Longtown Castle, Remedial Drainage Works, Archaeological Watching Brief

The remedial works comprised the following; a) An existing drainage ditch to the north-east of the embankment was regraded and a new headwall constructed above the outfall pipe. Maximum depth of regrade of the order of 300mm. b) There was a broken drainage pipe under the verge near the old well between the carriageway (Llanwonog Lane) and the drainage ditch. This section of pipe was dug up and replaced. c) A buried manhole was identified at the road junction outside of Castle Cottage. This was uncovered and replaced with a new cover and made level with the carriageway. d) New kerbing and a concrete apron was installed around the gully outside Castle Cottage. Note c) and d) are outside the area of the scheduled monument. The excavations were carried out by a 10tn mechanical excavator with a toothless bucket and all monitoring was carried out by a suitably qualified archaeologist. After the excavation of Test Pits 1 and 3, which located the damaged drainage pipe, they were joined to enable the laying of new pipe. This new pipe trench was recorded as Test Pit 4. A total of four test pits were excavated to identify a blocked drain and affect a repair. The archaeological monitoring identified a sequence of topsoil, subsoil and natural deposits. No archaeological remains were uncovered.