St Paul's Square, Liverpool: Archaeological Watching Brief

In 2001 English Cities Fund (ECF) submitted proposals (planning reference 040/00130) to construct five large multi-storey buildings on a former municipal carpark at St Paul's Square, Liverpool (SJ 3390 9066). The development site was previously occupied by an eighteenth-centruy church and burial ground, and, in respect of this archaeological potential, Merseyside Archaeology Service (MAS) dictated that a conditin of the development should be the undertaking of an associated programme of archaeological works. Accordingly, CgMS Newark (formerly John Samuels Archaeologial Consultants, JSAC), on behalf of ECF, compiled a specification and commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) as the on-site archaeological contractor. In 2005, a trial-trench evaluation with the church and its graveyard revealed substantial foundations and disarticulated human bones, whilst a watching brief to the west of the church revealed the truncated remains of post-medieval buildings. This document reports on three subsequent stages of watching brief on groundworks undertaken at the site in September 2006, March-June 2007 and, most recently, September-October 2009.