Event/Activity EPM62 - Archaeological watching brief at The Manor House, 140 Copnor Road, Hilsea, Portsmouth.

Watching brief undertaken in association with the demolition of existing premises and the erection of four new houses and six flats on the site of the Manor House, 140 Copnor Road. Fieldwork revealed that the northern part of the site overlay the remains of medieval open strip fields, which had been enclosed during the first half of the 17th century. All of the features were consistant with the land having been used for agriculture, until the construction of a new building in the second half of the 19th century. A natural slope running east to west across the site with a drop of approximately 1m had been levelled out at some point, probably in the second half of the 19th century when the new building was constructed. This means that any future building work has to reach a depth of nearly 1.5m below the surface in the western part of the site before it reaches pre-19th century layers, whereas in the eastern part this is only 0.5m. Pre-19th century layers were frequently badly truncated by Victorian building work, this being a particular problem with the medieval and post-medieval ditches and post-holes as they were comparatively shallow to begin with. This being the case, there were few surviving features in the central section of the excavated area where an extension had been added to the 19th century building. The plan of the site shows how the surviving archaeology concentrates in areas too deep to be touched by Victorian work or too far away. The cellars belonging to the 19th century house would have destroyed all but the deepest archaeological deposits. It was not possible to see if any deeper features survived, as the cellars were to be left in-situ and back-filled. The southern part of the development site was not investigated, as any surviving archaeological deposits would not be disturbed by the new development. Ordnance Survey maps show the buildings of the Manor House Farm, demolished during the mid-late 19th century, lying within this area. Accession number: 2004/629