York Historic Environment Record

Magnitude Surveys was commissioned to assess the subsurface archaeological potential of a c. 7.56ha area of land off Tadcaster Road, north-east of Copmanthorpe, City of York. A fluxgate magnetometer survey was successfully completed. The geophysical results primarily reflect medieval or postmedieval agricultural activity and modern material extraction. A possible former field boundary, recorded in historic mapping, has been identified, although this may have been re-used more recently for drainage. Additionally, historic plough furrows have been identified in the south and west of the site, the abrupt truncation of which almost certainly confirms the location of the southern edge of a known ‘borrow pit’ used to extract material to embank the A64 and Tadcaster Road. Further evidence of this extraction activity has also been identified in the north of the site, likely representing either pit features or deposits of waste material. A single linear feature has also been identified, the origins of which are undetermined, though an archaeological origin cannot be ruled out. Apart from the former ridge and furrow, no anomalies of probable or possible archaeological origin have been identified.