Archaeological Review No. 36 2011

Trans. Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 130 (2012), 307–332

Archaeological Review No. 36 2011

Edited by JAN WILLS and JON HOYLE

The Archaeological Review presents brief summaries of archaeological research, fieldwork and building recording undertaken during the year. Information is arranged mostly by civil parishes (as shown on the OS 1:10,000 series maps) with the parish name followed by the site name or description and grid reference. For the cities of Bristol and Gloucester entries are arranged by street or area. Contributions for the next review should be sent to the Archaeology Service, Gloucestershire County Council, Shire Hall, Gloucester, GL1 2TH.

Abbreviations

AA Absolute ArchaeologyAAU Avon Archaeological UnitAOC AOC Archaeology ARS Archaeological Research Services Ltd.ArScn ArcheoscanBA Benchmark Archaeology BaRAS Bristol and Region Archaeological ServicesBUSAS Bournemouth University School of Applied SciencesCA Cotswold ArchaeologyCADHAS The Campden and District Historical and Archaeological Society CHHC Castle House Heritage ConsultingFA Foundations ArchaeologyGADARG Gloucester and District Archaeological Research GroupGCCAS Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology ServiceHA Headland ArchaeologyJMHS John Moore Heritage ServicesLHA Lawrence Hayes AssociatesMA Monmouth ArchaeologyNA Northamptonshire Archaeology NT The National TrustOAS Oxford Archaeology SouthTVAS Thames Valley Archaeological ServicesWHEAS Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service110 Arch 110 Archaeology

AMPNEY CRUCIS, Happy Lands, Wiggold, SP 04500530. A single 20m2 evaluation trench was hand-excavated across the western perimeter of an oval enclosure measuring c. 60m × 45m which had first been recognised as a cropmark by O.G.S. Crawford in 1931. Geophysical surveys in

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2010 and 2011 suggested the presence of two roughly concentric rings of interrupted ditches and a possible entrance opening to the east. The outer ditch on the northern and western sides was larger than on the south and east. Excavation showed that, where sampled, the inner ditch was 0.6m wide and preserved to a depth of 0.3m while the outer ditch, originally more than 0.8m wide and 0.6m deep, had been recut on a more massive scale as a ditch 2.8m wide and 1.8m deep with steep sides and a flat base. No material to date the construction of the ditches was recovered.

Timothy Darvill, BUSAS

AMPNEY CRUCIS and BAUNTON, Abbey Home Farm, SP 04500500 (C). Extensive geophysical surveys covering a total of 74ha were undertaken in 10 fields within Abbey Home Farm: Steep Hill, Barn Sisters, Sisters, Ferns, Welshway Corner, Beetles Piece, Happy Lands, Little Ampney, Barn Ground, and Coneygars. This provided high resolution surveys of archaeological features recorded in Little Ampney (middle Bronze Age enclosure), Happy Lands (undated oval enclosure), and Sisters (long barrow). It also identified three previously unrecorded sets of features: enclosures, pits, and possible post-settings in Welshway Corner; later prehistoric, Romano-British and medieval enclosures and settlement remains in Barn Ground and Coneygars and old stream beds and evidence for a possible lightning strike in Barn Sisters and Steep Hill.


BAGENDON, The Old School, SP 01100660. An evaluation consisting of four test pits identified archaeological fills/layers beneath poorly dated make-up deposits. These were associated with pottery datable to the later Iron Age and early Roman periods, along with bone fragments, burnt flint, ceramic building material (CBM), charcoal and limestone fragments. Deposits containing 2nd-century AD pottery provided limited evidence for settlement within the Bagendon oppidum in the later part of the early Roman period.

FA

BRIMPSFIELD, Brimpsfield Castle, SO 94041273. Archaeological recording was undertaken at the castle gatehouse which was becoming badly damaged due to erosion and severe root disturbance. The position of the eastern and western sides of the gatehouse indicate that the original entrance was 3m wide, and slots for the portcullis, the remains of the door jambs and some evidence of decorative carving were clearly visible on both sides of the entrance. The western side survives as two courses of stone and patches of mortar were visible within both walls. The floor surface of the gateway was also well preserved and there was evidence for a possible stairway and laid stone floors. Following recording the walls were covered with soil and topped with a layer of turf to protect the remaining stonework.

