29th June 2009, 10:34 AM
I've done a watching brief for about 4 weeks where I was there to ensure that the new cut for a pipe was exactly over the old one. The original pipe had been put in during the 1940s and had gone straight through a villa site, which had then been partially excavated in the 1950s and then had been scheduled (my dates may be out, but it was something lke that!).
So I spent the time checking that the new cut was running exactly along the line of the old one, without going deep enought to damage the pipe that was still in the ground. (It was an iron water pipe, badly corroded, and it was impossible to put a rider pipe in due to the number of unrecorded pipes coming off it.)
Oh, and I couldn't strip the turf off an area wider than the original cut either, as I was going through a registered park and garden.
So if I had found something (whether the old pipe or archaeology), I wouldn't have done my job. What I did find and follow was the old pipe cut, don't know if that counts!
So I spent the time checking that the new cut was running exactly along the line of the old one, without going deep enought to damage the pipe that was still in the ground. (It was an iron water pipe, badly corroded, and it was impossible to put a rider pipe in due to the number of unrecorded pipes coming off it.)
Oh, and I couldn't strip the turf off an area wider than the original cut either, as I was going through a registered park and garden.
So if I had found something (whether the old pipe or archaeology), I wouldn't have done my job. What I did find and follow was the old pipe cut, don't know if that counts!