Event/Activity EPM28 - Archaeological watching brief at 55 Havant Road, North End

An archaeological watching brief was carried out by CKC Archaeology at 55 Havant Road, North End, Portsmouth, in May 2003. The work was a requirement of a planning condition for the proposed redevelopment of the site. Archaeological monitoring took place on groundworks associated with the construction of a two/three storey block of flats. The site lay on the edge of what had been a large agricultural open field called Beeston Field during the medieval and post-medieval period. The field was enclosed in 1822 and remained in agricultural use until between 1879 and 1898, when the area was developed. Archaeological features recorded during the watching brief comprised three 19th/early-20th century pits. One very large pit in the eastern part of the site was thought to have been a gravel pit dug immediately before urban development in the 1880s and early-1890s. No archaeological features earlier than the 19th century were encountered. Accession number: 2002/582