Site Event/Activity record ESF21361 - Land Adjacent to Lancaster Hall, Tollgate Lane, Bury St Edmunds

Monitoring of footing trenches revealed no archaeological features or finds. Four site visits were made to monitor two sets of footing trenches and the accompanying drains runs ahead of building two houses on the former allotment gardens adjacent to Lancaster Hall. A misunderstanding meant that the building work was underway before the condition had been discharged. To accommodated the developer it was agreed to change the terms of the condition to a monitoring of all the groundworks. The excavations of the footings trenches demonstrated that the chalk of the solid geology was close to the present surface, particularly on the westernside of the site, in some places covered by less than 30cm of topsoil. The surface of the chalk was uneven and was overlain by gravelly orange sand, which ovvurred largely in the eastern building footing (S1).