Development to the rear of 53 King Street, Blackburn, Lancashire. Archaeological Evaluation.

As part of a planning application by Capita Symonds (reference 10/08/0187) for the construction of a new highway link road, together with associated drainage, lighting
and landscaping works at Freckleton Street and Montague Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, Egerton Lea was commissioned to undertake a desk-based assessment of the area. The assessment revealed the possibility that a builders’ merchant’s yard on Chapel Street, just to the rear of 53 King Street (SD 6792 2778), may formerly have been the site of a late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Roman Catholic burial ground. A programme of further investigation was established in consultation with Lancashire County Archaeology Service (LCAS) and accordingly, Oxford
Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by Capita Symonds to undertake an evaluation excavation by trial trenching prior to the development of the site. The
following document reports on the results of this work, which was undertaken in November 2008.
The two trial trenches (one 5.9m by 4m at the top and the other 4m by 4m, each stepped to accommodate health and safety constraints) revealed a 0.6 to 1.2m-thick
layer of demolition rubble or made ground upon which the current tarmac surface of the yard sat. This material overlay natural sands, which were tested down to a depth of
3m below ground level (bgl) in Trench 1 and 2.4m bgl in Trench 2. No sign of burial or human activity was identified within the investigated areas, although the possibility
that other areas of the site were utilised for such activity cannot be entirely discounted.