Youth House, St Mary's Road, Luton, Bedfordshire
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Youth House, St Mary’s Road, Luton, Bedfordshire An Archaeological Evaluation for Luton Carnival Arts Development Trust by Sarah Coles and Steve Ford Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code YHL04/114 December 2004 Summary Site name: Youth House, St Mary’s Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. Grid reference: TL 9600 2115 Site activity: Evaluation trenching Date and duration of project: 9th–11th December 2004 Project manager: Steve Ford Site supervisor: Sarah Coles Site code: YHL04/114 Area of site: 0.2ha Summary of results: None of the trenches dug revealed archaeological deposits. Many services and much modern dumping were present. Monuments identified: None Location and reference of archive: The archive is currently held by Thames Valley Archaeological Services, 47-49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5NR and will be deposited with Luton Museum in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Report edited/checked by: Joanna Pine9 24.12.04 Jenny Diakow9 24.12.04 i Youth House, St Mary’s Road, Luton, Bedfordshire An Archaeological Evaluation by Sarah Coles and Steve Ford Report 04/114 Introduction This report documents the results of an archaeological field evaluation carried out at Youth House, St Mary’s Road, Luton, Bedfordshire (TL 9600 2115) (Fig.1). The work was commissioned by Mr Tim Holt of Luton Carnival Arts Development Trust, c/o The Hat Factory, 65-67 Bute Street, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 2EY. Planning permission is to be sought from Luton Borough Council to redevelop the site. This investigation was required to inform the planning process in accordance with the Department of the Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance, Archaeology and Planning (PPG16 1990), and the Borough Council’s policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Ismail Mohammed of Luton Borough Council, as advised by Mr Martin Oake of the Heritage Section, Bedfordshire County Council. The fieldwork was supervised by Sarah Coles in December 2004 and the site code is YHL 04/114. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Luton Museum in due course. Location, topography and geology The site is located on the eastern margins of the town centre just to the south east of the parish church of St Mary’s. St Mary’s Road forms the north-western boundary of the site and Vicarage Street, the eastern boundary. The University of Luton lies to the south. The site is rectangular with an access road off Chapel Street. The site was formerly a plant contractor’s yard with Tarmac and concrete surfaces present, and with several upstanding structures. The site comprises an irregular area of c. 0.2ha and is substantially occupied by Youth House, which is still in use. Remaining areas are grassed and traversed by footpaths, or are hard standing areas for carparks. Several large trees (locations not illustrated) were also present. The current site usage and presence of many obstructions seriously curtailed the positioning and digging of the evaluation trenches as intended. The site is located at a height of c. 106m above Ordnance Datum with the underlying geology comprising glacial sand and gravel (BGS 1992). A shallow thickness of reddish brown clay with flint pebbles and sand 1 patches observed in some of the trenches may correspond with this description but in other trenches, the natural geology comprised a yellowish brown chalky clay. Archaeological and cartographic background Luton’s recorded history begins as early as AD792 when it is referred to as Lygetun. Domesday Book (1086) calls it Loitone (Mills 1991, 228). The place-name itself means ‘farmstead on the (River) Lea’ and combines the Celtic river name with the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) -tun. The manor was granted to Robert, Earl of Gloucester by Henry I (VCH 1972). Of most significance for this project is the reference to the presence of a castle built by Fulk de Bheauté in 1221. This castle is in fact the second castle within Luton. The first, built in 1139 by Robert de Waudari was pulled down 15 years later. This castle has been reliably located on Castle Street to the south of the proposal site (Austin 1927; Dyer et al 1964; Coles, in press). It is considered that the location of Fulk de Bheauté’s castle is located somewhere in the vicinity of St Mary’s Church (BCC 2003). Castles often attracted ancillary settlement providing goods and services for the occupants of the castle and it is possible that the castle or such extra-mural settlement would be present on the current site. The site lies in an area beyond the historic core of Luton as it was in 1842 (Fig. 3) but was developed in the late 19th and 20th century expansion of the