NHER 17977 (Find Spot record) - Multi-period settlement site

24 February 1982. Fieldwalking by Hales Survey (retains).
Flint flakes.
Bronze Age, Neolithic, Beaker, Iron Age/Early Saxon wares, (S2).
Roman pottery and tile.
Medieval, post medieval finds.
Identified by F. Healy (NAU) and A. Rogerson (NAU) February 1982.
See list and drawings in file.
2 Contexts.
1. General scatter.
2. Site of old house; see Notes for ngr
A. Rogerson (NAU) 15 March 1982.

1983 and 1984.
More finds, see file.
Also 1 sherd Ipswich ware.
See 1986 reidentifications.

August 1993. Found with metal detecting.
Roman coins.
Early Saxon brooches, (S3).
See full details in file.
Drawings NCM.
J. Davies (NCM) 30 September 1993.

July/August 1994.
3 Roman coins.
Identified by J. Davies (NCM).
See list in file.
A. Rogerson (NLA) 14 November 1994.

(S1) records this at Site 42, a site with a long history of settlement activity. The earliest occupation on the site dates from the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age period, and hundreds of worked flints have been recovered as well as fragments of pottery. Fragments of Iron Age pottery have been found, hinting at expansion of settlement during the Iron Age. This expansion became more marked during the Roman period. This may have acted as a 'central place', as the sheltered site is situated on good soils within easy reach of a water supply. The site appears to have been a centre from which settlement expansion took place. Settlement contracted at the end of the Roman period, and this site is one of only two in Loddon that remained occupied in the Early Saxon period (see NHER 16857). A single fragment of Middle Saxon pottery has been found on the site, indicating the final phase of settlement on the site before its abandonment.
See (S1) for a more detailed discussion of this site.
S. Spooner (NLA) 23 May 2006