Lower Viaduct Estate, Carlisle, Cumbria- Evaluation

In November 2008, Oxford Archaeology North carried out a programme of archaeological evaluation across an area off Lower Viaduct Estate, Carlisle, Cumbria (centred on NGR NY 3995 5560). The evaluation was commissioned by Kier Scotland, acting on behalf of Tesco UK Ltd, and was intended to establish the presence or absence of any buried remains prior to a proposed supermarket development (planning application ref: 1/05/1333) as a condition of the planning permission, in accordance with a brief devised by Cumbria County Council’s Historic Environment Service (CCCHES). However, information generated by geotechnical site investigation work, including borehole data, and underground utility mapping survey results, indicated areas of contamination and made ground, and showed numerous live services crossing the site. Based on this information the CCCHES brief was revised verbally from a minimum 5% sample evaluation to a targeted programme of trenching based on the results of an impact assessment (OA North 2008), and taking into account the details of the proposed construction. The evaluation comprised the excavation of four trenches each measuring 20-21m long and 1.6m wide, although Trench 3 was extended at its southern end to 5m wide. The trenches targeted those areas that were least likely to be contaminated, close to boreholes 11, 12, 13 and 15, within the footprint of the supermarket foodstore.
The proposed development site was identified as being in an area of high archaeological potential due to its proximity to the Roman fort and vicus, and lying just outside the medieval town walls. It was occupied more recently by nineteenth century buildings, such as a railway goods station and a grain shed. By the late twentieth century these buildings had been removed and replaced with a car showroom, council offices, recently demolished, and a public car park.