Archaeological Watching Brief of a Water Main Extension at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken during the installation of a new water supply to the Stable Block at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. The route of the pipeline traversed the Parkland to the west of Chatsworth House and had the potential to damage and, or expose buried archaeological features relating to the earlier garden layout within this part of the estate. ARCUS were commissioned by the Chatsworth House Trust to undertake an archaeological watching brief during the works. A total of twelve trenches were excavated along the line of the route, (NGR: SK2585 7035 to SK2630 7040), with directional drilling undertaken between each trench for the new water main. In the southern part of the pipeline the watching brief identified a series of landscaping deposits indicative of extensive re-landscaping, and probably associated with the redesign of the parkland by Lancelot Brown in the 1750s-60s. The central trenches produced evidence for a buried gravel path or carriageway, which is on the same alignment as a curved drive from the Service Block of Chatsworth House to the northern entrance into the Stable Courtyard, depicted on a plan dated 1773. The trenching cut across the ha-ha ditch and bank along the eastern boundary of the parkland. The bank is constructed from a series of clay dumps of uncertain date, although artefactual evidence suggests that clearance of the ditch, or even its creation, occurred during the later part of the nineteenth century. The bank appears to have been deliberately constructed to obscure a pre-existing stone boundary wall.