Event/Activity EPM219 - An Archaeological Evaluation at the Lidl supermarket site, Goldsmith Avenue, Portsmouth

An archaeological evaluation was carried out by Archaeology South-East at the Lidl supermarket site in Goldsmith Avenue on the 16th and 17th January 2017. A single trial trench 10m long by 2m wide was excavated within the footprint of a planned extension to the Lidl store. The evaluation was required as a section of the former Portsmouth to Arundel Canal (in operation 1822-1838) and branch line of the East Southsea Railway (1885-1914) were known to have run through the site. All of the features and finds encountered at the site were of a 19th or 20th century date. Three shallow depressions may have represented former positions of railway sleepers set upon a slightly raised track bed within a cutting. 2017/72