A team from Field Archaeology Specialists have been working on Mill Mount in York ahead of the site being redeveloped as residential apartments.

It came as no real surprise when the team uncovered a number of Roman graves. An extensive roadside cemetery ran from the city walls of Roman York as far as the current racecourse.

To date a total of five graves have been identified on the site and four have so far been excavated.

One of the adult graves

Two of the four burials were those of adults, probably men, who were buried in coffins. Though the wood of the coffins had long since rotted away their shape and size was visible as lines of iron nails that had survived in the ground. The remains of the third adult had been badly disturbed by later activity.

The fourth grave belonged to that of a small child. The body had been carefully placed in the grave, face down, not on its back as is more usual.

Though many thousands of burials dated to the Roman period have been found on the Mount area over the last couple of hundred years, this appears to be the first child burial to be recognized.

Whilst the Roman cemetery was expected, the other major discovery on the site was not.

One of the ditches

Two enormous ditches have been discovered along the northern boundary of the site. Despite extensive excavation of these two ditches there's been very little found to help reliably date them. So far a single piece of clay tobacco pipe is the only clue to their origin.

The ditches are much later than the Roman cemetery but earlier than the 18th century activity on the site.

The only historic event known which might have produced such massive construction was the Civil War. During this period a large fort was constructed somewhere on the Mount by Royalist forces holding the city for King Charles. It would have protected the main approach to the city from the southwest.

It was one of a number of large defensive structures built outside the old medieval walls to protect the approaches from the mainly Parliamentarian areas to the west and south.

Local students observe the dig

The fort played an important part during the siege of York in 1644 which began on April 21. It was briefly seized by Parliamentarian forces on July 7, a few days after the crushing defeat of the Royalist forces at Marston Moor, but was rapidly retaken by a 'strong party of both Horse and Foot'.

It was only abandoned when the Royalist garrison defending York finally capitulated on July 16.

The fort survived as an earthwork until 1742 when documents show that people were paid to fill in the ditches and level the ramparts. Surprisingly, despite the scale of the fort and its location being 'mapped' it has never been accurately identified on the ground or recognized in any archaeological investigation of the area until now.

The ditches recorded within the main excavation probably represent a section of the fort nearest to the city walls. The presence of two ditches, one of which ends in the excavation area, may indicate the proximity of the entranceway. It's hoped that further excavation of the ditches will provide important dating evidence as well additional information regarding the form and function of the features.