Watching Brief at Land to the east of Sandy Railway Station, Stratford Road, Sandy, Central Bedfordshire

KDK Archaeology Ltd undertook an Archaeological Observation, Investigation and Recording at Land to the east of Sandy Railway Station, Stratford Road, Sandy, Bedfordshire. A single trench was excavated prior to the development of a Cellular Drainage Tank Soakaway for the new car park. The main objective of this Watching Brief was to identify the colluvial layer, noted in the Evaluation Report (Wilson 2019). However, the area to be monitored had been significantly reduced from a 50m long trench to a 12m, as the design for the attenuation tank had changed since the Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) had been approved. The trench was 12m long, 2.30m wide and 1.40m deep and ran SSE-NNW. The remains of a modern demolished house were visible at the first 4.5m from the SSE end of the trench. It contained modern bricks and concrete slabs (103). The stratigraphy in the rest of the trench showed a very thin layer of made ground (101) with modern detritus and CBM, overlying the sandy natural substratum (102). The natural geology had a very loose, yellowish red, sandy composition (Fig 4.). The lack of subsoil suggests the site has been truncated at some point in history, probably during the construction of the railway. There was no trace of any alluvial deposits in any part of the trench.