Briege Williams, GCCAS

BRISTOLBedminster, Parson Street Primary School, ST 58037054. Following previous work in 2010 a watching brief recorded predominantly natural deposits and features associated with the site’s use as a school. Some features associated with 12th- to 14th- century, and 16th- to 18th- century activity were also identified.

Gary Baddeley, AOC

Bedminster, Nos. 200–202 West Street, ST 57837090. A watching brief and training excavation on the former site of terraced cottages identified structural remains, cut features and datable, stratified deposits indicating a long sequence of occupation from the medieval period. Settlement activity


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was represented by fairly substantial clay-bonded limestone wall footings, post and stakeholes and deposits containing exclusively medieval pottery. It is clear that bedrock had been exposed in antiquity and early masonry was re-used in later structures on the same site during major rebuilding in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Andy King, BaRAS

Brandon Hill, ST 57897297. Two evaluation trenches were excavated to investigate a bastion-shaped feature thought to be part of the English Civil War fortifications. A section was excavated across the ditch which demonstrated its similarity to a Civil War outwork recorded at Gloucester Lane, Old Market, in 2002, and that it had been recut to more than half its original depth when Cabot Tower was constructed in about 1898. The bastion retaining wall and earth bank were later than the Civil War and may have been a folly constructed in the mid to late 18th century. Further landscaping around the summit in the 1850s raised both the ground level within the bastion and the height of the retaining wall. The retaining wall was also refaced and coping stones added sometime around 1898. An outer line of earthworks further down the hill were described as part of the Civil War defences in 1823, although additional excavation would be needed to clarify this.

Andy King, BaRAS

Castle Park, Newgate, ST 58187267. A watching brief during construction of a new food kiosk uncovered a north/south aligned stone wall beneath the concrete surface of the former road known as Dolphin Street. The wall, which is probably early post-medieval and could seal earlier archaeological deposits, may be the edge of a cellar extending beneath Dolphin Street, or one side of a stone-lined drainage culvert.

Cai Mason, BaRAS

Cotham, Cotham Grammar School, ST 58407400. Watching brief identified a 19th-century stone wall and a brick-lined drain which are likely to have been associated with a mid 19th-century villa known as Cotham Lawn.

Gary Baddeley, BaRAS

Clifton, Chesterfield Hospital, Clifton Hill, ST 59437240. A building survey, in advance of renovation work, was undertaken at Stafford Lodge, an ancillary building to the Grade II* listed hospital formerly known as Clifton Court. Clifton Court was constructed in 1742 and Stafford Lodge was part of a range of buildings to the west of the main block built in the early 19th century. It was not affected when the west wing of Clifton Court was substantially rebuilt in 1857, but was mostly demolished when a large new extension was added to the rear of the main house following its conversion to a nursing home in 1934. Stafford Lodge was subsequently rebuilt as a two-storey brick structure which incorporated parts of the earlier building into its south and east walls.

Cai Mason, BaRAS

Easton, buildings adjacent to Junction 3 of the M32, ST 60267428. A building survey prior to redevelopment recorded the remains of a number of houses, workshops and outbuildings along Lower Ashley Road, Baptist Street and Millpond Street. The earliest, along Lower Ashley Road, dated to the 1830s, and the Baptist Street and Millpond Street frontages were developed soon after. Numerous later 19th- and 20th-century alterations and extensions were also recorded. A number of brass slag blocks and fragments of brass casting slabs from the nearby Baptist Mills Brass Works were recovered during demolition.

Cai Mason, BaRAS



Easton, Lower Ashley Road, ST 60127434. An excavation on the site of the former Wesley Chapel burial ground uncovered 72 in situ burials, representing a 6.78% sample of the 1,062 individuals known to have been buried on the site between 1837 and 1899. The rest of the burials were removed by a burial ground clearance operation undertaken in the early 1970s.

Skeletal remains were recovered from fourteen graves, six of which had multiple internments, stacked up to eight deep. Just over half of the burials were pre-adult and the majority were from two graves, one of which may have been reserved for infants and children. Analysis revealed that some of the skeletons had pathologies associated with poor diet, but did not display evidence for levels of poverty-related diseases recorded from contemporary sites in London.

