York Historic Environment Record

Watching brief on geotechnical investigations for the York Flood Alleviation Scheme was undertaken by York Archaeological Trust on behalf of Jacobs between 10th December and 19th December 2018 at Clementhorpe, York. The objective of the watching brief was to record any archaeological deposits or structures exposed by the ground works. It is clear that the Hand Dug Test Pits revealed a relatively modern sequence of deposition, possibly related to the construction of the extant buildings. It is possible that this overlays a Post-Medieval to Modern phase of ground make up, which was visible as a dark homogenous soil at the very base of some of the interventions, reinforced by the phasing of soil horizons that were more substantially visible at a watching brief to the south of the proposed flood alleviation scheme (Johnson 2018). This would suggest the aforementioned homogenous deposit may have been associated with ground raising and a possible earlier phase of flood defences but there is insufficient evidence to confirm this.