NHER 69869 (Monument record) - Potentially prehistoric and Roman and undated remains

November 2025. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of site of proposed reservoir.
The 43 trenches excavated revealed a small number of scattered linear and discrete features. These were mostly poorly dated, although the work did produce evidence for at least limited prehistoric and Roman-period activity at this location.
The potentially prehistoric features included a small pit or posthole in the eastern part of the site that produced a single sherd of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze pottery and feature of similar size close to the northern edge of the field that contained a single probable Middle Bronze Age sherd. A sample from taken from the fill of the former contained charcoal but little else in the way of charred plant macrofossils, while one from the latter produced two charred wheat grains. Other prehistoric finds included a small number of probable Early to Middle Iron Age pottery sherds recovered from an otherwise undated north-west to south-east aligned ditch in the north-east corner of the site. A sample from this feature produced only charcoal. A single pottery sherd of possible Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age date was also recovered.
The majority of the ditches recorded were aligned either north-north-east to south-south-west or west-north-west to east-south-east. These mostly produced no dating evidence, one notable exception being a north-north-east to south-south-west feature that contained several adjoining pieces of a Roman samian vessel. Fragments of animal bone were also recovered from this ditch and a sample from its fill was found to contain charcoal and a single charred barley grain. A west-north-west to east-south-east aligned ditch at the southern edge of the site produced medieval/post-medieval brick fragments and a cutlery handle of likely 19th- or 20th-century date and can be seen to correspond with a former field boundary shown on the Ordnance Survey First Edition map (S1).
Undated features included six additional small pits, all of which appear to have been fairly unremarkable.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 22 May 2026.