York Historic Environment Record

An archaeological watching brief was carried out by Fern Archaeology on behalf of Mike Griffiths and Associates for Bellway Homes (Yorkshire) Ltd. The archaeological monitoring concerned a small area of land to the north of the present Villa Grove, where previous evaluation work in 2003-4 by Field Archaeology Specialists (FAS), York, had shown a potential for surviving Roman archaeology, and specifically a burial ground of this period. During the watching brief, however, no surviving archaeology of this era was found, though material remains in later deposits suggest a definite Roman presence; but probably peripheral to the known cemeteries of the region. Three phases of watching brief were undertaken, concerning a pipe trench, road and building foundations. In situ archaeology was recorded only during the latter works (Observation 3). This comprised a 6m wide ditch that ran across the site on a NW-SE alignment from the direction of the River Foss. The backfills produced an assemblage of medieval material, as well as residual Roman, the latest of which provided a 16th-century date. This ditch may be identified with one recorded in a historic source of c.1575, that is described as transecting the Heworth Grange. The pottery assemblage suggests, however, that this land boundary may have been established earlier in the medieval period, possibly from the 12th-13th century when the marshy wasteland was first cultivated (at least since the Roman period). In this regard it is significant that the ditch aligns with plough furrows excavated across the site by FAS. In the post-medieval period the evidence suggests that the plough furrows were flattened as part of the transition of the landscape from monastic farm to gentry estate, a change that followed the sale in the late 16th century of the Grange to the Dawson family, after its seizure by the Crown in the Dissolution. Despite this landscaping the ditch remained a problem for flooding into the 20th century, with a series of later drains evidenced, set along its line.