York Historic Environment Record

Archaeological monitoring was undertaken during excavations associated with the repair of an existing deep-laid Victorian sewer at Bootham Bar, High Petergate, York. The work exposed the foundation and the first course of stone superstructure related to a ‘guard room’ forming the south-east component of the Porta Principalis Dextra, the western gateway to the Roman fort. This portion of wall and foundation had previously been partially examined during the initial construction of the sewer in 1910. Only a thin and insubstantial road surface was identified indicating that the road and thus the southern arch of the gateway were in use for only a short period. Fragments of Roman Tegula and later medieval bricks were recovered from a dark silty clay deposit that overlay the Roman road surface and a gritstone block, deriving from the Roman defences, had been incorporated into a sequence of the later medieval road surfaces that ran beneath Bootham Bar. It is likely that subsequent surfaces and structures had been truncated by later development and the eventual construction of the sewer.