The foundations of the Wesley Chapel, built in 1837 and substantially enlarged in 1871, were recorded along with the remains of a late 18th-century building which formed part of the former Baptist Mills Brass Works. Both buildings were demolished in the early 1970s prior to the construction of the M32 motorway.

Cai Mason, BaRAS

Former Magistrates Court, Rupert Street/Nelson Street, ST 58737321. A watching brief was undertaken during a geotechnical survey prior to the demolition of the former Magistrates Court. Four mechanically excavated trial pits, two boreholes and three window samples were observed and varying depths of construction-related disturbance were recorded along with buried garden soils and a single layer of peaty clay identified in three areas.

Tim Longman, BaRAS

Kingswood, Cossham Memorial Hospital, Lodge Road, ST 64247456. Building recording was undertaken prior to extensive refurbishment of the main block and selective demolition of subsidiary structures in the grounds. This imposing public building, which opened in 1907 and was built in memory of the late Handel Cossham, is mainly constructed from Pennant rubble with Bath Stone dressings augmented by brickwork.

John Bryant, BaRAS

Kingswood, Cossham Hospital, Lodge Road, ST 64247456. A watching brief identified topsoil overlying natural deposits of clay, sandstone and coal which appear to have been truncated when the hospital was built in 1905. An 18th- or 19th-century coal shaft was discovered in the northwestern corner of the site, although no other features or deposits of archaeological significance were observed.


Masons Arms public house, Lawrence Weston Road, ST 54947851. An evaluation revealed masonry and associated deposits interpreted as part of the foundations of terraced houses built on the site between 1772 and 1838. A number of pits and ditches, which were cut into the undisturbed subsoil and sealed by a layer containing medieval pottery, were the earliest features on the site and may be the remains of some form of water management system.

Simon Roper, BaRAS

Netham, Netham Lock, ST 61597270. A programme of archaeological recording during the lifting and replacement of the Grade II listed Netham Lock gates recorded details of a number of alterations, although few additional details of the lock structure itself.

Simon Roper, BaRAS



No. 61 Old Market Street, ST 59717310. A watching brief during groundworks for the construction of a new residential property and associated parking revealed a post-medieval yard surface of laid bricks sealing made-ground deposits also of post-medieval date. No other features or deposits of archaeological significance were observed.

Tim Longman and Ray Ducker, BaRAS

Old fire station, Silver Street, ST 58917332. A building survey recorded a range of buildings prior to their redevelopment. The old fire Station was built in 1926–8 as part of a single development which included the former police headquarters and central police station. It is four storeys high, with a fourth floor tower on the corner of Silver Street and Bridewell Street. The ground floor housed fire appliances, a control room and a vehicle workshop, the first floor probably included offices, mess room, recreation rooms, dormitory, toilets, washrooms and possibly a kitchen, and the second and third floors contained nine purpose-built flats for fire officers and their families. Each flat contained a kitchen, bathroom and four or five other rooms that probably included a living room, dining room and two or three bedrooms. The front doors opened onto an external balcony fitted with three enclosed shafts containing sliding poles, and the Superintendent’s quarters had a sliding pole inside the flat itself. Since its closure in 1973 it has been used as an office, bar, nightclub and venue for performing arts and laser games. Alterations associated with these uses mainly affected the first floor, making interpretation of the function of most of the rooms difficult, although the basic structure of the building remains intact, and it is a good example of a large 1920s fire station.

Cai Mason, BaRAS

Nos. 204–222 Avonvale Road, Barton Hill, ST 60967302. A watching brief on the site of the former shops adjoining Ashmead House uncovered a number of post-medieval structures relating to 19th-century development. The remains of Beaufort Road, which crossed the site in the early 19th-century, were identified in two separate areas, and cartographic evidence shows a trackway on the same alignment dating from at least 1610. A number of mid to late 19th-century buildings were also found comprising stone cellar walls, a vaulted brick cellar roof, foundations and brick walls. Other 19th-century structures may survive below deposits which date to a period of regeneration of the area in the 1960s.


