York Historic Environment Record

Two machine cut trenches were excavated at right angles to Clifton, 30 metres long, 0.5 - 0.75 metres wide and up to 0.80 metres deep in places. It was anticipated that these would give us an opportunity to examine a complete section cut at right angles across the road in question with at least a further 20 metres of trench available to look for any traces of extramural occupation. The plan was then to hand dig the area between the trenches so that the entire area would eventually be exposed. There were certain constraints placed upon these excavations since the development contractors planned to build on a concrete raft, the construction of which involved the removal of only the uppermost half metre of deposit over the site. Thus it was with some disappointment that we-found late medieval and post medieval layers at a depth of over half a metre and we therefore had to deepen the trench to discover if Roman levels were present at all. The Roman road was eventually encountered at a depth of 0.75 metres below the present ground surface, its cobbled surface covered by a layer of dark silty material. West of the road, features cut into the clay subsoil were also apparent although these too were at depths below those to be disturbed. (INTERIM 7/4) NMR Information: Museum accession codes: 1981.1015, 1982-83.1015 Sources: York Archaeological Trust Fascicule 6.1/1986/9.5 York Archaeological Trust annual report /1980-1981/APPENDIX I York Archaeological Trust annual report /1982-1983/APPENDIX I Interim : bulletin of the York Archaeological Trust 7.4/1981/16-17