Event/Activity EPM83 - An archaeological watching brief at Catherine Booth House, Queen Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire

Observations of groundworks were carried out during construction of an extension to Catherine Booth House and the redesign of a children's play area in 2002. Unstable loosely packed deposits caused the sides of trenches 1 and 2 to collapse during the work, and therefore it was not possible to get into the trenches. As a result features seen in section had to be recorded from the top of the trench, and this is thought to have affected the accuracy of the information recorded. Trenches 3-5, the footings for a low perimeter wall, were only excavated to a depth of 0.8m, which was not sufficient to go beyond later 19th century levels. The work revealed later post-medieval deposits extending to a depth of 2.7m. Earlier evidence appeared to relate to the redeposition of gravel layers, possibly due to quarrying activity nearby. These deposits were disturbed by pit digging, the earliest feature possibly dating from the early 18th century. Brick walls recovered from the top metre of soil appeared to represent the remains of late 19th century terraced housing demolished between 1959 and 1973, when the present play area was formed on the site. Accession number 2002/207