Pates Building, Bristol Cathedral School, ST 58337264. A programme of building recording was undertaken during refurbishment of the Grade II* listed building which consisted primarily of removing modern suspended ceilings, a small kitchen unit and mezzanine floor. The only significant features recorded were a single stone corbel, a section of decorative stone coving and a limited length of horizontal structural timber on the 1st floor, probably associated with known early post-medieval alterations. Other features associated with the late 18th-/early 19th-century insertion of flooring beams on the 1st and 2nd floors and extensive late 20th-century structural and cosmetic alterations to the interior were also recorded.

Chris Clarke and Alan Ford, AOC

PRC Housing, Lawrence Weston, ST 54287788-ST 54757858; Henbury, ST 56807875-ST 57157900; Lockleaze, ST 60837690 and ST 60807730-ST 61057710. Photographic recording of 159 terraced or semi-detached houses, on 15 streets, was undertaken in Lawrence Weston, Henbury and Lockleaze. All of the houses appear to have been of ‘Woolaway Type’ built between 1947 and 1951 with minor variations in the porches, doors and windows.

Raymond Ducker, BaRAS



Redcliffe, St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School, ST 59287208. An intermittent archaeological watching brief revealed a series of features associated with the remains of 19th-century residential properties and a 20th-century swimming pool. A significant phase of modern truncation which cut into the natural clay had removed the majority of archaeological features in this area.

Chris Clarke and Jon Moller, AOC

Redcliffe, St. Mary Redcliffe, ST 59137226. A watching brief during pathway re-surfacing recorded stone foundations of an early 19th-century gate next to the churchyard’s south-eastern entrance. A small number of disarticulated human bones were recovered and re-buried in the churchyard.

Cai Mason, BaRAS

Shirehampton, Tithe Barn, High Street, ST 53007700. An evaluation and a watching brief were undertaken prior to and during alterations and refurbishment to the Grade II listed Tithe Barn. A late 19th-century cobbled yard surface to the rear of the building sealed a late 19th-century subterranean water tank or cistern which was accessed via a small shaft sealed beneath a rectangular stone slab in the yard surface. The watching brief also recorded over 2.5m of stratified late 19th-century deposits, possibly the fill of a large pit, to the south of the yard surface. This contained late 19th-century pottery, animal bone and oyster shells. The remains of a late 19th-century brick-built boiler house and flue/warm air duct, excavated near the junction of the garden wall and the barn, were associated with a contemporary greenhouse adjacent to the barn in a walled garden to the east.

Tim Longman, BaRAS

St. George, The Lord Rodney, Two Mile Hill Road, ST 63497379. The disused public house was recorded prior to its proposed demolition. The mainly two-storey rubble-built structure was probably erected in the 18th century, with additions northwards and eastwards during the 19th and early-mid 20th centuries. Slag blocks, a by-product of the local brass industry, were used in some of the additions. Partial cellarage at basement level was included within the rear of the building, and service rooms, with facilities such as stables and a coach house, were placed within the rear range. A trough and pump were provided for watering horses.

John Bryant, BaRAS

St. James Priory, Whitson Street, ST 58897347. A watching brief and building recording during a major renovation programme recorded a number of post-medieval structures in and around the church, and some monumental inscriptions and post-medieval brick-lined graves. Medieval floor tiles and fragments of worked stone were recovered as residual finds including one, from rubble incorporated into the 19th-century north wall of the church, which included part of a medieval sundial carved with Arabic numerals, whose style suggests a 15th-century date. It appears to have been an ‘equatorial’ sundial, an early type of scientific sundial whose production would have required a degree of astronomical knowledge, and may be the earliest known scientific sundial in Britain. Foundations of a post-medieval building, probably built in the 17th century and demolished in the early 1850s, were uncovered immediately to the west of the church and the remains of three 18th- or early 19th-century townhouses were incorporated into its eastern end. Excavations in the north and south aisles revealed densely packed brick-lined vaults and graves containing burials, often in lead coffins, representing intramural burials from the late 16th to the early 19th century. Numerous 18th- and early 19th-century brick-lined graves were also recorded immediately to the south of the church and in St. James Parade along with the foundations of a porch, probably built in 1802 and demolished c. 1880.

