East Front Fountain Cabb, Hampton Court Palace

The East Front Fountain at Hampton Court Palace was refurbished as part of the Jubilee Project. The work included the provision of an electrical supply to service new submersible pumps and underwater lighting to the fountain. In August 2002 Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out a watching brief on the ground works in the East Front Garden. A 400 mm wide and 600 mm deep cable trench was excavated by mini-excavator from Tennis Court corridor, through the herbaceous border and along the gravelled walk to the East Front Fountain. The works were monitored by a qualified archaeologist. Where the cable trench crossed the herbaceous borders a garden soil was recorded to a depth of 500 mm with the remaining depth being composed of a natural, dark orangey brown brick-earth deposit. Where the cable trench crossed the gravel walk the sequence was composed of the all-weather surface overlying a mixed silty clay deposit that contained modern CBM material. No deposits/structures of archaeological significance were observed du ing the ground works.