Vancouver Centre, King's Lynn, Norfolk

Evaluation:
Oxford archaeology carried out a field evaluation at the Vancouver Shopping Centre, King's Lynn on behalf of Alfred McAlpine. The evaluation revealed that archaeological features, structures and deposits of medieval date (12th-15th century) survive along the existing frontages of Broad Street and New Conduit Street. Building foundations and yard surfaces of the late/post medieval date (15th, 16th 17th and 18th century) also survive in localised areas in the car parks to the rear of Sainsburys' and to the rear of Broad Street.

PX Assessment:
During 2003-2005 Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out a programme of archaeological work ahead of the demolition and redevelopment of the Vancouver Centre, King's Lynn and the construction of the Clough Lane Multi-storey Car Park. The work was carried out on behalf of Alfred McAlpine Capital Projects and the scope of the work was agreed with the Development Control Archaeologist on behalf of Norfolk Landscape Archaeology.
Despite extensive modern construction at the Vancouver Centre, archaeological features, structures and deposits of medieval date recorded along the existing frontages of Broad Street and New Conduit Street. Archaeological deposits, building foundations and yard surfaces of late medieval/post medieval date were recorded in the car parks to the rear of Sainsbury's, the rear of Broad Street and to the south-west of Conduit Street.
In addition to the archaeological remains, OA exhumed and re-interred the burials from a Quaker Cemetery to the north of New Conduit Street and a Baptist Cemetery to the north-west of the car park to the rear of Broad Street.
OA also commissioned the installation of piezometers in order to carry out a two year monitoring programme on the physical and chemical effects of the development's piled construction on the underlying (otherwise unexposed) reclaimed marine and esturine sediments.
Evaluation and excavation of the Clough Lane Car Park site revealed an intact marine sediment sequence underlying all the development area as well as localised medieval structures and features.
This document presents a MAP2 assessment of the fieldwork results and sets out a proposal for analysis, publication and archiving of the results of the archaeological works at the Vancouver Centre and the Clough Lane Multi-storey Car Park.