York Historic Environment Record

This Desktop Assessment has been prepared at the request of City of York Council, to provide background information to the preparation of an Area Action Plan for the York Northwest area, which includes the British Sugar site, Boroughbridge Road, York. Whilst the archaeological potential of the site is considered to be fairly low, it is possible that remains of prehistoric, Roman or medieval date may be present. These are likely to represent agricultural field systems, rather than settlement. Due to the substantial amount of ground disturbance that has taken place on the site during the 20th century, associated with the construction and use of the Sugar Factory, large areas of the site will not contain any earlier remains. A sports field, close to the southwest edge of the site, and a car park, located in the southeast corner, have the highest potential to contain archaeological remains. Archaeological evaluation of these areas is recommended, prior to the detailed design of the proposed redevelopment. In the first instance this should take the form of non-intrusive geophysical survey, of the sports field, possibly to be followed by the excavation of evaluation trenches.