Watching Brief at St Helen's Church, Amotherby, North Yorkshire

The excavations were divided into two principal elements. One consisted of the excavation for the insertion of a new soakaway and the other the shallow trenches linking the church to the new soakaway. The soakaway trench was a maximum of c. 0.90m deep, whilst the linking trenches were 0.25m deep adjacent to the church walls and deepened to a maximum of 0.45m deep adjacent to the soakaway itself. Excavation for the soakaway trench was initially commenced towards the southwest end, closest to the church. During this initial excavation a probable grave was identified towards the western end, comprising a presumed in-situ skull (103) at the basal limit of excavation (at a depth of 0.92m below the modern ground surface - Plate 1). This appeared to be within an east-west aligned grave 104 (Plate 2). Due to the presence of the burial at this level the excavation depth required for the installation of the soakaway crates was reduced slightly to a maximum of 0.85m (Plate 3). Through this slight reduction to the excavation depth no further potential graves or human remains were observed. The overlying sequence of deposits comprised up to 0.65m thickness of light to mid reddish brown clay sand (101), graveyard soil, sealed by 0.20m of modern topsoil (100). These were the only two deposits recorded within the narrower, shallower linking trenches. The northeast corner of the church included a concrete underpinned foundation (102) (Plate 4), suggesting that the ground along that arm of linking trenching had been previously excavated, during the relatively recent past.