56 Carlisle Road Brampton, Carlisle, Cumbria: Archaeological Watching Brief

1.1 A planning application (1/12/0645) was made by Ian Simpson for the construction of a small residential bungalow on a plot of land previousley used as an orchard behind and adjacent to number 56 Carlisle road (Fig 1). Historic Environment Service (CCCHES) attached a condition to the planning application, stipulating that a archaeological watching brief should be conducted during intrusive ground works. These requirements were conveyed to Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) and a Written Scheme of Investigation was provided, see Appendix 1. OA North were subsequently commissioned to provide the watching brief.

1.2 The site lies within land that has, until recently, been used as an orchard, to the rear of cottages fronting onto the Carlisle Road. The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1864 shows properties on approximately the same locations as presently, with orchards to their rear (north). The walls surrounding the largest orchard plot may be of some antiquity and the Heritage Environment Record records structural remains of a sixteenth-century building (Perriam and Robinson 1998, 140) preserved within the present-day walls. The existence of this building suggests archaeological evidence for domestic or backyard features may be preserved within the area of the orchard