Land to the Rear of Sefton House Hotel, 34 Queen Street, Ulverston,Cumbria. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Evaluation.

Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by Rona and Maurice Glaister to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment and evaluation of land to the rear of Sefton House Hotel, 34 Queen Street, Ulverston, Cumbria (SD 2848 7822). The site is situated within the historic core of Ulverston and adjacent to medieval tenements, and therefore has a high archaeological potential. The work was undertaken between November 2005 and January 2006, in order to comply with an archaeological condition imposed on a planning application to build a two-storey dwelling and a garage/workshop with a single bedroom flat above (Planning
Application No. 5/05/0286).
The desk-based assessment demonstrated that the proposed development area included part of the back lane (Site 08) on the west side of Queen Street, possibly dating back to the medieval period. This lane divided the garden plots on the east side (Site 02) from the fields on the west side, and provided access to these fields. From cartographic sources it would seem that at some point prior to Wood’s map of 1832
part of the proposed development area was enclosed from the medieval fields.
However, its purpose or use cannot be identified. Following this, in the mid nineteenth century, the eastern end of the site was built on, before the boundary wall (Site 01) was extended to the west, the likely purpose of which was to create a croquet lawn (Site 07). By around 1920 the site had been turned over to an orchard and garden (Site 04), and then in the mid 1930s a garage (Site 05) was built on the southern side.