York Historic Environment Record

Seven trenches were excavated on the plot of land adjacent to St Oswald’s Road (Area A). They recorded an east west aligned ditch that was dated by pottery to the late Iron Age. The ditch had been backfilled at the beginning of the Roman period and its projected alignment pointed toward St Oswald’s Church and a possible early crossing point of the river to the west of the site. In the Roman period a series of new ditches were laid out on a WSW to ENE alignment. One of these formed the southwest corner of an enclosure. No internal features were present and its function is not known. A second ditch was located 4m to the east. It contained the same homogenous fill as the enclosure ditch and they appear to have been contemporary. Both features were dated by pottery to the 2nd century. A substantial ditch was recorded running parallel to the enclosure on its southern side. The excavations showed that in its earliest phase it had been dug as a trench to hold a row of upright posts that formed a palisade. It is estimated that the fence could have been up to 2m high. The palisade was dated by pottery to the 2nd century AD. In its disuse the timbers were removed and the boundary was recut as an open ditch. Pottery recovered from the ditch included a dump of kitchen wares which dated to the late 3rd century. The Roman ditch appears to have survived as an open feature or an earthwork into the medieval period. Pottery recovered from the later fills included pre-Conquest Maxey Ware and 12th century York Gritty Ware. In the medieval period the site was located in a common field on the periphery of Fulford and under cultivation. The remains of two furrows were recorded on the site running parallel to the reused Roman ditch. The watching brief was carried out on a plot of land at the rear of the site (Area B). The groundworks included the excavations for a storm drain, revetment wall, strip foundations and services. The investigation recorded a sequence of modern topsoil sealing a post medieval ploughsoil which, in turn, covered a series of furrows. No earlier archaeological features or deposits were present in Area B.