Watching Brief at Allison Wold Farm, Simon Howe, Sherburn

The watching brief comprised of the continuous archaeological monitoring of the ground works necessary for the development. This was in order to establish the presence/absence, nature, extent and preservation of any archaeological remains and to ensure that any archaeological deposits encountered could be recorded. The ground reduction of the footprint of the turbine bases and excavation of the associated cable trenching, by mechanical excavator, was conducted under direct archaeological supervision. Excavation was initially undertaken down to the chalk natural, prior to any deeper excavation required necessary for the development. The archaeologist was given the opportunity to inspect the exposed surfaces and sides of the excavation in order to assess any potential archaeology which was visible truncating the natural. The archaeological watching brief appeared to confirm the presence of the possible double ditched track-way or boundary within this area of the site which had previously been identified by cropmark evidence. Two adjacent and parallel, northeast-southwest aligned, ditches were recorded within the Trench 2 cable trench. No dating evidence was recovered from these features, but they are thought to probably relate to late prehistoric/Romano-British occupation within this area. The archaeological features were not fully excavated but they were not disturbed by the ground works of the development and are therefore predominantly preserved in-situ.