Archaeological Evaluation at 129 High Street, Normanton, West Yorkshire

ARCUS were commissioned by Tennant Holdings to carry out an archaeological evaluation on land adjacent to the Grade 2 listed building at 129 High Street, Normanton, West Yorkshire. Fieldwork was carried out in December 2007. West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service had recommended the need for a programme of trial trenching prior to granting planning permission for the construction of four residential dwellings. Four trenches totalling 100m#178; were excavated by machine with a toothless ditching bucket. Trenches 2, 3 and 4 contained a made ground layer dating from the late 1980s. This deposit was spread over most of the site becoming deeper towards the north-east. All four trenches contained buried soils from the previous garden level. Trench 2 contained a northeast-southwest aligned land drain cut into the boulder clay and sealed by a buried soil. Trench 3 revealed a rectangular pit containing reinforced concrete, plastic pipe fragments and other twentieth century demolition material. To the south of this pit was a shallow posthole of unknown date. Trench 4 contained six postholes, four of them were clustered together in the centre of the trench. The other two were located towards the south of the trench. The posts may have formed part of a fence line which had been reinstated several times. No finds were recovered.