The results of the five watching brief trenches and one evaluation trench opened on the site suggest the area directly around the pumping station building has been disturbed by the installation of the pumping station. Sheet piling was recorded in one of the watching brief trenches and the evaluation trench and within this area truncation was evident. To the south of the sheet piling at the west of the evaluation trench modern made ground overlay 19th-century made ground possibly indicates levelling of the area prior to later 19th-century development on the site although ground disturbance in the 19th-century and later has compromised survival in localised areas. Relatively clean soil deposits below this levelling are suggests either the remains of localised soil affected by overbank flooding next to the river before the 19th-century development of the site. This deposit overlay the natural sands and gravels encountered at c 1.45m OD or c 3.75m below ground level (bgl). The impact of bulk ground excavations and ground clearances to enable the construction of the dry weather flow pumping station will be to remove any surviving archaeological deposits within its footprint. The geotechnical exercise and subsequent archaeological evaluation has demonstrated that there remains a low potential for deposit survival within the HAMPS site. Any such remains are likely to be of low significance. No direct evidence for human activity was identified within the evaluation trench although clearly pockets of in situ natural soil horizons survive, that may have been cut by archaeological features.
Pat Miller (Fri,) studied this question.