ENN110923 - Sheaf Street, 1979 (Watching brief)

{1} Road and sewerage works at the rear of properties fronting Sheaf Street provided an opportunity to investigate the tenement layout on the west side of the street The road cutting (700-800mm deep) exposed a well, stone lined for 5 m, then cut through sandstone for the remainder of its depth. The northern part of the site revealed little stratification in exposed sections. A dark brown ashy layer, associated with Victorian and later use of the site, lay, to a depth of 400 mm, directly above a layer of gingery brown soil derived from the subsoil. Several sherds of late and post-medieval pottery were collected. To the south the road cutting exposed a made-up surface of loosely packed sandstone rubble, reaching a depth of c 1.50 m. In general, there was little evidence of medieval urban occupation.