Watching Brief at 1 Cote Faw, Hambleton Cottages, Hambleton

The watching brief comprised the continuous archaeological monitoring of the groundworks necessary for the development. This was in order to establish the presence/absence, nature, extent and preservation of any archaeological remains and to ensure that any archaeological deposits encountered could be recorded. The excavation of foundation trenches and the ground reduction of the development footprint by mechanical excavator were conducted under direct archaeological supervision (Figure 5). The archaeologist was then given the opportunity to inspect the exposed surfaces and sides of the excavations in order to assess any potential archaeology. Standard On-Site Archaeology techniques were followed throughout the investigation and a photographic record was also maintained. All deposits encountered were issued with unique context numbers for ease of reference. It is standard practice to distinguish between deposits (identified by the use of round brackets) and cuts (shown by the use of square brackets). A full catalogue of context descriptions, drawings and photographs is provided in Appendix 1. No evidence of the Casten Dyke was identified during the watching brief. The relatively shallow, recent topsoil and former construction overburden, which overlay the natural sandstone deposits, appears to indicate previous landscaping and levelling of the development site possibly associated with the construction of the former buildings. Despite the modern levelling, were a substantial, prehistoric boundary ditch, truncating the natural deposits, or remnants of an associated levelled bank to be present within the footprint of the development, it would have been possible to identify archaeologically. It is therefore likely that the line of the Casten Dyke lies to the north of development site, possibly within the reduced and levelled area of Hambleton Lodge immediately to the north of the site (See Plate 5).