York Historic Environment Record

A watching brief on ground works for a replacement water pipe was undertaken by York Archaeological Trust on behalf of PR Standish Project Management. The purpose of the work was to excavate an old lead pipe for a water supply, and replace it with a new MDPE alkathene pipe. This involved hand-excavating a trench through disturbed ground to dimensions of 0.25m–0.50m wide, 0.4m deep and 10.5m long. An archaeologist did not monitor the excavation itself, but attended afterwards and took photographs and notes. The only deposits of interest were several fragments of limestone blocks towards the north-eastern end of the service trench (See Figure 1 for approximate location). In both sections of the trench there were limestone blocks that extended beyond the limit of the excavation, as well as four fragments of roughly shaped blocks on the spoil heap from the same area. The wall appeared to be on a north-north-west / south-south-east alignment, although very little of the structure could be seen in the narrow trench. An overlay of the trench location on the 1852 OS map reveals that the structure would have sat within the interior of the church, perhaps acting as a footing for one of the pillars dividing the nave and the north aisle or for some other internal dividing wall.