York Historic Environment Record

The first phase of archaeological evaluation undertaken at the site consisted of nine evaluation trenches and fourteen geotechnical testpits. Four distinct phases of activity were encountered dating from the Roman to modem period. Roman activity consisted of a wide ditch, sharing the alignment of the modem route of Heworth Croft, thought to be the line of a Roman road. Residual cremated human bone and ceramic, some of which was recovered from the ditch itself, but also in later deposits, demonstrated the presence of a disturbed Roman cemetery at the site. Much of the disturbance was attributed to a system of ridge and furrow cultivation dated to the medieval period. This system of cultivation was also associated with a field boundary ditch. The medieval plough horizon was sealed by later agricultural or horticultural soils, and deposits associated with the construction of the Queen's Villa.