Salvin Terrace, Fishburn, County Durham: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

This report, prepared by The Archaeological Practice Ltd. and commissioned by Gleeson Homes, represents an archaeological desk-based assessment of an area of land to the north and west of Salvin Terrace on the western edge of Fishburn, where a new housing development is proposed. The assessment is designed to accompany and provide background cultural heritage information for the report on a geophysical survey undertaken by Phase Site Investigations on 25 July 2025. It incorporates the results of a search of the Historic Environment Record, encompassing all features, events etc., within a 1km radius of the development site (which forms the defined study area, cf. Illus 22), plus an examination of historical mapping and accessible aerial photography and LIDAR covering the site and its environs. The overall purpose of the assessment is to inform the planning process regarding cultural heritage significance of the site and the likely or potential impact upon the cultural heritage resource of the proposed development. The report concludes that no firm evidence for prehistoric, Romano-British and early medieval remains or activity has been identified within the assessment site. Four undated square or rectangular cropmarks, identified in the wider study area on historic aerial photography, could potentially represent Iron Age, or conceivably Romano-British, enclosed rectilinear settlements, but, in the absence of further investigation, there is no clear proof. During the High Middle Ages the site lay immediately to the west of the manor and village of Fishburn, first mentioned in the 12th century, which was held by the Fishburn then Claxton families by knight service as feudal tenants of the bishop of Durham. The site probably fell within one of the open arable fields attached to the village, which were subjected to ridge and furrow ploughing, but, given its position right next to the western edge of the settlement, the possibility exists that more intensive activity periodically encroached on it. The undated ditches/gullies and possible small enclosure identified by geophysical surveys commissioned in 2016, and this summer to inform the present development proposals, might be associated with such marginal medieval settlement or cultivation activity. The open townfields and common moor of Fishburn township were probably divided up and enclosed during the 17th century in common with the great majority of townships in lowland County Durham, and the field pattern first documented on the tithe and Ordnance Survey maps of the mid-19th century may have come into existence at this time. Analysis of historic aerial photography has identified the former remains of ridge and furrow cultivation earthworks or cropmarks over the northern part of the development site (51; H82117). This ploughing is probably post-medieval in date and may be contemporary with this field pattern, though some may conceivably have its origins in the medieval period. This ridge and furrow is the only site listed in the HER to fall within the bounds of the development site and is no longer visible on more recent vertical Ordnance Survey photography, but geophysical survey has revealed traces of ridge and furrow ploughing over much of the eastern field. During the modern era extractive industrial activity has occurred in the wider environs of the site - small-scale quarrying during the 19th century and much more substantial coal mining from 1910 up to the 1980s, including an associated coking works, however none of this appears to have had a direct impact on the assessment site. In particular, Fishburn Colliery and Coking Works were situated on the south side of the village.