Corner of Saunders Road, Cardiff

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Corner of Saunders Road and Penarth Road, Cardiff: archaeological watching brief

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Contents PageSummary.......................................................................................................................2

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................2

Copyright notice...........................................................................................................2

1. Introduction..........................................................................................................3

1.1 Project background and commission .............................................................31.2 Location and Topography..............................................................................3

1.3 Geology..........................................................................................................4

1.4 Historical and archaeological background.....................................................4

2. Methodology .........................................................................................................8

3. Results ...................................................................................................................8

4. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................11

Bibliography............................................................................................................12

Appendix 1: Context list .........................................................................................13

Appendix 2: Auger Results ....................................................................................14

Appendix 3: The Finds ...........................................................................................15

Figures PageFigure 1: Site location (blue circle) ...............................................................................3

Figure 2: Plan showing location of development area (red outline)..............................3

Figure 3: Speed's map of Cardiff (1610) ......................................................................4

Figure 4: Location of the development area (red) on the 1st edition OS map (1880) ...5

Figure 5: Location of the development area (red) on the 2nd edition OS map (1901)..6

Figure 6: Location of the development area (red) on the 3rd edition OS map (1920) ..7

Figure 7: Location of the development area (red) on the 4th edition OS map (1942)...8

Plates PagePlate 1: View to the northeast of the medieval town wall [300] showing the lower

courses of sub-rectangular stone ............................................................................9

Plate 2: View to the northwest of the medieval wall [300] showing the slight change

in the line of the wall beneath the modern tiling panels ........................................9

Plate 3: Northeast facing section including section through wall [208] ........................9

Plate 4: View of north facing section after removal of large concrete foundation......10

Plate 5: Showing cut [104] through natural clay (106) containing possible rubble

foundation [105] overlain by demolition deposits (101), (102) and (103) ..........10




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1. Introduction

1.1 Project background and commission

Sleeperz Hotels Ltd have received planning consent for the construction of a new

hotel providing 68 bedrooms and four meeting rooms arranged on a total of five

storeys at the corner of Saunders Road and Penarth Road, Cardiff (Application No.04/0194). In advance of the development, a desk-based appraisal (Dunning 2005a)

was undertaken, which noted that buildings, specifically offices of the Western

Region Railway and later a GWR staff hostel, were located on the site at the

beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, the projected line of the medieval town

wall passes marginally to the north of the development area. The appraisal

recommended that a watching brief be conducted during all ground disturbing works.

Consequently, a watching brief was maintained during the excavation of geotechnical

test-pits and boreholes (Dunning 2005b), which recorded remains likely to be

associated with the GWR hostel.

Sleeperz Hotels Ltd also commissioned the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust,

Contracts Division (GGAT Contracts), to undertake a watching brief during the

construction phase of their operation. This took place between 24th April and 19th

June 2007.

1.2 Location and Topography

The development area is located in Cardiff city centre (Figure 1) on the corner

between Saunders Road and Penarth Road. Cardiff Central Great Western Railway

(GWR) Station is located 70m to the west of the development area. The railway lines

associated with this station run across an arched bridge that bounds the south of the

site. To the north of the site is Saunders Road and to the east Penarth Road (Figure 2).The site slopes steeply, being approximately 6m higher at its north end than its south.

Base map reproduced from the OS 1:50,000 with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller

of Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, © Crown Copyright 2000. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction

infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. License Number: AL 10005976.

Annotations © GGAT.

Figure 1: Site location (blue circle)




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1.3 Geology

The geology of the Cardiff area is mostly composed of post-glacial gravels, sands and

clays. River-borne gravels were deposited to form a terrace on which the city now

stands. The alluvial terrace of Grangetown and the docks is composed of silts and

clays and was laid down during the Holocene. They contain no economically viable

minerals and have never been mined. However, due to a rise in sea level they may

overlie buried organic material. The soils of the area are unsurveyed, but will include

alluvium associated with the migration of the River Taff (SSEW 1983).

1.4 Historical and archaeological background

The town of Cardiff originated on the east bank of the River Taff, where a medieval

castle was built on the site of a Roman fort, although the settlement has subsequently

expanded to the west side of the river. The east wall of the town ran along the moat,

the course of which was subsequently followed by the Glamorganshire Canal. Thesouthern defences consisted of a stone wall and a large ditch, both located in the

vicinity of the development area.

With reference to Speed’s map of Cardiff of 1610, it appears that during the 17th

century, the proposed development area was situated in the southernmost part the

walled town, to the south of St Mary’s churchyard, which by this time was being

gradually eroded by the River Taff (Soulsby 1983, 97). The development area can be

estimated with some certainty to lie marginally to the east of the defensive towers that

are shown to the south of St. Mary’s church.

