Church of St James The Apostle, Church Street, Bonsall, Derbyshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

The watching brief was carried out by a professional archaeologist. All deposits were inspected in order to identify any archaeological remains of interest, in particular those of medieval or earlier date. These were cleaned by hand, examined and recorded. Recording of the groundworks included the position and depths of the deposits exposed by drawing (both in section and plan where applicable) and photograph. Church foundations within the region of medieval date are usually bonded with clay with examples including those of the towers at the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Uffington, Lincolnshire (Hurford 2018) and the Church of St Peter, Sibthorpe, Nottinghamshire (Hurford 2019a) with the chancel foundations of the Church of St James and St Bartholomew, Waterfall, Staffordshire also of clay (Hurford et al 2013). It is therefore almost certainly the case that the north aisle was completely rebuilt during the restoration of 1862-3, including the foundations as they are bonded with lime mortar.