Event/Activity EPM153 - Watching brief at Land to rear of The Lanyard (Former Baptist Church) London Road/Heathfield Road, North End Portsmouth, Hampshire

A watching brief was carried out by Wessex Archaeology on land to the rear of The Lanyard (Former Baptist Church) London Road/Heathfield Road, North End in 2010. The excavation of groundwork's for new residential accommodation with associated refuse/cycle storage and communal area were observed. The groundworks (primary foundation trenches) were excavated by a mechanical digger using a 0.60m and 0.90m bucket, to a maximum depth of 1.2m below natural ground level. The stratigraphy of the site generally consisted of approximately 0.50m of demolition rubble and mixed topsoil, which overlay 0.30-0.40m of natural dark grey silty subsoil, with brickearth beneath. Where modern service trenches had cut the brickearth at two locations across the site it was possible to see the underlying plateau gravel, which lay between 0.90-1.20m below the modern ground surface. The onlyarchaeological features observed during the watching brief were foundation trenches, and two pits. Only one of these features, a pit, could be dated. Accession number: 2014/285