Figure 3: Speed's map of Cardiff (1610)




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A number of more detailed 19th century maps show the development area close to, or

in some cases on, the east bank of the River Taff. Specifically, the Bute Estate Map

of 1824 shows enclosed plots, which probably contained buildings, and these are

certainly evident on the Cardiff map of 1828, John Wood’s map of Cardiff of 1830

and the Tithe map of 1843 (Dunning 2005a, 6).

In addition, it is known that the Glamorganshire Canal followed the ditch of the

medieval town defences at this point (Soulsby 1983, 97) and an extrapolation of this

line would suggest the ditch, with its associated town wall to the north, lies close to or

within the current development area. It is possible that the slight change in direction

in the line of the east bank shown within the development area on this map represents

the point at which town wall and its proposed associated ditch adjoined the River

Taff.

The canalisation of a 600m long section of the River Taff began in 1849 and was

completed in 1853; this process can be traced on the Port map of 1849 and the Port

map of 1855, although there is clearly some discrepancy in the accuracy of these

maps. The change in the course of the River Taff, and the subsequent in-filling of theoriginal river course, enabled the construction of the GWR railway line and Cardiff’s

Great Western Station immediately to the south and west of the development area

(Dunning 2005a, 8).

Figure 4: Location of the development area (red) on the 1st edition OS map (1880)

The 1st edition OS map (1880) depicts the new street pattern following the change of

the course of the River Taff and the construction of the railway, although the marshy

area to the south of the railway line indicates the former line of the river. On the 1880




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map the only structure evident is a wall running north to south, dissecting the

development area into two unequal parts. The 2nd edition OS map (1901) and the 3rd

edition OS map (1920) illustrate the presence of buildings on the entire area except

for the westernmost part of the site. A Royal Exchange Assurance Insurance Plan of

Cardiff, dated to 1909, held by the Glamorgan Record Office, indicates that the site is

part of Cardiff General Station by this date, and that the buildings are offices of theWestern Region Railway. By the 4th edition OS map (1942) a new building occupies

the southern part of the site, this is the GWR hostel, and the even the westernmost part

of the site has been built upon (Dunning 2005a, 10).

A GWR architect’s plan of 1937, held by the Glamorgan Records Office (GRO

31710) for the construction of a proposed hostel for staff refreshment rooms, shows a

similar layout to the 4th edition OS map, surveyed after the proposed hostel had been

constructed. An existing shop frontage is depicted in the southeast corner of the

current development area. Furthermore, the accompanying elevations reveal a 3.6m

high retaining wall to the rear of the shops, and 1.8m deep foundations beneath the

shops (Dunning 2005a, 13).

Figure 5: Location of the development area (red) on the 2nd edition OS map (1901)




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Figure 6: Location of the development area (red) on the 3rd edition OS map (1920)

Figure 7: Location of the development area (red) on the 4th edition OS map (1942)




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2. Methodology

A 21 tonne tracked excavator was used for all ground works. Initially a large trench

was excavated around the perimeter of the site to remove obstructions in advance of

the sheet piling. The sheet piling was placed around the north side of the area and

halfway along both the east and west sides of the site. Following the instatement of

the sheet piling, the main area of the site was excavated to the required depth, varying

between 8m below ground level at the north edge, to 1m below current ground level at

the southern end of the site. The tracked excavator used a 1.8m toothed bucket for all

ground works.

A full written, drawn and photographic record was made of all archaeological

contexts, in accordance with the GGAT Manual of Excavation Recording Techniques.

Contexts were recorded using a single continuous numbering system, and are

summarised in Appendix 1. All significant contexts were photographed. Finds were

selected according to the GGAT Manual of Excavation Recording Techniques discard

policy; those retained were cleaned and catalogued in line with the requirements of

the Institute of Field Archaeologists’ Standard and Guidance for the collection,documentation, conservation and research of archaeological materials (2001).

3. Results

Ground works revealed mainly post-medieval and modern demolition deposits. A

section of medieval wall was revealed in the north of the site. Finds were collected

and retained for specialist analysis.

Perimeter excavation

The perimeter excavation totalled approximately 70m in length. The excavation

averaged 3m in width and 8m in depth to the north, reducing to 1m in depth to the

south.

In the eastern most area of the site, up to 0.7m of natural clay (106) was revealed

directly underlying modern demolition material (101). The basal deposit in the west

of the site was a black sandy coal deposit (206).

