Coulsdon North Industrial Estate, Coulsdon, Surrey- Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

In December 2007, Eversleigh Investment and Property Company Ltd commissioned Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment of land at Coulsdon North Industrial Estate in Coulsdon, Surrey (centred on NGR 529901 159395). The study area is located to the west of the London to Brighton railway in the centre of Coulsdon, which lies within the administrative area of the London Borough of Croydon. The study aimed to assess the potential for significant buried archaeological remains on the site, and was required to support and inform a planning application for a scheme of redevelopment. The application site does not lie within a Conservation Area, or have any other statutory designation, and there are no known archaeological remains that are considered to be of National or Regional/County importance, which would merit preservation in-situ.

Field systems of the Late Iron Age to Roman periods have been found within the wider 500m Study Area, representing a use of the landscape which may have extended into the Scheme Area. The presence of woodland within the southern section of the Scheme Area until the 19th century suggests a lack of more recent human exploitation within this area, whilst the northern section of the Scheme Area is likely to have been used as pasture or meadow throughout the medieval periods. However, the desk-based assessment has demonstrated that the proposed Scheme Area contains no known archaeological remains, although the potential for unidentified archaeological deposits of all periods to survive in-situ cannot be discounted. The location of the Scheme Area within a valley once occupied by the Coulsdon bourne is likely to have made it part of a natural route way for early populations, and its location on a thin band of gravels, would have provided lighter, well drained soils, beneficial for farming and settlement in later periods. However, the presence of made ground (probably from local chalk pits) suggests that the redevelopment of the site would not have a major impact upon any in-situ archaeological remains. Moreover, whilst the proposed development does necessitate some piling, these will be placed along the footprint of existing buildings, and it is not envisaged that the development will involve and substantial earth-moving works.