York Historic Environment Record

Watching brief during excavation of a discharge chamber at the head of a sewer running the length of North Street. This was the second phase of works undertaken by the National River Authority to connect a new sewer to a pumping station adjacent to the Viking Hotel (see 1992.1025). The trench measured 4m long (north-south) by 3.5m wide, and the ground level was at 10.1m AOD (based on adjacent spot heights). The trench was excavated by machine to 5.7m BGL (4.4m AOD). Between 3.8m BGL (6.3m AOD) and the base of the trench a stone culvert was found at the north end of the trench. It was 0.7m wide and aligned approx south-west/north-east, on the same alignment as the major building found at 9 Micklegate (Queen's Hotel). It was built of mortarted stone blocks with diagonal tooling, and had a base course of 'Roman floor tiles'. A layer of yellow-grey mortar 0.35m thick, overlying several layers of cobbles whose size increased with depth, could be a foundation for the culvert. Above the culvert was a 0.2m thick layer of cream mortar, beneath a layer of darker mortar, which was thought to have been part of the culvert structure.