The final phase of large scale evaluation on behalf of Historic Properties Group and Scarborough Borough Council was undertaken in associated with proposals for the development of a visitor centre, footpath network, and car park, and the methodology adopted was designed to inform the siting of these facilities with minimum archaeological impact. The entire available area was sampled using a standard trench size of 20 x 3m. This allowed a cover of 3.5% of the development area, which was deemed adequate to make realistic judgements on the siting of facilities.
In 1993-94, the route of the boundary of the 13th-century and later monastic precinct was established to the west of Abbey Lands Farm; a multiphase palimpsest of contemporary ridge and furrow survived south of the boundary, outside the precinct. Trenching took place within the immediate area of the farm and to the east which confirmed the line of the precinct boundary and the fact that the access track to the east of the farm preserved this line. It also established that the boundary had 3 phases: a wall, replaced by a ditch and bank, with a second wall crowning the bank at a later date. The only dating evidence was 13th-century pottery from the body of the bank. It had been suggested that a gate structure may have existed on the farm site, but this proved not to have been the case. Within the monastic precinct it became clear that the major 13th-century redevelopment, which included the laying out of the precinct boundary and the construction of the Abbey church whose ruins still survive, also involved the artificial terracing of a large area of the headland.
The most surprising discoveries, however, related to an earlier period. The removal of the ridge and furrow to the immediate south of the precinct boundary revealed a number of features cut into the natural clay. One of these was a curving boundary ditch which was succeeded by a wall of crudely dressed boulders similar in appearance to a feature which predated the precinct boundary to the west of Abbey Lands Farm. The ditch and boulder wall boundary enclosed the area to the south of the later monastic precinct, and not the headland to the north. Within it lay an intensively used cemetery. A small area of the cemetery was stripped, and 3 graves excavated. The burials were supine and aligned east-west with heads to the west. There were no grave goods other than an iron nail and a fragment of an iron strap, probably from a coffin. The presence of a contemporary wall foundation aligned with the graves suggests that zoning took place within the cemetery, and a scatter of white quartz pebbles around and within the graves implies similarities in burial practice with the Celtic areas of Britain. The only dating evidence recovered was an 8th-century sceatta from a small feature which cut the sequence of burials. On the north side of the 13th-century boundary and sealed by its associated terracing, was an early, buttressed stone building, and a number of truncated cut features, at least 2 of which produced Roman pottery.
An evaluation trench for a proposed disabled entrance to the Abbey was excavated on the north side of the Abbey church, adjacent to the site of excavations undertaken by Sir Charles Peers in the 1920s. This work further demonstrated that major terracing took place during the 13th century, with terrace build up revetted by walls overlying an earlier road surface. Beneath the terracing was a thick deposit containing burnt daub, and on the surface of this a small burnt feature contained middle Saxon pottery.
Evaluation work at Whitby has elucidated aspects of the medieval Abbey and posed significant questions concerning the Saxon Abbey. In particular it is now clear that the headland site excavated by Peers is not the only focus of early activity, and a major question for future study must be the relationship of the Abbey Lands site with the headland site, in terms of its chronology and status. The impression now gained of the 13th-century redevelopment of the site is of extensive terracing over the whole area of the Abbey precinct, producing an effect whereby the Abbey church would have crowned the top of an artificially stepped slope.
A further tranche of evaluation was undertaken during the winter within the curtilage of Abbey House, to the west of the Abbey to survey profiles through the existing terraces on the hillside, and to assess the stability of the foundations of the 17th-century Banqueting House. A series of trial trenches within the Banqueting House revealed that there was a substantial depth of made ground at its western end, and that this was too deep to allow the safe excavation of the trial trenches to foundation depth. A thorough evaluation using dynamic probe technology revealed up to 4.5m of made ground at the western end of the building. The implication seems to be that the Banqueting House was built upon remodelled and backfilled monastic terracing. Further work is expected to take place in connection with the current lottery bid for the provision of improved visitor facilities. In the short term this will include further dynamic probe testing within the terraces of Abbey House.
