Report on archaeological evaluation at Victoria Road, Edmonton (VCR20)

An archaeological evaluation was carried out by MOLA at Victoria Road, Edmonton, London, N9 9PA ('the site') between 30.11.2020 and 02.12.2020. Three trenches were excavated and revealed four pits, three linear robber cuts and a brick/tile box drain. All features were post-medieval, dated c. 19th century to modern, and represented building activity, possible quarrying, and the site's use as gardens. The general sequence of deposits was consistent across the site: natural comprised orange sandy gravel (18), under a c. 300mm to 450mm thick layer of mid-brown sily clay subsoil (17), which was overlain a 300mm to 500mm think layer of dark brown loam topsoil with turf (16). The surface of untruncated natural gravel (18) was found at 13.59m OD in the south-east (Trench 1), rising to 13.79m OD in the west (Trench 2), and 13.99m OD in the north (Trench 3). Subsoil deposit (17) was found between 13.90m to 14.15m OD in Trench 1 and at between 14.20m and 14.50m OD in Trenches 2 and 3. Assessing the results from all the trenches, and dating evidence where it exists, it appears that scant archaeological remains survive on site. The finds assemblage from the site was very small and this material is exclusively post-medival and almost entirely 19th to 20th century in date. The function of pits found in Trenches 1 and 2 is unclear but pits [4] and [10] were stratigraphically late and may relate to garden activity, while pits [6] and [2] may be associated with quarrying dated to the 19th century and perhaps slightly earlier post-medieval period, respectively. The scattered presence of charcoal, CBM flecks, and occasional traces of animal bone through out the subsoil suggest that this layer may represent extensively reworked and redeposited brickearth. Little evidence survives of the 19th century buildings seen on the OS map of 1867 (see Fig 4), which stood on the site prior to the construction of Victoria Road and the extant houses, as seen on the OS map of 1897 (not illustrated). No foundations, floor surfaces or other structure features related to these buildings were found. The rubble and mortar layer (20), located beneath topsoil and subsoil in Trench 2, probably represents a trample layer formed during the demolition. The robbing out of the buildings appears to have been unusually thorough and wide-spread and is represented by cuts [8]/[15] and [12], which appear to have entirely removed the foundations, as well as the almost complete removal of drain (13), which was presumably associated with the buildings. The vast majority of the building material from the demolition does not appear to have remained on site. Robbing out could have salvaged some building material with intrinsic value, such as bricks, but may have been chiefly for another purpose. Such rubble would have been an extremely convenient material for the raising of the ground over Milestone Alley and the creation of Victoria Road directly adjacent to the west of the site in the late 19th century

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