town. The current buildings on the site were constructed in relatively recent times. Evaluation Objectives and methodology The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the presence/absence, extent, condition, character, quality and date of any archaeological or palaeoenvironmental deposits within the area of development. Specific research aims were to determine if archaeologically relevant levels have survived on site, to determine if archaeological deposits representing deposits associated with the medieval castle were present and to establish if archaeology has survived from any period on this site. Four trenches were proposed. The trenches were to be positioned around the margins of the site (as the in- use structure occupied the central area). However, this usage also extended to carparking on the western margins, and were therefore inaccessible to this evaluation. The trenches were intended to be 15m long and 1.60m wide but the lengths were curtailed due to access problems. They were dug by a JCB-type machine with a toothless 2 ditching bucket. The trenches were dug under constant archaeological supervision. All spoilheaps were monitored for finds. A list of trenches giving lengths, breadths, depths and a description of sections and geology is presented in Appendix 1. Results (Figures 4 and 5) The four trenches were dug in the positions shown in Figure 4 and ranged in length from 5.2m to 16.6m. Trench 1 Trench 1 was aligned NW–SE and was 16.6m long. The stratigraphy consisted of turf/topsoil above made ground. This overlay a reddish brown sandy clay with flint pebbles and sand patches, which is either a subsoil layer or a thin layer of natural geology. This in turn overlay a yellowish brown chalky clay which is most certainly a natural geological deposit. Several live modern services were present in the south - eastern portion of the trench, which limited investigation of this area. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered. Trench 2 Trench 2 was aligned N–S and was 10.0m long. The stratigraphy again consisted of turf/topsoil above made ground. This overlay the same reddish brown sandy clay with flint pebbles and sand patches as in trench 1 and also the yellowish brown chalky clay natural. A test pit was dug to a depth of 1.9m at the northern end to confirm the geological sequence. This trench contained many services and footings made of brick and concrete, reflecting the presence of previous structures on the site. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered. Trench 3 (Plate 1) Trench 2 was aligned NW–SE and was 8.5m long. The stratigraphy again consisted of turf/topsoil above made ground which overlay the yellowish brown chalky clay natural seen previously, but without the presence of the reddish brown sandy clay with flint pebbles. It is possible that this material has been truncated in relatively recent times, or is simply a superficial deposit not present extensively. This trench also contained services and the southern portion of the site could not be excavated to fully expose the natural geology. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered. 3 Trench 4 Trench 4 was aligned N–S and was 5.2m long. The stratigraphy revealed consisted of turf/topsoil above made ground. However, a modern live electricity cable lay along the whole length of the trench and digging was abandoned at a depth of 0.50m with no natural geology being exposed. No archaeology was observed and no artefacts were recovered. Finds No finds were recovered. Conclusion The full extent of all four trenches could not be excavated due to severe access problems and the presence of many live services. The natural geology was exposed in most of the trenches buried beneath much made ground. No deposits of archaeological interest were observed cutting this natural geology. The spoilheaps were also examined for finds but no material earlier than those from the late post-medieval and modern periods were observed. On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that the site has low archaeological potential. References Austin, W, 1927, The History of Luton and its Hamlets, Newport, Isle of Wight BCC 2003, Extensive Urban Survey for Bedfordshire: Luton Archaeological Assessment, Bedfordshire County Council, Bedford BGS, 1992, British Geological Survey, 1:50 000, Sheet 220, Solid and Drift Edition, Keyworth Coles, S, (in press), ‘Excavation at Castle Street, Luton. Robert de Waudari’s Castle’, Bedfordshire Archaeol Dyer, J, Stygall, F and Dony, J, 1964, The Story of Luton, Luton Mills, A D, 1991, Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, Oxford PPG16, 1990, Archaeology and Planning, Dept Environment Planning Policy Guidance 16, HMSO VCH, 1972, Victoria County History of Bedfordshire, Volume 2, London, (re-printed) 4 APPENDIX 1: Trench details 0m at S or W end Trench No.