Event/Activity EPM269 - Survey of The Wagon Shed at Fort Cumberland

A survey/building recording of the 19th century Wagon Shed at Fort Cumberland was carried out by the English Heritage Centre for Archaeology in June and July 1999 in response to a request by the Inspector of Ancient Monuments that a record be made prior to conservation work taking place. The record was used to inform a planned conservation project on the structure as part of refurbishment works at the Fort. An independent timber specialist, John R Pidgeon, was employed by English Heritage to record the timber elements of the structure. The work was undertaken in two phases. The first phase comprised the survey and recording of surviving timber-framing and the southern brick wall of the building in 1999. This was followed by the recording of the concrete floor and monitoring and recording of the building's restoration, including small-scale excavations, in 2000 (see EPM270). The results showed the timber-framed part of the structure to mainly date to a single phase of construction in the late 19th century. A brick wall on the southern elevation pre-dated the timber structure. The wall had two main sections and seven phases of construction were identified. The earliest section may have dated to the re-organisation of the Fort in the early 19th century and the later section dated to the mid-late 19th century.