National Trust Central Office Project Great Western Railway Works
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NATIONAL TRUST CENTRAL OFFICE PROJECT GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY WORKS SWINDON WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION CA PROJECT: 1429 CA REPORT: 02099 Author: Alistair Barber Approved: Neil Holbrook Signed: ……………………………………………………………. Issue: 01 Date: SEPTEMBER 2002 This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report entirely at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission. © Cotswold Archaeology Headquarters Building, Kemble Business Park, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 6BQ Tel. 01285 771022 Fax. 01285 771033 E-mail: [email protected] National Trust Central Office Project, GWR Works, Swindon: Archaeological Evaluation © Cotswold Archaeology CONTENTS SUMMARY........................................................................................................................4 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 5 The site ................................................................................................................ 5 Archaeological background.................................................................................. 6 Archaeological objectives .................................................................................... 7 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 7 2. RESULTS................................................................................................................... 8 Trench 1............................................................................................................... 8 Trench 2A ............................................................................................................ 9 Trench 2B ............................................................................................................ 10 Trench 3............................................................................................................... 11 Trench 4............................................................................................................... 11 Trench 5............................................................................................................... 12 Trench 6............................................................................................................... 12 3. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................... 12 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 12 Prehistoric – early post-medieval......................................................................... 13 Later post-medieval and modern ......................................................................... 13 4. CA PROJECT TEAM.................................................................................................. 15 5. REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 15 APPENDIX 1: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS...................................................................... 17 APPENDIX 2: LEVELS OF PRINCIPAL DEPOSITS AND STRUCTURES...................... 20 APPENDIX 3: STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE BY RICHARD K. MORRISS ............... 21 2 National Trust Central Office Project, GWR Works, Swindon: Archaeological Evaluation © Cotswold Archaeology LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan Fig. 2 Proposed development area Fig. 3 Trench location plan showing principal archaeological deposits Fig. 4 Trench 1: showing reinforced concrete surface 102 in background, and Points and Crossing Shop wall footing 105 and floor 106 in foreground Fig. 5 Trench 1: wall footing 105, cut into coal and clinker deposit 104, and brick-built ?service spur 107 Fig. 6 Trench 2A: showing concrete floor foundation 204/211 and modern cut 213 Fig. 7 Trench 2A: sandstone wall 206 with associated narrow brick-built culvert 207 Fig. 8 Trench 2B: concrete floor 228 and adjacent hard-standing 230. Fig. 9 Trench 4: sandstone wall footing 406, associated concrete floor foundation 403 and brick-built structure 408. Fig. 10 Trench 5: concrete machine-base or stamping floor 504 and concrete floor 506 Fig. 11 Trench 6: brick floors 607 and 608, and machinery/structural fixings set within concrete 606. 3 National Trust Central Office Project, GWR Works, Swindon: Archaeological Evaluation © Cotswold Archaeology SUMMARY Site Name: National Trust Central Office Project, Great Western Railway Works Location: Swindon, Wiltshire NGR: ST 14300 85000 Type: Evaluation Date: 11th-20th September 2002 Site Code: GWR 02 An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in September 2002 at the request of the National Trust within the area of the former Great Western Railway Works in Swindon. The evaluation follows on from a desk-based archaeological assessment of the site undertaken in August 2002 (CAT 2002) and forms part of a programme of archaeological investigation to accompany a planning application for the proposed development of the site by the National Trust as its new central office. In compliance with an approved project design six trenches were excavated across the proposed development area. Nineteenth and twentieth-century structural remains associated with the former Railway Works were encountered. Although demolition and landscaping works have entirely removed upstanding structures such as walls and machinery, other structural remains in the form of ground-level features such as floors and below-ground remains such as drains and footings, do survive across the site. The surfaces of the remains are typically within 0.09m to 0.51m of the modern ground surface. Whilst the truncated remains of these structures in isolation are not of particular archaeological value they do have a significance by virtue of being intrinsic elements of the GWR works, the largest integrated railway works in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century. This significance does not in itself preclude the site from redevelopment provided that a suitable mitigation strategy is developed. 4 National Trust Central Office Project, GWR Works, Swindon: Archaeological Evaluation © Cotswold Archaeology 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In September 2002 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological evaluation for the National Trust at the former Great Western Railway Works, Swindon (centred on NGR: ST 1430 8540; Fig. 1). The evaluation was undertaken to accompany a planning application for the proposed development of new central offices. 1.2 The evaluation was carried out in accordance with a brief for archaeological recording (NT 2002) prepared by the National Trust, and with a subsequent detailed project specification produced by CA (2002) and approved by the LPA acting on the advice of Mr. Roy Canham, Wiltshire County Council Archaeology Service. The fieldwork also followed the Standard and Guidance for Archaeological Field Evaluation issued by the Institute of Field Archaeologists (1999) and the Standards for Archaeological Assessment and Field Evaluation in Wiltshire (WCC 1995). 1.3 Site visits were made by Martin Hyde, Archaeology Research Assistant, National Trust Conservation Directorate and by Liz Smith, Conservation Assistant, Swindon Borough Council, on the 17th September 2002 in order to view the progress and results of the evaluation. The evaluation was also visited by Richard K Morriss, a recognised expert in railway history and archaeology, who is acting as a sub- consultant to CA. Mr Morriss has produced a statement on the significance of the remains which forms Appendix 3 of this report. The site 1.4 The approximately 1.6ha site lies in the centre of Swindon. It is bounded to the north-west by Kemble Drive, to the east and north-east by a minor access road and traffic island, and to the south and west by Listed buildings now associated with the Great Western Outlet Village (Fig. 2). The site is relatively flat and lies at approximately 102.30m Above Ordnance Datum (AOD). 1.5 The underlying solid geology of the area is mapped by the British Geological Survey as Kimmeridge Clay of the Upper Jurassic period (BGS 1974, sheet 252). A 5 National Trust Central Office Project, GWR Works, Swindon: Archaeological Evaluation © Cotswold Archaeology superficial deposit of Made Ground is mapped over the clay in the area of the former Railway Works, including the current site. This category of artificial ground is defined as ground known to have been deposited by man on the former natural ground surface, including landraise, waste deposits, etc (BGS 1999, 5). 1.6 The proposed development area currently encompasses an overflow car park, waste ground, landscaped verges and access roads adjacent to the Great Western Outlet Village. Archaeological background 1.7 An archaeological desk-based assessment of the proposed development area was undertaken as the first part of a staged programme of archaeological site investigation (CAT 2002). A historical map regression exercise has also been carried out by the National Trust (Hyde 2002). Reference to these studies should be made for detailed information on the historic development of the site. 1.8 In summary the desk-based assessment indicated that the site lay within an area of archaeological potential. The