Cai Mason, BaRAS



St. Philips, No. 51 Barton Road, ST 59997280. A watching brief revealed truncated natural bedrock overlain by up to 3m of made ground. Historic maps show a number of clay pits in the area, and the site may have been stripped of natural clay and backfilled prior to its development in the early 19th century. Walls and yard surfaces relating to 19th-century buildings were also uncovered.


Stapleton, Blackberry Hill Hospital, ST 62587628. Historic building recording established that two of the three buildings on site had been a stable, cart shed and groom’s accommodation built in 1861 perhaps as part of a small farm supplying the lunatic asylum. Stores and sheds were added by 1882 and the third building constructed as a mortuary between 1882 and 1903. Although the buildings had a distinct architectural style, carefully matching that of the asylum, hidden parts were treated more simply, and further modifications in construction and use occurred in the 20th century, probably mostly after 1952.

Rachel Leung and Peter Davenport, CA

Temple Gate, railway viaduct and adjoining buildings to the rear of The George and Railway Hotel, ST 59437240. A watching brief during the demolition of a railway viaduct and adjoining buildings, to the rear of the hotel, revealed structural details of the late 19th-century railway viaduct and adjoining stable block. The Bristol Harbour Railway was built in 1868–72, and by 1874 two poorly built two-storey houses had been constructed against the viaduct on the Victoria Street frontage. Most of the viaduct arches were used as stables for the newly expanded hotel, although in 1883 a large brick stable block, with a clear span corrugated iron roof, was built between the viaduct and Portwall Lane East. Although the building was adapted as a garage and car showroom in the 20th century, there was little alteration to the fabric of the 1883 stable block. The railway closed in 1965, but the tracks continued to be used as a wagon store until the bridge over Victoria Street was removed in the mid 1990s.

Cai Mason, BaRAS

The Naval Volunteer public house, Nos. 17–18 King Street, ST 58787268. A photographic record of the four separate roof structures was carried out during renovation works. One of the roofs contained in situ purlins and pegged rafter joints possibly dating from the construction of the buildings in the later 17th century. The other three roofs had early timbers re-used within their structures but had all been extensively repaired and rebuilt.

Andy King, BaRAS

Westbury-on-Trym, No. 40 Coombe Lane, ST 56267669. A watching brief within the grounds of this site, also known as the Red House or Red House Farm, identified no features or deposits of archaeological significance. The outbuildings of the Red House may not have extended into the area and the orchard, recorded on the site from the early 19th century, may have been earlier and already established when the Red House was built.

Simon Roper, BaRAS

BOURTON-ON-THE-HILL, land adjacent to the Horse and Groom Inn, SP 17313258. Evaluation exposed a 2.9m wide ditch of probable prehistoric date and a rubbish pit backfilled with building stone associated with later 1st-century AD pottery. Medieval features comprised a lynchet containing 11th- to 13th-century pottery which was cut by a broadly contemporary pit, a stone building associated with occupation deposits containing 13th- to 14th-century pottery and a pit or ditch terminus which also contained late 13th- to 14th-century pottery. Further spreads



of building stone may indicate the presence of additional masonry structures and a large pit of probable post-medieval date could represent later robbing of the stone building, or quarrying.

Chiz Harward, CA

BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER, No. 2 Bow Lane, SP 16702060. A watching brief during the excavation of foundations for a new extension recorded evidence for medieval ridge and furrow and post-medieval landscaping. A single fragment of Romano-British pottery was also recovered.

OAS

Bury Close, Station Road, SP 17102097. Six hand-dug evaluation trenches demonstrated that excavations undertaken by Dunning in the 1930s were slightly further to the west than previously thought. In one trench two undated features which produced burnt stone, perhaps the remains of a hearth, were similar to features found during Dunning’s excavation. In another, the natural gravel was overlain by an undated early soil horizon cut by an early Roman ditch which was aligned north to south. This had steep sides and may have formed the western edge of an enclosure, perhaps associated with linear features on an east/west alignment identified by geophysical survey in the adjacent field in 1995.Two ditch- or pit-like features were recorded in another trench. The earliest of these produced a single sherd of Roman pottery, although it was from the upper part of the fill and may have been intrusive. All recorded features appeared to have been truncated and were sealed by thick cultivation deposits.

