In 2013-14 we undertook desk-based work to enhance an understanding of the heritage resource within the scheme footprint, and to produce a geoarchaeological deposit model that identified a complex sequence of soft alluvial deposits beneath the scheme. We also produced a method statement for archaeological excavation within Trinity Burial Ground. This ensured that works were undertaken sensitively with due regard to legal and ethical standards, and to meet the requirements of the church and curatorial bodies.
In 2015 we dug four trial trenches within the burial ground, helping to inform approaches for more detailed investigation which were designed in close association with Principal Contractor, Balfour Beatty. In 2016-17 several trenches were excavated across the line of the medieval town defences, whilst parts of the Georgian Humber Dock walls were subject to historic building investigation.
From 2020-21 work primarily focussed on Trinity Burial Ground. Hundreds of monuments were recorded and carefully moved to storage. A tent was built over the 3000m area to ensure that the excavation of the largest assemblage of funerary remains from northern England, comprising thousands of skeletons, coffins, and artefacts from earth graves and brick tombs, could be undertaken privately.