Event/Activity EPM64 - Summary report on an archaeological watching brief at the former Johnson and Johnson site, Paulsgrove, Portsmouth. January to May 2001

Watching brief carried out during the demolition of the buildings on the site formerly occupied by Johnson and Johnson. The fieldwork showed that the site had been extensively disturbed between the 1940s and 1980s when the existing buildings were constructed. The topsoil and underlying brickearth had been removed from much of the middle and western end of the site and along the northern boundary, and many of the buildings sat directly on Head deposits. As a result most surviving archaeology would have been severely damaged or destroyed. Imported levelling and topsoil at the southern edge of the site suggests that potential archaeology may be preserved below. An Iron Age/Romano-British ditch was observed in this area during fieldwork in 1980. Only two features were observed on the site during the watching brief, and these were in the south and east-facing sections of the cellar in building 12 in Area B2. A small pit, feature 8, contained one worked flint probably Mesolithic or Neolithic. This feature appeared to be sealed by brickearth, although this may have been redeposited due to disturbance from the construction of the building above. The other feature was a possible east-west linear which had lost all relationships above and was very indistinct. The only piece of pottery, dating to the Iron Age, was found on the surface of Modern disturbance in Area B2. Residue including fragments of flint, chalk, undiagnostic charcoal, mortar, and coal were found. Context 9 appeared to be possibly prehistoric, with a few fossils and the land snail Ceciloides acicula present.