St Michael's Church, Basingstoke, Hampshire. Archaeological Watching Brief

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned to undertake a programme of archaeological monitoring and recording during excavation and installation of a new drainage and water mains connection to the south-west corner of St Michaels Church, for the purpose of installing new W/C facilities. The works monitored during the programme of Archaeological Monitoring and Recording consisted of the combined mechanical and manual excavation of six trenches (trenches 1 - 2 and 6 outside and trenches 3 - 5 within St Michael's Church) to establish a connection with an existing water main (under the entrance to the car park) and to create a new drainage run. The trenches were between c. 0.45 m and 1.40 m wide and between 0.75 m and 1.5 m in depth. The attending archaeologist monitored all mechanical excavations within the specified area. Where necessary, the surfaces of uncovered archaeological deposits were cleaned by hand to aid visual definition. A sample of archaeological features and deposits was hand-excavated, sufficient to address the project aims. Spoil from machine stripping and hand-excavated archaeological deposits was visually scanned for the purposes of finds retrieval. Artefacts were collected and bagged by context. All artefacts from excavated contexts were retained, although those from features of modern date (19th century or later) were recorded on site and not retained. All exposed archaeological deposits and features were recorded using Wessex Archaeology's pro forma recording system. A complete record of excavated features and deposits was made, including plans and sections drawn to appropriate scales (generally 1:20 or 1:50 for plans and 1:10 for sections) and tied to the Ordnance Survey (OS) National Grid. A Leica GNSS connected to Leica's SmartNet service surveyed the location of archaeological features. All survey data is recorded in OS National Grid coordinates and heights above OD (Newlyn), as defined by OSTN15and OSGM15, with a three-dimensional accuracy of at least 50 mm. A full photographic record was made using digital cameras equipped with an image sensor of not less than 10 megapixels. Digital images have been subject to managed quality control and curation processes, which has embedded appropriate metadata within the image and will ensure long term accessibility of the image set. Where human remains were encountered these were either recorded in situ or reburied as close to the location in which they were found as possible. A total of six trenches were observed during the works, three located in the churchyard and parking area, and three within the church itself. All six trenches revealed layers of modern and post-medieval made ground relating to previous installation of utilities, bedding layers for the car park and footpath and levelling/construction layers associated with phases of redevelopment, improvement and extension to the church itself. A small assemblage of post-medieval pottery and animal bone was recovered during the works, with various occurrences of disarticulated human remains identified and recorded on site prior to reburial, with some left in situ. Within Trench 5, located inside the church building, two red brick vaults containing single burials were identified. The burials were fully recorded and left in situ. It is believed that these also pertain to post-medieval activity.