Sean Cook, 110 Arch

Wintertrees, Lansdown, SP 16262096. A single hand-dug evaluation trench, excavated in advance of the construction of a rear extension to the existing house, recorded a compact surface of large and small stones, interpreted as a Roman yard/hardstanding or track/road. This was overlain by a thin layer of gravel, perhaps ground consolidation or some form of metalling, and appears to have been similar to floor layers within a Roman building recorded at Millstone Cottage, adjoining Wintertrees, in 2001. These surfaces were sealed by layers of soil accumulation dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD to the present day. The layers were cut by a modern drainage trench dating to the construction of Wintertrees in the 1980s.

Sean Cook, 110 Arch

New classroom block, Cotswold School, SP 16632109. Further work at the school site exposed more Iron Age to Roman features including approximately 240 pits and postholes, six ditches and 21 inhumations. A late Iron Age/early Roman ditch appears to be a continuation of one investigated during excavations in 2010, and a parallel ditch contained the crouched inhumation of a young female associated with Iron Age pottery. Further human remains, possibly of this date, included two infants buried within what later became a Roman cemetery. The Roman cemetery comprised at least 16 inhumations including adults of both sexes, juveniles and infants, although it is unlikely that its full extent was uncovered. At least six of the burials were within stone cists, one within a shroud and two within coffins. One adult was buried with a coin in its mouth whilst another was possibly encased in gypsum or plaster. Limited evidence was also recorded of the Roman settlement previously identified in 2010.

Diarmuid O’Seaneachain, CA

Land at Whiteshoots House, SP 15682045. Evaluation exposed large Iron Age storage pits, probably indicative of settlement. An early post-medieval ditch was also recorded.

Sian Reynish, CA



The Mill House, Lansdown, SP 16322094. A watching brief revealed the footings of the standing building overlying the footing of an earlier structure. This may represent the remains of the former mill known as Upper Mill of Bourton, although, given the limited nature of the excavations and lack of dating evidence, this is not clear.

HA

CAM, No. 34 Hopton Road, ST 75659930. A programme of archaeological monitoring and recording of groundworks associated with the construction of an extension recorded a single linear feature of medieval date.

FA

Box Road, SO 74900170. An archaeological field evaluation identified a large tree throw hole and an undated posthole. Severely truncated medieval ridge and furrow was also recorded running on a predominantly northwest/southeast alignment.

OAS

CHALFORD, Building C27, Aston Down Airfield, SO 91400060. Historic building recording of a Type D aircraft hangar, dating to between 1938 and 1941, revealed that it has undergone very little change to accommodate its current commercial use.

Peter Davenport, CA

CHARFIELD, land adjacent to St. James’ Church, ST 71909110. A watching brief during landscaping works for a parking area recorded late 18th- to 19th-century footings of a barn, previously identified during evaluation of the site in 2009. No further features were recorded.

AA

CHEDWORTH, Chedworth Roman Villa, SP05271347. A watching brief and an evaluation were undertaken during the construction of a new cover building over the west range.

Room 3

The villa has been levelled into the slope of an east facing valley and Room 3, at the west end of the south range, was constructed down the slope. Evalution to determine the Roman floor levels demonstrated that the rooms of the south range step down the slope, the steepness of which required the floor level of this 12m long room to be cut deeply into the west end of the range. An opus signinum floor, which survived only 0.18m below the turf at the west end of the room, was traced for 2.6m to the east before it was destroyed by post-Roman robbing. The north to south entrance route into the villa, which passes between two wall footings on the west side of Room 4, overlay Roman demolition rubble which peeled off onto a path surface sloping up to the north. Where this path crossed through the door from the Room 4 passage into the south edge of Room 3, it was 0.8m below the surviving opus signinum floor at the west end of Room 3, and a revetment wall would have been needed between the path and the room to accommodate the difference in floor levels. Room 3 can be interpreted as two rooms with a north-south entrance passage between them. The upper west room was interpreted as a kitchen and measured 6m by 6m. Below this, on its east side, was the 2m wide passage. Further east an unexcavated additional room, measuring 3m by 6m, is at a lower level between the passage and Room 1.



