City Walls, Walmgate Bar
  Excavation of trenches through the rampart on either side of the City Wall revealed evidence of Anglian occupation prior to the construction of the medieval rampart. Phases of rampart and wall construction were recognised and modern truncation completed the stratigraphic picture.
• A0363 City Walls, Tower 13 (Toft's Tower)
  Excavation revealed the sequence of development within the tower to be largely of post-medieval date. A probable medieval rampart and possible medieval parapet were identified.
• A0361 City Walls, Foss Islands Road
  Excavation trenches through the rampart on either side of the City Wall revealed evidence of Anglian occupation prior to the construction of the medieval rampart. Phases of rampart and wall construction were recognised and modern truncation completed the stratigraphic picture.
• A0327 City Walls, Tower 8
  Excavation beneath the tower and curtain wall revealed rampart make-up and medieval tower foundations and structure beneath Victorian re-build and wall walk.
• A0087 Aldwark, adjacent to 1-5
  The earliest traces of occupation on this site date to the 1st century AD and come from traces of timber buildings which were replaced with stone buildings in the 2nd century. Later Roman occupation was not recorded on the site, and the next period of activity, following a clearance, occurred in the 11th century and was represented by three cobble spreads, cut by two slots, and by some pits. Roman defences were refurbished with the formation of a clay and brushwood bank which overlay the cobble spreads, and to the south of it a ditch of U-shaped profile, some 7m deep, contained material which dated it to the 12th-13th century. Buildings dating to the 14th century on the Aldwark street frontage with hearths and ovens were recorded. It appears that the defensive bank or rampart was heightened during this period. 14th-15th century buildings with backyards and a barrel-lined well, which was superseded by a square well in the 15th-16th century, continue the medieval tenement development in the area. Post-medieval buildings indicate slightly less intensive occupation and so reusing of the medieval building materials.
• A0021 The Bedern, South-west
  Roman levels on this site were largely unexcavated, but evidence of Roman occupation and levelling of Roman building was observed at the base of deep intrusions. A large wattle-lined pit was covered by layers which dated to the Anglo-Scandinavian period. This period was also represented by traces of a timber building in the long trench. The excavations revealed uninterrupted occupation and activity, with a major bronze working industrial complex from the 13th to the early 16th centuries, succeeded by a bakery in the post-medieval period. The original record does not allow any detailed examination of the stratigraphy which would enable the form and development of the industrial building to be studied. There appears to have been a single complex, with stone footings, with bays where different activities were carried out. Initially, in the 13th century, some of the area may have been open ground, with the building added to over a period of time. The west corner of the site accommodated a workshop; inside was a large rectangular cobble hearth set in clay, and outside an associated cobble surface. Contemporary with this was a clay floored building, with post-holes representing internal features. A large cess pit, other domestic refuse pits and timber fence were other contemporary features. The industrial use of the site was extended in the late 13th-14th century, and the first deposits of clay mould fragments were dumped in this period. There were substantial hearths and other industrial features, working floors and casting pits. Industrial buildings were demolished possibly because of structural instability. The 14th century saw substantial stone structures erected. These comprised a series of workshops in which successive floor deposits showed evidence of casting. These buildings were used for a century and then demolished to be replaced by further buildings on the same alignment. In the late 15th-early 16th century there was further substantial reconstruction but the industrial activity which was carried out in the building remained similar. Structural instability had continued to cause serious problems. In the mid 16th-mid 17th century there was no major rebuilding, but metalworking furnaces and hearths were replaced by ovens.
• A0012 Museum Street/Lendal (Interval Tower SW5)
  A sample area of the late Roman intervallum road, which had a stone-lined drain along its inner edge, was investigated. Part of a contemporary barrack block was also encountered. On the site of the interval tower rampart material was found pre-dating the tower, and a part of the fortress wall. Evidence was found for a timber interval tower, which was later replaced by one built of stone. A part of the legionary fortress curtain wall contemporary with the tower was found. Roman occupation of the area continued through to the 4th century. A small pit may have dated to the Anglian period. The footings for the corner of a stone building possibly dating to the 14th-15th century were located. Pits and wells dating through the 12th-15th century indicate continuous medieval occupation in the area. Extensive cellars and foundations of the 19th century York Festival Concert Rooms was the latest phase of construction on the site.