Monument record NKT 085 - Medieval and post medieval remains at The Rutland Hotel, 33 High Street (ASE) WB

2019: A watching brief observed and recorded the ground investigation contractor’s excavation of geotechnical test pits and borehole starter pits, carried out to inform plans/proposals for hotel refurbishment and redevelopment within its car park. Test pits were mostly positioned to investigate the hotel building foundations.
These identified no deposits of archaeological However, the geotechnical works were of limited depth and their locations disturbed by probable modern underpinning of the historic fabric. A possible pre-modern or even natural, deposit was observed in a test pit along the High Street hotel frontage. The Lower Car Park has been subject to levelling during its construction that has probably involved both cut and fill. Despite this, remnant pre-modern deposits may underlie much of its concrete and tarmac surface and are demonstrated to contain
archaeological remains that include structural features of probable early post-medieval date. Residual Medieval artefacts in some of these underlying deposits may suggest the potential for in situ medieval remains also to be present here. The Upper Car Park may also have been subject to levelling during construction; this may have predominantly involved the raising of the land surface, rather than its reduction. No archaeological features were found here, but relatively substantial deposits underlying made-ground and car park surfaces are probably pre-modern and have the potential to contain such remains. (S1)