York Historic Environment Record

Between the 4th and 15th December 2017 York Archaeological Trust conducted an archaeological watching brief during the sewer repair works at 43 Tanner Row, York. The work was undertaken for Amey Utilities & Yorkshire Water to fulfil the requirements of an Area of Archaeological Importance Operations Notice. In turn this was part of the Operations Notice System which is co-ordinated by City of York Council (Operations Notice no.17034). The work was not following a specific Written Scheme of Investigation, but followed the standard practices for a watching brief as conducted by York Archaeological Trust. The works involved the recording of archaeological remains exposed during excavations to locate a failure within the live sewer system. Archaeology was revealed in the form of a possible footing and a separate area of dumped burnt material, both of which were probably Roman. On top of these features a significant mortar and rubble deposit acted as make up for a road surface c.900mm below the current road level. The finds from this make up deposits suggested it was Roman in date. If this is the case there are significant archaeological deposits significantly closer to the extant ground levels on Tanner Row than seen in works to both the northeast and southwest. This complicates further a deposit model from the Roman period which was already difficult to predict.