Experts are digging into York’s past as part of the Queen Street Bridge works – and they’ve uncovered some forgotten relics.
As part of the project to demolish the bridge, York Archaeology is exploring a part of the city that has been buried for around 150 years.
Work to create a new temporary road through the York Station car park has yielded some fascinating results.
The current railway station opened in 1877. ‘Scoria’ bricks – made from blast furnace slag from the industrial North – would have lined the approaches to the station. Large areas of these have been revealed.
Project manager for York Archaeology, Mary-Anne Slater said: “This is an area that has been substantially disturbed by building works during the Victorian era.
“Beneath the flags, we have found drainage ditches from the 19th century, and below them, evidence of large medieval ditches containing broken green glaze pottery and animal bones dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
“This area outside the city walls was agricultural land during the medieval period, and the ditches may have been used for dumping rubbish from the medieval city.”
Although it is known that a Roman cemetery existed on this site, archaeologists are yet to excavate any skeletons comparable with those found previously at York Station.
But some disturbed human bone fragments have been recovered in part of the trench, probably lifted from lower levels by ploughing.
Transport lead on City of York Council Cllr Pete Kilbane said: “From previous work in the York Station area we know that there is a high possibility of Roman burials being present.
“York Archaeology is on site monitoring the work to ensure that any archaeological deposits are excavated and recorded before works progress.
“I want to thank all the teams involved over the weekend for their hard work to ensure that the diversion road was open ahead of schedule, which is a great achievement.”
Archaeological exploration will continue below the Queen Street bridge site once the bridge itself has been removed this weekend, and before the new permanent road is installed.