St Thomas’ Churchyard, Park Lane, Liverpool: Archaeological Watching Brief

In October 2009 and January 2010 Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) undertook a watching brief on Site LA6A of the Paradise Street Development Area (PSDA) project located in Liverpool city centre (SJ 3455 8982), on behalf of Grosvenor. Site LA6A is a triangular area located between the southern end of Paradise Street and Park Lane and was formerly the site of St Thomas’s Church and graveyard.
The site was being developed as an area of urban park, requiring landscaping. The graveyard has never been deconsecrated and any below ground impact required a faculty from the Diocese of Liverpool to enable ground works to proceed. In order to facilitate this, and to ensure that there was limited impact to the graves which were less than 0.5m below the surface, the design of the park provided for minimal below ground impact. The landscaping works included the remodelling of the area with the addition of a retaining wall, tree pits and seating area to create St Thomas’ Memorial Garden. Despite this, there was some anticipated invasive impact, requiring a watching brief. The watching brief was undertaken in accordance a project design compiled by OA North (Appendix 1), and was approved by the Diocesan Archaeologist. This followed on from an earlier watching brief, during which numerous grave ledgers and grave plots were uncovered in the north-western part of the site (OA North 2005), and was required to establish the survival of graves and the location of that of Joseph Williamson. The intention during this secondary phase of investigation was to provide a mitigative record of any extant remains uncovered as a result of the landscaping process.