Interim Report on Watching Recording Brief of Test Pits at Dry Sand Foundry, Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire

ARCUS were commissioned by Quarmby Construction Company Ltd to hand-excavate fourteen test pits at the Dry Sand Foundry (and adjacent buildings) off Water Lane, Holbeck, Leeds. The test pits were excavated to establish the nature of the subsurface deposits within and immediately outside the buildings. The archaeological watching recording brief was required as a condition of planning consent, in line with PPG16. Fourteen test foundations pits hand-excavated of the current buildings. at the Dry Sand Foundry complex exposed The buildings are thought to date from the the late 18th/early 19th-century and were subsequently modified and altered through the 1th and 20th centuries. A considerable degree of structural modification was observed in most of the test pits in addition to a significant depth of archaeological deposits adjacent to, and within the footprint of the buildings. Many of the deposits identified showed evidence for disturbance and re-deposition during the use of the site. This interim report outlines the provisional phasing identified in each of the test pits and provides initial spot dates for pottery recovered from individual contexts. The results, when combined with further analysis of other artefacts and samples recovered from the test pits, will provide valuable information regarding the historical development of the site.