Land Adjacent to Palmer Road, Flint Hill, County Durham

A number of strip, map and record areas were identified by the earlier desk-based assessment and geophysical survey (AD Archaeology 2013) and the site divided into zones to investigate potential archaeological features. Initially eight strip, map and record areas were sited within the overall development site, however, two areas (Areas B1 & B2) which were located to investigate the Bowes Railway lay on the route of a public right of way and therefore remained unexcavated. Area C3 was extended to the northeast in an attempt to identify a waggonway wayleave ditch. Following consultation with DCCAS a watching brief was required to be undertaken during ground works associated with the development along the route of Waggonway 1. Upon completion of the strip, map and record phase of archaeological work two areas were identified for further investigation along the route of Waggonway 1 in Zone C. This comprised the archaeological monitoring and recording ('watching brief') of an area immediately to the northeast of Area C2 (Area C2WB covering 70m2) and an Area immediately northeast of Area C3 (Area C3WB covering 220m2). In all areas, 'overburden', i.e. topsoil and subsoil, was removed by tracked 14-tonne 360� excavator, using a wide toothless bucket, and stripped down to either the archaeological horizons or the natural sub-stratum. All machine excavation was undertaken under direct archaeological supervision. The archaeological investigations at Flint Hill revealed two previously unrecorded 18thcentury timber waggonways which are interpreted as representing sections of branch lines leading from pits located to the north of the site to join the Western/Derwent Way III waggonway which ran along the western side of the Derwent Valley to staithes at Derwenthaugh. Various elements of the best preserved, Waggonway 1, were identified by excavation including timber sleeper impressions and wayleave ditches and its route was traced across the site by geophysical survey. Interpretation and dating of Waggonway 3 is more problematic; it may also represent a branch line of the Western Way/Derwent Way III or could be an earlier incarnation of the route of the later 19th-century mineral tramline which crossed the site. The line of this single track NNW-SSE mineral tramline and tunnel first appears on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1896 and by the time of the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1919 was disused. The excavated portion of the tunnel demonstrated that the stone walls survived to a height of c. 3.40m. The results of the investigations are of regional significance as key research objectives as set out in Shared Visions: The North East Regional Research Framework for the Historic Environment (NERRF) (Petts & Gerrard 2006) have been addressed. The relevant research objectives for the Post Medieval period are: PM1. Early coal industry and coal use; PM2. Early Railways; and PMviii. Industrial intensification 1790-1830. It is noted in the NERRF that ongoing research needs to recognise the role of the North East in the development of the early railways, with several key areas of investigation having been identified. Investigations should focus on the early waggonways and pre-locomotive hauled lines. Existing landscape features along the course of known early waggonways require survey, which if possible, should include railway formations, track beds and gradients. The routes of early railways should be plotted on the HERs of the region, through archival research on early documentary and cartographic sources.