West of the west range

The west range was built on a level area quarried out of the east facing slope. A service trench was excavated for 30m westward from the external wall of the villa, close to Room 5. The lowest level recorded was an orange clay mixed with tile fragments, and the profile of the original quarry 6m east of the villa. A shallow ditch (1m wide and 0.3m deep with a rounded profile) was also recorded 8m to the west of the villa. This was filled with orange clay but produced no diagnostic finds. At 10m west of the villa was a vertical cut over 0.8m deep and filled with layers of limestone and clay cut into the limestone. This was cut by a ‘V’ shaped ditch, measuring at least 4m wide and c.1m deep, which contained mixed Roman finds but also a fragment of post-medieval glazed pottery. The earlier cut may have been the robber trench of a villa boundary wall along the upper lip of the quarry. This was subsequently cut by a boundary ditch excavated some time between the 17th and 19th centuries.

The insertion of lightning conductors at the north end of the west range quarry revealed a stone culvert immediately west of the bath house. This was aligned north/south and contained small fragments of Roman tile and pottery.

Martin Papworth, NT

CHELTENHAM, Hunting Butts Farm, SO 94832442. Evaluation identified ditches confirming the presence of the southern boundary of the medieval Prestbury deer park indicated by an earlier geophysical survey. Re-cutting of the ditches showed that they were maintained into the post-medieval period. The remains of ridge and furrow cultivation were also recorded.

Steven Sheldon, CA

Land at Midwinter, SO 94432377. Evaluation identified a ditch of possible Roman date and ditches likely to have formed part of a medieval/early post-medieval field system. A ditch, pit and 19th-century wells were evidence for the site’s former use as an allotment.

Stuart Joyce, CA

Albion House Social Club, North Street. ST 94982261. A watching brief recorded a post-medieval pit, but no other significant archaeological deposits, features or finds.

Nick Witchell, GCCAS

CHIPPING CAMPDEN, land at Northwick, SP 37233584. Evaluation confirmed the presence of a 15m wide ring ditch enclosing two undated features; a tree-throw pit and a short semicircular feature previously identified during a geophysical survey. A number of undated pits and ditches were also found, although many of the geophysical anomalies proved to be geological. The ring ditch was preserved in situ and a subsequent watching brief recovered a single struck flint, probably of late Neolithic to early Bronze Age date, from the topsoil. Small quantities of similar material had also been recovered from the topsoil during the evaluation.

Kelly Saunders and Jonathan Hart, CA

Sir Baptist Hicks Almshouses, SP 15363933. Archaeological evaluation of the garden behind the almshouses identified a considerable depth of well-stratified archaeological deposits dating from the late 17th century to the present day. Identified features included rubbish pits, cobbled surfaces/paths and temporary structures probably associated with periods of construction or maintenance of the almshouses. Evidence for the construction and reconstruction of the boundary wall and spreads of builders’ debris were also recorded. A considerable assemblage of pottery and other



finds was recovered, including butchered bones, evidence for the diet of the residents, and a residual Mesolithic flint flake.

Martin Cook, CADHAS

CHURCHDOWN, west of Zoons Court Farm, SO 87101920. A resistivity survey over an area of 60m × 80m confirmed the presence of a rectilinear feature visible in an aerial photograph taken in 2007. No finds of any significance were, however, recovered from the field surface and the feature may be the result of recent agricultural activity.

Ann Maxwell, GADARG

CIRENCESTER, No. 10 Corinium Gate, SP 02790213. Evaluation exposed parts of the Roman ramparts, made up of silty clay layers containing 2nd- to 3rd-century AD pottery, directly beneath modern layers. The results are comparable to those from 18 Corinium Gate, where Roman rampart layers were also directly sealed by modern deposits.

Jonathan Hart, CA

Kingshill Sports Ground, SP 08350170. Evaluation recorded a pit and ditches, some of which corresponded to geophysical anomalies. Roman pottery was recovered from one of the ditches which may be the remains of Roman field boundaries.

