York Historic Environment Record

In November 1990 York Archaeological Trust undertook ten days of evaluative excavation at 41-49 Walmgate and George Street (Grid reference SE607515). The work was undertaken on behalf of D.J.Curtis and Associates Ltd, and followed a specification issued by Mr. J.Oxley of York City Council. Initially it was intended that a series of four 2x2m trial trenches would be excavated within the proposed development site. Trench 1, initially measuring 2m.x2m, was machine cleared to a depth of 1.20m. below the surface, the layers recovered at this depth were of mid llth century date. To locate the top of pre-18th century levels the trench was extended, removing only the top 0.20m of deposits with the machine. This revealed well stratified archaeological levels of the 13th and 14th centuries. These represented the remains of buildings fronting onto Walmgate. Trench 2 revealed brick walls and foundations, presumably from the earlier brewery buildings on the site. Beneath these was a 1.6m thick build up of garden soil dating back to the 10\12th century. Beneath this garden soil was a linear cut running approximately east-west, which could not be dated. Machine clearance of Trenches 3 and 4 showed that all the archaeological levels in the upper part of the car park had been destroyed by buildings relating to a brewery built on the site by 1891. To assess the nature of deposits in the area behind the brewery buildings a further trench (Trench 5 measuring approximately 2m.x4m.) was also opened. This only revealed the capping for a major drain/sewer and was therefore abandoned. In addition to the excavated trenches a series of boreholes was taken. Boreholes 1 to 7 ran in a line parallel with George Street, boreholes 8 to 13 were in a line parallel with Dixon Lane and boreholes 14 to 16 were at a right angle to the Walmgate Street frontage. In addition, observations were made of the sinking of boreholes 17 to 19 which were cut for engineering purposes. NMR sources: Medieval archaeology : journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology Index to vols 1-5 (1957-61); 6-10 (1962-66); 11-15 (1967-71); 16-20(1972-76); 21-25 (1977-81); 26-30 (1982-86); 31-35 (1987-91); 36-40 (1992-1996) 199 XXXV/1991 York Archaeological Trust annual report 26 /1990-91