York Historic Environment Record

A trench was excavated on behalf of the Dean and Chapter of York Minster to determine the the depth of the foundations of a 17th century stair-tower and to see if any archaeological deposits survived and in what condition. The excavation revealed that below the modern topsoil, and where modern activity did not disturb them, there remains deeply stratified archaeological deposits. The excavation reached a depth of 1.5 metres in which no visible structural features were observed apart from that of the tower. The earliest deposits were dated to the later Medieval period and were thought to be as a result of domestic dumping. After the construction of the stair-tower there was a series of well stratified occupation layers which were 17- 19th century in date. On the north-east and north-west sides of the tower a modern attempt to support the subsiding tower was uncovered and was found to truncate the archaeological deposits in a 1 metre wide strip.