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Border Archaeology
The Plaza
Owen Way
Leominster Enterprise Park
Leominster
HR6 0LA
UK
Border Archaeology Ltd (BA) was instructed to undertake an Evaluation and a Standing Building Recording at the Former Interbrew Site (Access Park) Eastern Avenue Gloucester, once occupied by government buildings associated with the headquarters of the RAF Record office until 1951. The site does not appear to have undergone any major changes until the 1980s and, by 1996, most of government buildings occupying the western part of the site had been demolished.
Seven 30x2m trenches were excavated down to natural deposits to record any archaeological remains which may have been present. Nothing of archaeological significance was encountered. Modern drains, possibly associated with the former RAF buildings, were revealed in Trench 5 and Trench 6, whilst a single sherd of 2nd century AD Samian ware and fragments of fired clay, including two pieces of possible Roman tegulae, were found within the subsoil of Trench 7.
The surviving building in the southwest corner, forming part of the RAF Record Office complex that occupied the site until 1951, it was found to be in a poor and much-altered condition. No original internal partitions survived and a number of stud-walls had been inserted. All original window-openings had been blocked, with the exception of those on the northwest side of the building, which contained replacement uPVC windows. Three doors, one with a roller-shutter door, had been inserted into the northwest side. A large entrance at the northeastern end may be original. Structural damage included substantial cracking of the fabric on the southwest and southeast elevations.