Strip Map And Sample, Watching Brief at Land West Of 4 East Deanery, South Church, Bishop Auckland

The work took place in advance of the construction of two 6-bedroom detached dwellings on Plots 3 and 4 at the site. The footprint of the two dwellings was stripped by a mechanical excavator working under the direction of the site Supervisor, down to the level of the top of the archaeological horizon. Machined areas were manually cleaned before further investigation was carried out. Archaeological deposits and features were then excavated by hand, sampled, and recorded in plan and section. The location of the excavated areas and features within it were recorded in hand-drawn plans and sections. Digital colour photography of features was undertaken with a minimum resolution of 10 megapixels. Within the western plot, the remains of two stone buildings and surfaces were found. The eastern building was oriented north to south and appears to have been the earliest structure. The western building was oriented east to west and had internal divisions separating a narrow area at each end. These partitions may represent stone- or partially stone-built stalls, or passages between pairs of doors at the ends of the building. The presence of drainage channels in the floor surface suggests that this may have been a shelter for livestock. The western building abutted the eastern one, indicating that it was added later. The structural remains may be those of a range of agricultural buildings with a central yard to the north and facing onto a metalled trackway to the south. Fourteen sherds of pottery were recovered and dated to the medieval and post medieval period. The assemblage was solely British in origin, with the wares identified being characteristic of the north-east. Animal bone, including an articulated dog skeleton, oyster shell, glass, a small amount of ferrous metalwork and industrial waste and clay tobacco pipe were also recovered. The finds were largely undated and considered to be residual.