York Historic Environment Record

Monitoring of a 2m long trench to the south-west of the Robin Hood Tower at the northern corner of the City walls (N.G.R. SE 6030 5243). The repair works involved the removal of the flagged surface of the wall walk and excavation through the deposits beneath to allow the placing of metal tie bars between the rampart wall and wall walk wall likely to be contemporary with restoration work of 1888/9 to create the present wall walk. Beneath the surface flagstones was a 0.10m thick cream coloured mortar bedding for the flags on top of a orange/brown silty clay containing occasional fragments of 19th century brick. Beneath this clay at a depth of 0.30m beneath the surface was a loose off-white mortar deposit containing much 19th century brick and large fragments of limestone. Excavation ceased at a depth of 0.70m below the wall walk surface, except in the northern portion of the excavation which was located over some underlying arched recesses, where it stopped at a depth of 0.54m below the surface. The facing stones of the internal face of the rampart wall were revealed in the excavation indicating that this face of the wall was not originally obscured by the wall walk. Tie bars were inserted into holes drilled from the outside of the rampart and wall walk walls through joints in the stonework, linking these two walls together. A certain number of the clamps fitted on the internal faces of the walls were also linked together with tie bars between the two walls. York Archaeological Trust [assessment & evaluation reports] Anon/1994/York City Walls Chainage 1919-1921: watching brief/Report No P0252.