Archaeological trial trenching, machine strip and record exercise and watching brief at Northowram Hospital, Northowram, Halifax, West Yorkshire

ARCUS were commissioned by Persimmon Homes (West Yorkshire) Limited to undertake a further programme of archaeological evaluation by trial trenching (Trenches 1-12), a machine strip and record exercise (Areas A and B), and a watching brief (Areas 1-3), on the site of a residential development at Northowram Hospital, Northowram, Halifax, West Yorkshire (centred on NGR SE 111 277). The archaeological works were required as a condition of planning approval. Northowram Hall is thought to have been constructed on the site of the deserted medieval settlement of Whithill, mentioned in the Wakefield Manor Court Rolls from the thirteenth century. Its exact location has not been defined, but it is thought to have occupied the southern half of the development, adjacent to the hall. A series of owners of the land were mentioned throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods. Previous evaluation works at the site revealed a ditch and post-hole of medieval (eleventh- to thirteenth-century) date, in addition to post-medieval (seventeenth- to nineteenth-century) features potentially associated with a building known as the Dry House, located on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map of the site. The building was probably associated with cloth production. Contemporary and later features, in the form of numerous stone culverts and land drains, were also identified. The recent fieldwork revealed several features, mainly relating to the nineteenth-century Hall and landscaped grounds, and the later use of the site as a hospital. Trenches 1, 2, 3 4, 6 and 12 revealed primarily post-medieval or early modern features. This included probable garden features close to the Hall (Trench 1), the cellar of a demolished post- medieval/early modern building and a path close to cottages on Hall Lane (Trench 2), and a post-medieval/early modern field boundary towards the northern extents of the site (Trench 4). Undated features included a probable linear field boundary not apparent on earlier maps of the site (Trench 2). Trenches 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 contained solely modern features associated with Northowram Hospital buildings, construction of which appeared to have severely disturbed previous ground levels on the site. The strip and record exercise revealed two post-medieval/early modern walls (Area A), probably part of a outbuilding or shed to the north-east of the Hall, in addition to more recent structures associated with the Hospital. The watching brief in the area of the previous evaluation (Area 1) revealed further wall foundations and deposits potentially associated with a Dry House building and Kitchen Garden located on an 1861 sale plan. The bulk of artefacts recovered from the site were ceramics, primarily of nineteenth- century date, reflecting the period of construction and initial occupation of the current Hall building. Medieval (twelfth- to thirteenth-century) and early post-medieval (seventeenth- to early eighteenth-century) pottery was recovered from the site, though not in any quantity and mixed in with later deposits. Other materials recovered included glass, clay tobacco pipe, animal bone and slag.