York Archaeology Online Collections

Items

• P0772 NCP Car Park, 64-76 Skeldergate
  Eight boreholes and three trial pits were observed, and well preserved organic deposits were recorded in all of the boreholes and one of the trial pits. The deposits were dated from the Roman to the medieval periods. Evidence of natural terraces lying parallel to the River Ouse was noted. These terraces had been enhanced with thick levelling deposits in the Roman period and there was evidence that substantial Roman buildings may have stood on these terraces. In addition there appears to have been a valley along the north west side of the area indicating the presence of a tributary stream that ran down to the River Ouse. Further deep, complex and well stratified deposits were encountered in all nine evaluation trenches and included waterlogged organic remains. Very intensive occupation of the site was recorded for the period 11th-15th/16th centuries. Deposits related to structural remains of buildings fronting Skeldergate together with back yards where pit digging and dumping had occurred.
• P0567 Monkbar Hotel, St Maurice's Road
  No significant archaeological features were encountered in a machined trench with a depth of 1.40m. Below the modern car park, deposits comprised undated demolition dumps and homogenous garden soil. The only feature observed was a stake hole.
• P0565 Herriot Centre Car Park, to rear of Cross Keys PH, Thirsk
  Pond silt from which 19th century pottery was recovered was encountered at c. 1.72m below ground surface. This was interpreted as infilling of a pond known as The Marriage. Overlying the infiiled pond was further levelling and garden soil.
• P0513 York Castle Car Park, off Tower Street
  Seven boreholes were observed in this area, four of which encountered structural obstructions which were interpreted as likely to have been parts of the walls or foundations of the Victorian prison. In two of the boreholes organic silty deposits and a series of clays and silts were recorded. These boreholes may have been sampling material from the castle ditch and/or from within the river system of the Foss.
• P0511 County House, Monkgate
  The excavations revealed evidence for settlement within this area of Monkgate from the 10th or 11th c. through to the present day suggesting that activity associated with properties on the Monkgate frontage extended into the investigated area and illustrating the development of the Newbiggin suburb outside the eastern gate of the medieval city. Deposits demonstrate horticultural/agricultural activity and rubbish pits in the Anglo- Scandinavian and medieval periods. The area continued to be used as garden and yard with out-building with evidence of the dumping of metal working slag dating to the 17th or early 18th century. In the 19th c. the area was landscaped as gardens, and ash and clinker, possibly from St Maurice's vicarage, was dumped in the area. In the 1980s the area became a car park.
• P0317/P0414 47-51 Skeldergate
  A mortar and rubble spread of material at the base of one of the excavation trenches possibly derived from the demolition of a Roman building. Evidence of a building and ditch dating to the medieval period was encountered. A stone wall and a brick wall were of post-medieval date. Boreholes revealed deposits which indicated Anglo-Scandinavian activity was to be found on the site.
• P0343 ABB Site, Poppleton Road
  The conditions of the excavation did not allow the close inspection required to differentiate between the clearly natural deposits and any original ground surface which might have developed on a natural clay. The vast majority of material removed was clearly of 19th century or later date and was associated with construction of railways or modern car park/railway siding surfaces.
• A0838 York Castle car-park (Boreholes)
  A series of boreholes were sunk to ascertain the location and depth of the ditches of the medieval castle and the related course of the River Foss. The data collected will assist in plotting the course of the River Foss and the position of the moat. 8.30m - 12m below ground level the deposits encountered were laminated sands silts and clays which were probably waterlain within the castle ditch or the River Foss. Above them was post-medieval infill, and demolition deposits derived from the Victorian prison below the modern car park surface.
• A0790 St. George's Field Car Park, Pumping Station
  Alluvial deposits above naturally deposited material seemed to lie in a channel which may have been part of the original channel of the River Ouse. Alluvial deposits were found dating from pre-historic times to the medieval period. Timber piles and a cobble surface were encountered and may have dated to the Romano-British period or to the Anglo-Scandinavian period. A limestone wall was thought to be part of St George's Chapel. Pits may represent medieval activity on the margins of the land not subjected to regular flooding. A brick structure was thought to date to the 19th century and was sealed by modern deposits relating to the car park.
• A0450 Haymarket Car Park, Peasholme Green
  A large pit, presumably for clay extraction, had been filled in the late Roman period. The development of the parish church of All Saints, Peasholme Green was investigated and burials both within and to the north of the church were excavated. The church was closed in the mid 16th century and the remains burnt for lime. A weighbridge for the 19th century hay market was recorded beneath the modern car park surface.
• A0788 2 St Maurice's Road
  Ditches of Roman date were found in two (of a series of three) 3 x 3m trenches. Successive cobble surfaces sealed the ditch in one of the trenches and contained a late 3rd century coin and pottery of similar date. Both ditches had rather irregular surfaces and contained large quantities of animal bone. Later deposits were confined to cultivated soil up to 1.25m thick beneath the modern concrete yard surface.
• A0679 Bishophill Senior Car Park
  Three trenches fronting on to Buckingham Street demonstrated that archaeological deposits had been truncated by modern cellaring to a depth of 1.70m. Immediately behind this area a fourth trench encountered post-medieval garden soil. In the south east corner of the site, the furthest distance from Buckingham Street, a fifth trench encountered demolition deposits and the robbed remains of a Roman building, comprising two walls at 90 degrees to each other. This material was sealed beneath approximately 1m depth of post-medieval garden soil.