Following on from our post “Evaluation by trial trenching” this weeks post is going to explain what a “watching brief” is.

A watching brief, scheme of works, or programme of monitoring and recording, is usually the final stage of archaeological investigation, and may follow on from desk-based studies, evaluation trenching or excavation. Usually one archaeologist works closely with the groundworkers, monitoring their excavations which might be for foundation trenches, services, drainage or landscaping. The archaeologist records any archaeological remains that are exposed.

A watching brief can be applied to a scheme of any size. For example, on a large linear scheme such as a pipeline, it can follow stages of non-intrusive and intrusive survey that have (hopefully) identified and investigated the areas of greatest archaeological interest. The watching brief is used as a ‘failsafe’ to double check stripped areas where little or no archaeology is likely to be present. This often requires a degree of patience – watching a machine strip topsoil for kilometre after kilometre without finding anything! It is also essential to take a good book, for any delays as spoil is moved and machines are repaired or refuelled.

A small team working on a watching brief for a linear scheme. A good book is essential!

Many small watching briefs are undertaken as the only stage of archaeological work on a site. For example they might take place during the groundworks for one or two new houses or an extension to an existing one. These clients may never have dealt with archaeology before and may never need to again, and so we are often asked ‘What happens if you find stuff? Will it stop the job?’ The answer is almost always no and on the rare occasions that unexpected or significant archaeology is exposed, additional staff can be deployed to site to limit delays.

Watching briefs can be interesting and challenging. Working on a busy construction site you need to keep your wits about you and have a keen understanding of health and safety. We inspect and clean the exposed sides and bases of the foundation trenches to piece together the evidence provided by these cross sections through the site, tying together fragments of field boundary ditches, pits, landscaping layers or other features to gain an understanding of the area. We will also recover dating evidence, such as pieces of pottery, whenever possible.

When the archaeological fieldwork is complete, the developer will carry on with their building programme and we still have plenty of work left to do, cleaning and analysing any finds from the site, preparing the report and depositing the project archive with the local museum to sign off the client’s archaeological condition and make the results publically accessible to this and future generations.