York Archaeological Trust
In March 1999 York Archaeological Trust carried out a watching brief on the coring of twenty-three probe-holes and three bore-holes and the digging of five test-pits and one trench. The observations took place on sites to either side of The Stonebow, York, extending south to the River Foss (centred on NGR SE 6070 5187). The work was carried out on behalf of Waterman Environmental Consulting Engineers, as part of the second stage of a pre-planning application survey of the "Hungate Development" site (Figure 1). The site is currently occupied by a second hand car showroom, a car repair workshop and new car sales outlet, Territorial Army depot, car respray and coach works, second hand furniture warehouse, bed manufacturer, light industrial warehousing and offices as well as some derelict land and areas for car parking.
The second phase of the contamination survey by probe-hole cores (or window samples) was carried out based on a small sample of the development area and consisted of twenty-three probe-holes. These were investigated using 1.00m and 2.00m sectional cylindrical metal tubes which could be withdrawn and the deposits contained therein examined and recorded. The tubes were inserted using a pneumatic hammer. The first metre of the probe was cored using a 0.08m diameter tube, the next 4m using a 0.06m diameter tube, and the last metre, to a total depth of 6m below the present ground surface used a 0.05m diameter tube. Recording of the resulting vertical cores followed procedures laid down in the York Archaeological Trust Context Recording Manual (1996) each deposit being allocated its own discrete number. The probes were positioned across the whole development area (see Figure 2) apart from the Northern Electric headquarters.
Three bore-holes were cored to bed-rock and the first six metres of each was monitored for archaeological stratification. The first was positioned close to the River Foss in the extreme south-eastern corner of the development area, the second close to Garden Place on the south-western side and the third was close to Dundas Street on the north-eastern side of the development area. Recording of the resultant vertical cores followed similar procedures to the probe-holes above.
Five test-pits and one long trench were excavated using a JCB Sitemaster using a toothed three foot wide bucket. Two test pits (tp's 3 and 5) were excavated to c.4m below the present ground surface and the others to between 1m and 2m below the ground surface where they were abandoned either due to the influx of ground-water or trench collapse. The deposits within each pit were recorded following similar procedures to the probe-holes above.
All finds and the site records are currently stored with York Archaeological Trust under the Yorkshire Museum accession code YORYM:1999.253.