In the north of the site a substantial stone built wall [300] was encountered in the

south facing section of the trench. The wall widened with depth, although the actual

base of the wall was not revealed. The wall seems to have been built in three phases,

being composed of more sub-rectangular stone (Plate 1) from the bottom of the trenchto 4m below the surface; more non-uniform shaped stone to 2m below the surface

where the wall then steps in a little (Plate 2) and continues on this new line to the

modern ground level where it was overlain by brick paving and associated sub-base.

As the wall [300] was slightly inside the designed sheet piling line the design was

altered to bring the sheet piles approximately 1m inside the medieval wall, thus it

protected in situ.




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Plate 1: View to the northeast of the medieval town wall [300] showing the lower

courses of sub-rectangular stone

Plate 2: View to the northwest of the medieval wall

[300] showing the slight change in the line of the wallbeneath the modern tiling panels




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Internal excavation

The total internal area inside the sheet piles was approximately 500m2. The depth to

which excavation reached varied from 8m (below ground level) in the north of the site

to 1m (below ground level) in the south of the site. The level attained was

approximately 6.8m OD.

The remains of a stone built wall running southwest to northeast were revealed in the

southwest corner of the site (Plate 3). The wall had been truncated prior to the current

ground works. It measured 5.5m in height and varied in width from 1.05m at its base

to 0.65m for the uppermost 3.5m. The basal deposit on the western side of the wall

[208] was a dark-brown/grey clayey-silt which contained iron slag (≤300mm), slate

and small brick fragments. Overlying this was a black silt (206) that included isolated

sandy lenses. The depth of this deposit was 0.38m and contained moderately frequent

coal fragments (<50mm diameter) and slate fragments (≤150mm) and underlay a mid-

brown clay (205) that had no inclusions or finds. Over this was a 0.6m deep deposit of

orange clay (204) containing rounded and sub-rounded, river-washed cobbles. A mid- brown clayey-silt (203) deposit overlay (204) and contained fragments of machine

made bricks and iron objects and was itself overlain by a 1.2m deep deposit of large

iron slag pieces (≤400mm). The uppermost deposit (201) was industrial in nature,

comprising largely of a black silt, coal fragments, coal dust, ash and iron work

fragments. On top of this deposit was a modern brick wall associated with the railway

banking.

Plate 3: Northeast facing section including section through

wall [208]




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To the east of this wall the basal deposit encountered was orange natural clay ( 106)

except for the very south of this area. In the very southwest of the site, the orange clay

(106) was not the basal deposit, instead a mid-grey/brown silty clay (406) was

exposed to 0.2m in depth and included no coarse components or finds. Overlying this

deposit was a dark-brown/grey clayey silt (405) that included fragments of slate and

iron working slag identical to (207), itself overlain by a dark red, iron rich sand (404),

measuring 0.11m in depth. A black soot deposit (403) was seen to be overlaying (404)

and measured 0.2m in depth. This deposit had no inclusions or finds to aid the dating

of this context. Directly above (403) was a modern concrete pipe bed [402] and

associated brick inspection chamber [401], both of these were sealed by a poured

concrete floor that continued inside the arched supports of the railway line (Plate 4).

Plate 4: View of north facing section after removal of largeconcrete foundation

The basal deposit encountered in the eastern part of the site was a natural orange clay

(106) varying between 1.5m–2.0m in exposed thickness. A cut [104] through the clay

(106) survived to a depth of 0.73m and contained a compact fill of machine made

bricks, mortar and stone (105) (Plate 1). Overlaying this was a series of demolition

deposits, one comprising of ash and mortar (102), one mortar and slate (103) and the

uppermost (101) comprising building rubble (including machine made brick,concrete, stone, ironwork, modern tiles, coal, ash and plastic). In the eastern most area




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of the site 0.7m of the natural clay (106) was revealed directly underlying modern

demolition material (101).

Plate 5: Showing cut [104] through natural clay (106) containing possible rubblefoundation [105] overlain by demolition deposits (101), (102) and (103)

In the very north west of the internal area and overlying dark-brown clayey-silt (207)

was a deposit of coarse sand (301) with a maximum depth of 1.4m and underlain

demolition deposit (101). Included in this sandy deposit (301) were many common

cockleshells (Cerastoderma edule). Cut through the natural clay were large trenches

containing modern poured concrete foundations.

Auguring

Following the remediation of the site to the required depth, 76 auger holes were

drilled mechanically to depth averaging 17m, or until solid bedrock was encountered.

The auger drill used measured 0.4m in diameter. A total of five augured holes and

their associated spoil were inspected. Due to the proximity to the remediated ground

level to the water table below, the spoil being pulled up by the auger was

accompanied by many cubic meters of water, which then flowed over the site as a

slurry. Changes in deposits and the approximate depths at which they occurred are

summarised in Appendix 2. No archaeological results could be drawn from this work.




