Doncaster Road, Kirk Sandall, South Yorkshire- Evaluation Report

In November 2001, Oxford Archaeology North carried out an archaeological evaluation of land adjacent to Doncaster Road, at Kirk Sandall Industrial Estate, c 1km west of Kirk Sandall, South Yorkshire (SE 6108 0700). The evaluation was conducted at the request of White Young Green Consulting Engineers, and was commissioned on the advice of the SMR Officer for South Yorkshire, in advance of the construction of three blocks of industrial units. The evaluation followed an earlier desk-top assessment and walkover survey of the subject site, an area of some 1ha, conducted by Lancaster University Archaeological Unit (LUAU 2001), and a gradiometer survey carried out by GSB Prospection (GSB Prospection 2001).
The evaluation was designed according to the requirements of the SMR Officer for South Yorkshire. Six machine-excavated evaluation trenches were cut down to the level of naturally-deposited sands, and these trenches were cleaned by hand. No archaeological finds or features were observed. An area of lighter sand towards the east end of Trench 6 was sample excavated, and found to be almost certainly a feature of natural origin.
The lack of archaeological remains contrasts with the possible archaeological features mapped from aerial photographs during the desk-top assessment of the site, and the presence of gradiometry anomalies. Whilst it is possible that archaeological features have been destroyed by ploughing since the photographs were taken, it is perhaps more likely that both the cropmarks, and the gradiometry anomalies, reflect the presence of natural geological features within the glacial sands which underlie the site.