| Description | An evaluation by trial trenching was carried out by WAYS between 14th and 21st April 2004 at 7 High Court and 1 6 Church Row (centred on the above grid reference), Leeds in advance of redevelopment of the area for domestic dwellings.
Two trenches were excavated using a mini digger fitted with a toothless ditching bucket, under direct archaeological supervision and in level spits to the top of the first archaeological horizon or undisturbed natural. The resulting surface was cleaned manually and inspected for archaeological remains.
Trench 1, measuring 10m by 2m and orientated approximately north to south, was located in an area adjacent to the path alongside the churchyard of St Peter's Church. The maximum depth of this trench was 1.85m. Along the full length of the trench, rubble backfill was observed from the early 19th century buildings, which had been demolished sometime between 1954 and 1969.
Trench 2, measuring 5.9m by 2m and orientated approximately north to south, was located inside the rear courtyard of 1 Church Row. The trench reached a maximum depth of 0.95m.
Stratigraphically, the earliest feature to be investigated was a small pit/post hole exposed in trench 2 (0.24m wide, 0.6m long and 0.3m deep). Unfortunately there were no associated artefacts so it could not be assigned a date. A further post hole (0.25m wide, 0.6m long and 0.35m deep) and ditch (1.15m deep at the top and 0.5m wide at its base, 1m long and 0.5m deep) were also located but contained no datable artefacts. Sealing the ditch was a shallow pit (0.26m wide, 0.9m long and 0.12m deep) which contained a sherd of 14th 15th century pottery.
All layers sealing the early features described above were 17th to 18th century in date. |