York Historic Environment Record

In October 2007 York Archaeological Trust carried out an evaluation of 15 trenches widely distributed across the site of the former Grain Store, Water Lane, York. None of the excavated trenches revealed evidence of significant pre World War II archaeological remains. All pre war features related to post-medieval agricultural activity. Heavy truncation of soils at the site took place at the time of construction of the wartime airfield. Remains relating to the former wartime airfield were plentiful in parts of the site, particularly in Trenches 1, 5, 9, 12 and 15, and consisted for the most part of concrete surfaces and brick walls. Some of these may originate in the post-war period. There are a number of works at the site that relate to alterations for conversion of the site to a grain store. Most obviously this consisted of re-cladding and fitting out of the hangars and the building of a few new structures. Less obviously, these works involved the laying of extensive areas of new tarmac surfacing. This surfacing involved the removal of all surfaces and natural clays down to a depth below the extant ground level of some 0.7m. It is probable that parts of the earth banks that surround the eastern side of the site were constructed of the removed material at this time and not during the war. Whilst the work to date suggests that only a low density of archaeological remains are likely to be present in the area, any such density will be reduced for those areas subject to later deeper stripping, with only the largest of features likely to partially survive. The World War II buildings at the site are of some interest and merit recording.