NHER 16857 (Monument record) - Multi-period settlement site

THE CROPMARKS OF A POST MILL DESCRIBED BELOW ARE NOW RECORDED AS NHER 49638.

1980. Field south of Transport Drove. Finds from NARG fieldwalking.
Roman sherds (Samian, Oxfordshire, etc.).
Prehistoric flints and pot boilers.
Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age sherd.
Late Saxon, medieval and post medieval sherds.
Early Saxon? sherd.
Oddments of metal.
See list in file.
Identified by A. Rogerson (NAU) November 1980.
E. Rose (NAU) 5 December 1980.

1981 to 1982.
Further finds.

1983.
Further finds, including Iron Age.
See file for details.
A. Rogerson (NAU) 15 March 1982 and September 1983.

19 July 1977. NAU air photography.
Cropmarks.
Circular cropmark with central '+' indicating site of post mill.
D. Edwards (NAU) 18 December 1980.

(S1) records this as Site 14 and describes it in some detail. Fieldwalking revealed Neolithic to Early Bronze Age activity on the site in the form of many worked flint and fragments of pottery. A 'major concentration' of Iron Age pottery suggests that a settlement developed here, and continued to be of importance into the Roman period. This was one of a cluster of Roman settlements on a ridge that formed a larger village. This site was one of only two in Loddon that were occupied during the Early Saxon period, and the settlement at this site was probably secondary to the bigger settlement at Site 42 (NHER 17977). Settlement shifted away from the site in the Middle Saxon period, and the site was not re-occupied until the medieval period. Activity continued into the post medieval period, and this may have been the site of a mill.
See (S1) for more details.
S. Spooner (NLA) 22 May 2006