Ground Penetrating Radar Survey within the Precinct of St Mary’s Abbey (York Museum Gardens) Roman York: beneath the streets GPR Report 2

Abstract

The Museum Gardens occupy part of the former precinct of St Mary’s Abbey, which lies immediately outside the walls of the Roman legionary fortress. The Roman York: beneath the streets project undertook a GPR survey in the gardens for research purposes to test hypotheses about the existence of a Roman road (RCHM Road 5) crossing the area, and to see if any Roman remains were visible beneath the medieval structures. A 250 MHz antenna was selected, and subsequently 12,755 m2 was surveyed split across two areas. The frequency optimised the discovery of features c. 1.5 m beneath ground surface, but, of course, also captured evidence for much else. No evidence to support the existence of the Roman road was discovered, but there was tenuous evidence for a deep early structure, adjacent and on alignment to a Roman wall which had been discovered during Willmot’s poorly published excavations of 1952-56. Evidence for features relating to the abbey dominated the survey and has enabled Sharp’s 1823 plan of Wellbeloved’s excavations to be refined. It has also enabled the hypotheses of Whittingham (1971) and Norton (1994) about the buildings in the Outer Courtyard to be revisited using the new data.