York Historic Environment Record

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by On-Site Archaeology Ltd at North Field Lane, Upper Poppleton during October and November 2012 in advance of the proposed construction of a Park and Ride. Initial investigation consisted of a desk-based assessment. This revealed moderate potential for significant buried archaeology, particularly for nearby Romano-British settlement and evidence relating to agricultural practices in the later medieval and post medieval periods. The evaluation process consisted of a geophysical survey followed by the excavation of 20 evaluation trenches, a sample of proposed development area, to enable an assessment of the potential and significance of the archaeology and the impact the development would have. Trenches positioned to investigate potential archaeological features, indicated by the geophysical survey, revealed that the majority of the anomalies only related to the geological and topographical nature of the site. An important aspect of the project was the involvement of a large number of community participants from the local area. The involvement of local people was extremely valuable, allowing the excavation of a greater percentage of the features than would have been possible in an ordinary commercial excavation and the new perspectives and enthusiasm added greatly to the value of the project. A number of archaeological features identified during the evaluation warranted further investigation, as a result a scheme of mitigation was proposed to target Trenches 4, 7, 13 and 20, which had revealed the highest archaeological potential. Investigation revealed a prolonged period of activity at Poppleton; flints recovered, although unlikely to be in situ, hint at a human presence in the area dating back to the Mesolithic, a possible Bronze Age barrow was identified in the southwest corner of the development site during the magnetometer survey, but did not manifest during excavation. However, fragments of a collared urn with corded decoration were recovered by volunteer metal detectorists scanning the topsoil from Trench 2 and may suggest that the funerary monument did exist, but had been heavily truncated. A prehistoric boundary ditch thought to be from the late Iron Age or Roman Period suggests a degree of agricultural land division, which has remained relatively unchanged into the modern period. Activity continued into the Roman period and was confined largely to the southeast corner of the site, with a possible boundary ditch running on an altered alignment to the other linear features on site. A medieval ridge and furrow field system with associated boundary ditches were also identified, while a large enclosure ditch tentatively dated to the medieval period was located in the southeast corner of the site.