NHER 37646 (Monument record) - Prehistoric flint working site, Early Iron Age ditch and post holes, and Roman and post medieval finds

May 2002. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of proposed development area.
See report (S1), which includes an aerial photographic assessment of the site (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 26 May 2015.

January 2003. Systematic Fieldwalking and Metal-detecting Survey.
Field survey of northern portion of large proposed development area (Phase 1).
Recorded a high density of worked and burnt flint (595 pieces) across the site as well as three fragments of Romano-British tile, three fragments of Romano-British pottery, and a low density of post-medieval material including brick, tile, pottery, glass and clay pipe fragments.
The worked flint assemblage included 25 cores or core fragments, 237 flakes, and 67 tools and utilised or worked flakes including blades, an awl, end and side scrapers, and a burin. The burnt flint assemblage included 55 worked pieces (chunks, flakes, an end scraper and a core fragment) and 211 unworked pieces. The assemblage has been roughly dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age period but includes several Early Neolithic blades and may also include examples of earlier and later flint working. The flint cores indicate that flint-working took place within this area and the high frequecy of utilised and retouched material in conjunction with comparatively large quantities of unworked burnt flint suggests that some of the material may relate to settlement activity. However, cropmarks of a ring ditch (NHER 12791) have previously been identified in this field and high quantities of used and retouched flint have also been found in association with other ring ditches. Two slight concentrations of worked flint were identified: one to the southwest of the ring ditch (NHER 12791) and one to the southeast of the ring ditch in the vicinity of a prominent linear cropmark.
Metal detecting of the field yielded only post-medieval material, primarily dated to the 18th to 20th century. No Late Prehistoric metal items were recovered despite the presence of a Late Bronze Age hoard in the adjacent field (NHER 16398).
See report (S3) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S4).
See NHER 39351 for details of the results of the field survey undertaken in the southern part of the proposed development area (Phase 2).
M. Horlock (NLA) 29 April 2003. Updated by H. Hamilton (NLA), 2 September 2008.

October-November 2003. Trial Trenching.
45 trial trenches were excavated within this field prior to the construction of new housing.
Despite the density of prehistoric material recorded during fieldwalking very few features were identified. Trenches 4, 90 and 91 were excavated in order to investigate the cropmark of a ring ditch previously identified in aerial photographs (NHER 12791), but no features were identified in this area. However, a large ditch containing 134 sherds of Iron Age pottery (3rd to 1st century BC) and roughly aligned with a linear feature identified on aerial photographs was recorded in the southeast. This feature also contained worked and burnt flint and an amber bead.
Several small irregular pits containing charcoal and burnt flints which may represent tree clearance were also identified.
Several of these appear to correspond to features previously identified in aerial photographs, but the majority of the anomalies in the photographs were not oberved during the excavation.
In the southeast of the field an undated north-south ditch was recorded. This ditch was also observed in two trenches in the adjacent field (see NHER 39351). This undated ditch runs parallel with a later field boundary on the southeastern edge of the site and may be of relatively recent date.
See report (S5) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S4).
Previously recorded under NHER 39796.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 03 September 2008.

October-November 2005. Excavation.
An area measuring 50m by 30m was excavated, centred on the Iron Age ditch identified during the previous evaluation (Area 1).
The ditch extended southeast-northwest across the excavated area and measured up to 2.58m wide and 0.61m deep. 48 sherds of Iron Age pottery were recovered from the ditch fill and have tentatively been dated to the Early Iron Age (8th-5th century BC). The pottery assemblage from the evaluation was re-examined in light of this conclusion and may also be of Early Iron Age date. One possible Bronze Age sherd and a single abraded tooth from a sheep or goat were also recovered from the ditch.
South of the ditch, three parallel post holes were recorded, and two of these contained Iron Age pottery sherds. A fourth post hole was identified north of the ditch and has also been assigned an Iron Age date as it contained a similar fill. An isolated post hole with similar characteristics was recorded to the south, in Area 2 (see NHER 39351). Several of the post holes contained charcoal, indicating that the posts may have been burnt in situ.
Environmental samples were taken actoss the site, but these generally contained very low densities of material, indicating that it probably derived from wind-blown detritus. Samples from three of the Early Iron Age post holes were particularly charcoal-rich and it has been suggested that this material may have derived from small deposits of fuel or hearth waste rather than in situ burning of the posts.
As noted above, see NHER 39351 for details of excavation Area 2.
Previously recorded under NHER 39796.
See published article (S6) for further details. See also interim report (S7), assessment report (S8), archive report (S9) and publication draft (S10).
J. Allen (NLA), 30 March 2007. Updated by H. Hamilton (NLA), 08 September 2008.

2009. Stray Find.
Found on heap of topsoil scraped from housing development site:
1 Upper Palaeolithic/Early Mesolithic flint blade (S11).
Identified by P. Robins (NCM). See description in file.
A. Rogerson (NLA), 17 March 2010. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 March 2014.