York Historic Environment Record

A Desk-Based Assessment was prepared and submitted with the planning application. The site lies close to the line of a major Roman road approaching York, in an area where suburban roadside settlement, cemeteries and associated field systems have been encountered. The site is likely to lie at a sufficient distance from the route of the Roman road that settlement and burials are unlikely to be present, but field systems are likely. The evaluation comprised the excavation of a single trial trench, located within the footprint of the proposed new dwelling. No significant archaeological features or deposits were recorded within the evaluation trench. Much of the northern part of the trench was occupied by a shallow pond like feature. Fragments of medieval to post-medieval ceramic building material were noted within the upper fill of this feature. Elsewhere the natural was overlain by a thick subsoil deposit, interpreted as a historic ploughsoil, overlain by the modern topsoil. No features or deposits of Roman date were recorded and no residual Roman artefacts were observed. The proposed development is to be constructed with pile foundations. This will only require a relatively shallow topsoil strip to allow the creation of a pile mat, above the level of natural and any possible features. Whilst there remains a low possibility that isolated archaeological features are still present within the footprint of the development, outside the limits of the evaluation trench, the proposed construction methodology would ensure that these are predominantly preserved beneath the new dwelling.