Event/Activity EPM267 - Watching Brief Telecom Cable Trench Fort Cumberland

Members of the English Heritage Centre for Archaeology carried out a watching brief on the excavation of a service trench for a telecom cable at Fort Cumberland on the 25th and 26th May 2000. The work was to allow the insertion of a telecom cable spur to the refurbished casemate number 7 of the Left Bastion. The trench was excavated from the British Telecom junction box located approximately half way down the Left Curtain Wall to the internal corner of the Left Bastion wall to the north-west and measured 44.5m long by 0.3m wide and was c.0.35m deep. It was excavated using a small mechanical excavator, with archaeological features excavated by hand where encountered. A number of archaeological features and deposits were observed including the remains of a light railway track, the footings to the casemate walls and a 19th century brick culvert.