York Historic Environment Record

Work was scheduled in advance of redevelopment of the site, which proposes the demolition of the Victorian public house and associated 6 bedroom hotel and detailed approval for construction of a three-four storey 76 bedroom care home, 22 car parking spaces, 5 cycle racks and associated landscaping. Two c. 10m by 2m trenches were excavated on the landscaped lawn area to the front of Carlton Tavern, as this space offered the largest extent of potentially undisturbed ground. No previous archaeological works had been conducted on or in the vicinity of the site. The evaluation was, therefore, to determine the presence or absence of any potential archaeological remains associated with the site, and to ascertain the extent, condition, character and date of any such remains. Both trenches exposed natural clay and sand geology at a depth of less than 1m, above which there was a thick accumulation of clay silt relating to agricultural use of the land up until the construction of the Carlton Tavern building in the 1880s. The only archaeological features identified were five ceramic field drains, placed within steep-edged drain cuts dug through the agricultural soil and natural clay, their backfill containing Victorian pottery and industrial waste. Upper deposits of a level, consistent orange sand layer, relate to the landscaping of agricultural fields during the construction of Carlton Tavern, then named West Garth, and its grounds during the 1880s.