York Historic Environment Record

EXCAVATION 76-82 Walmgate. Four small trenches(1A-1D) each c 2mx2m, were excavated inside the then existing building on the Walmgate frontage. Two further trenches, trench 2 and trench 3 were excavated in the middle and at the northern end of the site. Trenches 1B and 1D produced structures associated with the Victorian Iron Foundry which occupied the site between c.1850 and 1925. It became clear that such activity had destroyed any archaeological deposits which might otherwise have survived on the street frontage within St. Denys' parish. By contrast, Trench 1A revealed occupation from the Roman period through to the 12th or 13th centuries. Above the natural clay was a series of horizontal deposits, including at least one structural episode which was impossible to comprehend in such a small area. These deposits were succeeded by the laying of a cobble surface. This road, path or standing can have seen little use as there were no signs of patching or repairs, and the heap of animal bones and oyster shells upon the cobbles may indicate a period of dereliction at the end of the Roman occupation. Little can be concluded about the use of the area during the Roman period, but it is clear that there was some form of Roman occupation in the Walmgate area. A series of occupation or floor layers containing pottery of the late 9th or early 10th century confirmed the Anglo-Scandinavian activity on Walmgate. These small-scale excavations confirmed that this area of modern Walmgate had been occupied during the Roman, Anglo- Scandinavian and Medieval periods and showed that the archaeological deposits had been well preserved in places (YAT Interim). York Archaeological Trust annual report /1987-1988/20 Interim : bulletin of the York Archaeological Trust 12.4/1988/7-14 Britannia : a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies XIX/1988/439 Medieval archaeology : journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology /1988/292