NHER 65562 (Monument record) - Post-medieval and undated ditches and natural palaeochannels

April 2017. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The 15 trenches excavated revealed little in the way of archaeologically-significant remains, with only two ditches recorded.
The earliest deposit observed was a dark grey silty clay with frequent orange flecks, which was exposed in a sondage dug in one of the trenches. In most cases excavation halted at the overlying layers of clay, which contained occasional cockle shells and were likely to represent marine alluvium. In one of the trenches the lowest alluvial deposit was overlain by a dark grey silt deposit that was possibly a former soil that had formed during a brief drier period. In places the alluvial clays were overlain by an intermittent yellowish brown clayey silt that potentially represented a flood deposit.
The base of the south-easternmost trench consisted almost entirely of laminated silt, suggesting it coincided with part of the large roddon on which Marshland St James is known to have been established.
The two ditches were both cut into the uppermost of the alluvial clay layers. One of these was a north-east to south-west aligned feature that corresponds with a former boundary depicted on the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six Inch map (S1). This contained post-medieval brick and an iron horseshoe (not retained). The second ditch was similarly aligned but otherwise undated.
The uppermost alluvial clay was also truncated by a number of more irregular linear features containing laminated yellow brown clayey silt deposits. These were interpreted as probable natural palaeochannels containing tidal deposits.
No unstratified finds were recovered.
See report (S2) further details.
P. Watkins (HES) 11 May 2022.