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P1024 Former Foss Islands Service Station
On March 14th and 15th 2002 York Archaeological Trust carried out an archaeological watching brief on land at the former Foss Islands Filling Station, Foss Islands Road, York, during which the drilling of five boreholes was observed. In all of the boreholes thick relatively modern dumps were observed. Below these were thick deposits of silt which were damp or wet and in places contained noticeable amounts of moderately to well preserved organic material. The profile obtained from these boreholes indicated that the underlying clay sloped downwards from south to north and that the site may lie astride the edge of the King’s Fishpool, known from documentary and cartographic evidence to lie partly in the area of the site. In October 2004, and on January 26th 2005, York Archaeological Trust carried out an archaeological watching brief at the former Foss Islands Filling Station, Foss Islands Road, York, during the excavation of a combined total 17 test pits and 5 boreholes. Previous archaeological work on the site had already identified modern dumping deposits sealing highly organic deposits associated with the Kings Fish Pool. The test pits and the boreholes during this programme of work confirmed these findings suggesting that this area was on the edge of the King’s Fish Pool as the natural subsoil was located close to the surface at the southern end of the site and dropped sharply to the north. An environmental sample was taken from the pond deposits within Borehole 5 that showed there was very good organic preservation. Most of the plant remains identified were from aquatic or waterside habitats, the only exceptions being daisy, which grows in short grassland, and black-bind weed that occurs as a weed in waste places and arable ground. The identified invertebrate remains were also of aquatic forms. The watching brief in January 2005 yielded further evidence for the presence of the King’s Fish Pool with organic sediments and at least one wooden structure together with a number of other wooden posts being observed.
P1140 Land off Navigation Road
In an initial phase of investigation, two boreholes, nine window samples and seven test pits were excavated on land off Navigation Road, York. Subsequent to this an archaeological evaluation was commissioned to further explore deposits located during the primary phase of investigation. In the first phase of the site investigation, the earliest deposits overlying the natural were brown clay silts up to 5.4m below the present ground level identified in Window Samples 3 and 4. These may represent early soil horizons or flood events, perhaps from the Roman period. Overlying these was an extensive deposit of humic material between 3.6m and 5m below present ground level. This deposit may either represent organic material decaying in a marshy area or semi-silted channel on the edge of the medieval King's Fish Pool, or a phase of dumping of organic material into the Pool. A layer of clay silt up to 1m thick usually sealed this, probably representing silting in the King's Fish Pool. This was overlain by extensive deposits of material used presumably to reclaim land from the King's Fish Pool and to raise the ground level sealed these deposits.
P0582 Millfields Recreation Area, Easingwold
A desk top study researched the historical background of Easingwold manor site. The earliest deposits recorded during this watching brief were dumps of material used to backfill and level a medieval fish pond. Subesquently a metaled surface trackway had been laid probably during the 19th century and a thin layer of top soil sealed this feature.