York Historic Environment Record

An L- shaped trench was excavated for the foundations and measured 3.5m and 2m long, by 0.5m wide and up to 1.10m in depth. The trench was hand excavated and involved the redirection of drains and the relocation of an inspection chamber. The deposits revealed during archaeological monitoring were 20th century in date, and had been heavily disturbed by previous works and services. The earliest deposit encountered in both stretches of the trench was a soft dark greyish brown clayey silt that contained 19th to 20th century ceramic building material fragments, occasional animal bone, charcoal flecks and moderate amounts of stone fragments. In the north-east/south-west trench, this deposit was approximately 600-750mm deep and had a main drain running through the middle of it, approximately 850mm below the current ground surface. Above this was the bedding deposit for the current yard surface, which was approximately 190mm thick. The yard surface itself was brick block paving that was approximately 60mm thick. In the north-west/south-east trench the lower soft dark greyish brown clayey silt was approximately 500mm thick, above this was a concrete underpinning pad that was approximately 250mm thick. This was sealed by a 190mm thick bedding material for the yard surface, and finally the brick block paving which was 60mm thick.