York Historic Environment Record

One of a series of watching briefs carried out in March and April 1997 on the refurbishment of a sewer in Low Petergate. The reason for the watching brief was because Low Petergate lies within the known precinct of the Roman Legionary fortress.and is thought to lie over the surface of the main thoroughfare or Via Principalis of the fort. What the watching brief did uncover was good evidence for the layout of the Roman fort as predicted by earlier work. In all six trenches were excavated but only five were observed archaologically due to dangerous working conditions in one of the trenches.The results of the watching brief showed significant evidence for the Roman period and brought to light changes in the activity of the fort during its lifespan. The changes in the nature of occupation was seen by the fact that there was evidence for periods of abandonment, or at least of drop in the intensity of occupation, evidenced by an accumulation of silty deposits only to be followed by periods of rebuilding or resurfacing thought to indicative of an increase in activity. Overlying the latest phase of resurfacing of the road was a significant accumulation of dark silty materials associated with agricultural activity and this trend only appears to change in the later 11th century and may be associated with the building of this date which was found during excavations carried out by Wenham on the site of the former Fox Inn. No evidence for the street was recovered, however it was thought that the highly organic nature of the deposits overlaying the silty deposits, as described above, was thought to be possible evidence for the street level contemporaneous with that of the 11th - 12th century building. Additional NMR source: Britannia : a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies inc. consolidated index for volumes 1-25 (1970-1994) Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 385-7 29/1998