Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank
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Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank CONTENTS PAGE Figure 1: Site Location Plan 2 Introduction 3 The Excavations 3 Figure 2: Photograph showing general site view, to the E 5 Figure 3: Photograph showing S section of E-W branch of foundations 5 Figure 4: Photograph showing W section of N-S branch of foundations 6 Figure 5: Photograph showing the drainage ditch as excavated, to N 6 Conclusion 7 Recommendation 7 Acknowledgements 7 Discovery and Excavation in Scotland entry 8 Contents of the Archive 9 Report Distribution 9 Photograph Lists 9 Contact Addresses 10 Firat Archaeological Services 1 Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank Firat Archaeological Services 2 Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank Introduction The Golden Hill Daycare Centre (Nursery) at 13 Gavins Road, off Kilbowie Road, Hardgate, Clydebank at NGR NS 4994 7242 are having an extension built on the north side of their property at the above address. A condition of the Planning Consent was that an archaeological watching brief was undertaken of the foundation trenches as the site lies on the line of the Antonine Wall and excavations may have disturbed either the Roman wall or the ditch (vallum) or road associated with it. The exact location of these features in this vicinity is unknown. The excavations were actually carried out without a watching brief and the archaeological recording consisted of cleaning the already excavated trenches and recording by photography, sketches and a written description. The fieldwork was carried out on 28 February 2003, a dry and overcast day, by Fiona Baker. The work was carried out for Mr Graham Johnston and the verbal brief for the archaeological work was agreed between Fiona Baker of Firat Archaeological Services, who were commissioned to undertake the work, and Paul Robins of the West of Scotland Archaeology Service representing West Dunbartonshire Council. The site consists of an irregularly shaped ‘square ‘ building entered from Gavins Road at the southern part of its east side. There is a carpark located on the S side of the building, grassed garden to the east and the soft play area and location of the excavations is on the north where the building lies c. 8m S from its property boundary. There is access to the north courtyard along the W side of the building in a c. 2.5m – 3m wide passageway between the building and its W boundary. It is noticeable and significant that the site lies approximately 1.5m lower than the garden ground to its N and W sides and that it is set into an artificial terrace. The effect of this terracing is most apparent at the N and W sides of the plot and trials off towards the SE. The Excavations The excavation trench for the new foundations is located on the N side of the building and consist of an L shaped trench measuring 4.65m E-W and 2.30m N-S. The foundation trench will link two wings of the building together and it fronts onto the play courtyard of the nursery. The trench is 0.85m wide along the E-W branch and 1.00m wide along the N-S branch. The depth of excavation was 0.63m throughout. The trench had been lying open for a few days and was flooded in the west end and contained some collapse from the edges and rubbish accumulation in the base of the trench. The spoil from the excavations was heaped outside the back gate of the nursery and was inspected visually for artefacts, only a c.1900 lemonade bottle was recovered. The foundation trench was trowel cleaned and the sections cleaned back for recording. Firat Archaeological Services 3 Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank The top 0.15m of deposit was made ground consisting of grey angular Type 1 stone chips which were visible on the surface in the set-back area of the N façade which will form the new room. Underlying the Type 1 were six pipe trenches, four running NNE-SSW, one running E-W and a lead water pipe feeding in to the nursery from the mains. Also a field drain, natural orange clay, a buried sub-soil and the foundation trenches for the standing building which dates to the 1960s. No Roman remains were present. The earliest manmade feature identified was a field drain running N-S across the E-W foundation trench. The drain was a U shaped ditch a maximum 0.70m wide with a lower fill of abundant water rounded small cobbles making up c. 80% of the deposit in a matrix of gleyed and iron panned mottled orange and grey-brown silty clay. The upper fill of 70% sand, 20% silt and 10% clay represents the topsoil backfill of this feature which is probably an agricultural field drain. The uppermost part of the cut had been truncated by the later iron, terracotta and fireclay drains but the ditch survives to a depth of 0.70m and could clearly be seen in the base of the trench where it cuts the natural orange boulder clay / glacial till. To the east of this ditch the ground is all redeposited make-up associated with the construction of the building and is cut by 2 pipes and also the foundation cut for the standing building which is filled with redeposited dirty mottled orange-brown clay. The pipes are a fireclay drain in a gravel backfill and a blue plastic water pipe propped up on stones in a sand backfill. The redeposited levelling and make-up deposits appear largely to be derived from garden or agricultural topsoils. Plastic and broken roofing tiles as per those on the standing building were present throughout. To the west of the field drain ditch two other pipes are present cut into the orange clay natural, a disused iron pipe and an unglazed terracotta drainage pipe both running NE- SW. To the west of these pipes there is a 0.10m thick layer of compact homogenous orange clay 60%, sand 40% which is quite distinct from the underlying orange clay. This deposit appears to be an undisturbed earlier ground surface. It may be an upper subsoil or a buried turf layer. This deposit continues into the shorter N-S branch of the foundations before it is truncated by pipe trench cuts for a lead water pipe main feed and two plastic water pipes, a fireclay drain running E-W and the foundation cut for the standing building. The N-S branch of the foundation trenches was flooded but it was determined that natural orange clay was present throughout the base of the trench. This trench was cut by an E-W water pipe and a fireclay drain. The blue plastic water pipe is the same pipe as seen in the E-W trench. The foundation cut and fill for the standing building was clearly visible. Firat Archaeological Services 4 Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank Figure 2: Photograph showing general site view to the E following cleaning of trenches. Note N-S ditch in bottom of trench. Figure 3: Photograph showing the E end of the S section of the E-W branch of the foundations indicating typical deposits. Firat Archaeological Services 5 Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank Figure 4: Photograph showing W section of the N-S branch of the foundations. Figure 5: Photograph showing the drainage ditch running N-S across the E-W branch of the foundations (see Figure 2) following excavation. Firat Archaeological Services 6 Golden Hill Daycare Centre, 13 Gavins Road, Hardgate, Clydebank Conclusion It appears that prior to the construction of the present building there may have been an earlier building of later 19th century date in the vicinity. Some of the drainage pipes and the late 19th century lemonade bottle suggest activity in the close proximity but there was a dearth of artefacts with plastic and late 20th century roof tiles dominating the finds assemblage. The redeposited soils of the levelling and make-up appear largely to be derived from garden or agricultural topsoils and the absence of artefacts dating to before mid-20th century building debris suggests no building had been demolished on the site. The field drain and the buried ground surface are the only pre-20th century features present in the foundation trench. Neither produced dating material. The site has obviously been terraced into which would have badly truncated any archaeological remains. To stretch the imagination it is possible that the orange sandy clay old ground surface / subsoil is the base of the Roman level, it could have been buried under a bank and there is nothing to say the truncated field drain is not Roman as it is undated. However, there is no proof that these features do not represent truncated agricultural ground, which is most likely. Recommendation The owners of the Nursery indicate that they are considering building in the carpark area to the south of the nursery building. The foundation trenches on the north of the building and general site observation could be considered as an evaluation for any possible excavations in the carpark area. However, the carpark area does not appear to have been quite so severely terraced and as such it might have greater potential for archaeological survival. My recommendation is for archaeological monitoring of controlled machine removal of hard surfaces and any modern deposits with an allowance of time built in after the site clearance excavation before building work to allow archaeological excavation if necessary.