York Historic Environment Record

The natural subsoil was overlain by a deposit which may have been a naturally accumulated soil. This was cut by a small ditch running north-east/south-west which appears to have filled up before the laying of a deposit of cobbles and pebbles in the north-western half of the trench. This material probably formed the make-up of a lane or path running north-eastwards from Bootham. Above the surface of the lane a homogeneous grey sandy silty clay accumulated to a depth of up to c.0.60m. Pottery suggests that this deposit began to accumulate in the 13th - 14th century. Although the evidence had been destroyed by the robbing trench, the foundation trench for a 19th century brick wall had probably been dug into the top of the deposit numbered 1, 10-1. Deposits containing a certain amount of building material may have been contemporary with the life of the wall. They were cut by the trench dug to demolish the wall. Subsequently, modern rubble and the tarmac yard surface were laid down. Two General Biological Analysis samples of sediment ('GBAs' sensu Dobney et al. 1992) were submitted for an evaluation of their bioarchaeological potential. Small numbers of poorly preserved plant remains of little interpretative value were recovered from the sediment samples. No further work is recommended on the material currently available. NMR: RCHME Microfilm Index PRN: 3378. (NB Accession code given in BIAB 1996 is 1996.169). Sources: Gazetteer of archaeological investigations in England, 1996 Archaeological Investigations Project 1995-1996 1999 edited and compiled by L M Fransen ...[et al] 695 3/1038 York Archaeological Trust Ottaway P/1996/Bootham School, York/1996 Evaluation Report No. 4.