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4. Conclusion

The ground works revealed significant archaeological structures and deposits. A

section of wall was exposed, with Speeds map of 1610 (Figure 3) suggesting that this

structure may be part of Cardiff’s medieval town wall. The portion of this wall can beestimated to be near the two southern defensive towers where the wall bends to the

north, adjacent to the River Taff on this map and to the south of St. Mary’s church.

The second wall [208] revealed by the ground works aligned southwest-northeast can

be clearly seen on the 1st edition OS map (1880) dissecting the development area into

two parts. This wall can also be seen on the 2nd (1901) and 3rd (1920) edition OS

maps. On these later maps the wall is not as obvious as buildings have been

constructed that abut the structure. To the west of the wall the deposits encountered

were all industrial with the exception of a redeposited natural context (204) separating

the industrial sandy deposits below from the large slag deposits above. These

industrial deposits may be attributed to industries associated with railway building or

development. The area east of wall [208] comprised largely of natural river washedcobbles and clay.

The large poured concrete foundations associated with the GWR building occupied

approximately 50% of the site and therefore had significantly disturbed the

archaeological resource when they were instated some time between 1937 and 1942.

The finds recovered from site were all unstratified and dated from the post-medieval

period.

The watching brief concluded that the development did incur some adverse effect

upon the archaeological resource including the loss of likely deposits associated with

the medieval town wall associated most readily with the deep trenches required for obstruction removal prior to the sheet piling.




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Bibliography

Davies J, 1990, A History of Wales, Penguin

Dunning R, 2005a, Saunders Road/Penarth Road, Cardiff: archaeological appraisal,

GGAT Report no. 2005/036

Dunning R, 2005b, Saunders Road/Penarth Road, Cardiff: archaeological watching

brief, GGAT Report no. 2005/053

Griffiths R A, 1978, Boroughs of Medieval Wales, University of Wales Press

Rees W, 1969, Cardiff: A History of the City, The Corporation of the City of Cardiff

Soil Survey of England and Wales, 1983, 1:250,000 Soil Map of England and Walesand Legend , Soil Survey of England and Wales

Soulsby, I, 1983, The Towns of Medieval Wales, Phillimore & Co Ltd




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Appendix 1: Context list

Context

Number

Context

Type

Context Description Period

100 Unstratified finds number

101 Deposit Modern demolition Modern

102 Deposit Ash and mortar deposit Post-medieval

103 Deposit Mortar and slate deposit Post-medieval

104 Cut Cut for wall foundations Modern

105 Structure Wall foundations Post-medieval

106 Deposit Natural clay Natural

201 Deposit Industrial material deposit Modern

202 Deposit Slag/clinker deposit Modern

203 Deposit Industrial material deposit Modern/post-medieval

204 Deposit Re-deposited natural Post-medieval

205 Deposit Mid-brown clay Post-medieval

206 Deposit Black sandy coal deposit Post-medieval

207 Deposit Dark-brown clayey silt Post-medieval

208 Structure Stone wall Post-medieval

209 Mortar Mortar bonding [208] Post-medieval

210 Cut Cut for wall [208] Post-medieval

300 Structure Stone wall Medieval

301 Deposit Sand deposit Unknown

401 Structure Inspection chamber Modern

402 Deposit Concrete pipe bed Modern

403 Deposit Soot Modern

404 Deposit Burnt sandy clay Unknown

405 Deposit Industrial material deposit Unknown406 Deposit Mid-grey/brown silty clay Unknown




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Appendix 2: Auger Results

Context Number Depth (m OD) Description

501 6.8→ 2.8 Industrial deposit

502 2.8→ -1.2 Mid-brown silty/clay

503 -1.2→ -4.2 Red/orange clay

504 -4.2→ -8.2 Brown clay

505 -8.2→ Unknown Bedrock




Appendix 3: The Finds

A small quantity of finds was recovered during the groundwork. Where a date could

be assigned, all of the unstratified material belonged to the 19th century, probably post 1850. The assemblage included underglaze transfer printed wares, stonewares

including a jar stamped DOULTON & CO / LAMBETH POTTERY / LONDON, and

clay pipes, also of mid 19th century date. Also present was shell, predominantly

oyster. From context (207) four joining sherds of 19th century stoneware were

recovered together with a sherd of ‘local’ red earthenware, probably from a dish or

pan of similar date, but possibly somewhat earlier. None of the finds have been

retained.

Corner of Saunders Road, Cardiff

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