In order to determine the archaeological risk posed by a proposal to develop land at The Royal George PH, 57 High Street, Stagsden Bedfordshire, the Heritage Network was commissioned by the developers to undertake a programme of archaeological evaluation. Four trial trenches were opened across the proposed development area. The investigation showed that the southern side of the site has been subject to post-medieval and modern disturbance. The majority of the dateable features encountered on the site were of the modern period. These include two postholes in Trench 1, cuts 102 and 105, demolition debris and modern disturbance in Trench 2 and the car park surface, contexts (400) and (401) for the former Royal George public house in Trench 4. The remaining features and layers, including cut 303 in Trench 3 and layer (403) in Trench 4 appear to date to the post-medieval period, indicated by the presence of brick fragments in both the upper fill of 303 and in layer (403). Two possible natural features were also observed in Trench 1, cuts 104 and 107. These are likely to represent root action in the rear garden of the former public house.
Helen Ashworth (Fri,) studied this question.