Kelly Saunders, CA

Former Bridges Motors Garage, Old Tetbury Road SP 01930177. A watching brief and subsequent excavation were undertaken during construction of a new car park within the Bath Gate cemetery, close to the projected line of the Fosse Way, where inhumations and cremations have been recorded since 1867, including at least 46 cremations and six inhumations excavated by Richard Reece in 1960.

Seventy inhumations and four urned cremations, which appear to represent the earliest burials on site and were disturbed by several of the inhumations, were recorded in 2011. The cemetery itself was defined by a ditch running parallel to the projected line of the Fosse Way, before turning to run perpendicular to it. Within this corner of the cemetery boundary a robbed wall defined a probable mausoleum which contained seven of the inhumations, one of which was associated with 2nd to 3rd-century AD pottery. Other possible cemetery features, including a path and possible tree/shrub locations, were implied by the layout of the graves, although no physical traces of these survived. Possible family burial plots were also present, one of which included a juvenile buried with a copper alloy cockerel with enamelled decoration and a small pottery tettine or feeding bottle, and another juvenile buried with shale or jet jewellery and two copper-alloy bracelets or shroud fastenings. The closest parallel for the cockerel is an example from Cologne, thought to date to the 2nd century AD, and both are probably from the same workshop located somewhere in Britain. The cockerel was a common Roman icon with connections to Mercury, the god responsible for conducting newly-deceased souls to the afterlife.

Approximately 30% of the burials included hobnails, 15% had some manner of grave goods and the majority were within wooden coffins. Most burials were extended and supine, although prone and flexed examples were also present. Intercutting graves indicate the longevity of the cemetery and the earliest finds suggest burial began during the late 1st/early 2nd century AD. The presence of at least two decapitated burials may indicate that the cemetery continued in use into the late Roman period.

Jamie Wright and Cliff Bateman, CA



Cirencester Primary School, Victoria Road, SP 03000150. Geophysical surveys were undertaken on the school playing fields, within Insuli X and XI of the Roman town, in advance of the construction of new fences. Resistivity survey in the southeastern part of the area revealed an earlier cut-off in the course of Gunstool Brook which appears to have been canalised with stone revetments, traces of what may be wall footings associated with building X.3 (previously sampled during excavations by Richard Reece in 1960–1) and a large D-shaped high-resistance anomaly, perhaps representing the wall-footings of a previously unknown building within what appears to be an open courtyard. Magnetometer survey of the whole available area revealed extensive disturbances and a wide scatter of debris within the topsoil. The features revealed by resistivity survey were confirmed and a further linear anomaly (possible drain or ditch) running southwest/northeast and broadly following the alignment of the Roman street grid connected with Gunstool Brook. Evidence for rectangular buildings was found in the northwestern part of the playing fields, although there was no trace of Street G between Insuli XI and X. Overall, the work shows the potential for such surveys inside Roman towns.


No. 4 Purley Avenue, SP 02790180. The excavation of a single test pit identified deposits and artefacts consisting of soil, pea-grit, mortar and limestone, consistent with Roman urban settlement activity.

FA

No. 24 Beeches Road, SP 02800180. The excavation of a single test pit identified a layer of clay and limestone fragments sealed by poorly dated soil layers. A small assemblage of Roman and medieval pottery along with Roman ceramic building material was also found.

FA

Cricklade Road, SP 03340010. A watching brief identified no archaeological features, although residual Roman pottery and roof tile, and a large sherd of early Saxon pottery were recovered. The topography of the immediate floodplain was also plotted.

Gwilym Williams, JMHS

COLN ST ALDWYNS, Church of St. John the Baptist, SP 14340518. A watching brief recorded an undated masonry culvert which was probably post-medieval and associated with church drainage, but no features or deposits of archaeological significance. Finds were limited to a single fragment of re-deposited architectural masonry and a very small quantity of disarticulated human bone which was redeposited in the trenches. The lack of disarticulated human bone may suggest that burial was not intensive in that area or that soil conditions are not conducive to bone preservation.

Richard Cherrington, BA

COLN ST DENNIS, Pindrup Farm, Fossebridge, SP 07911080. A watching brief during the construction of an ‘all weather gallops’ recorded three probable Iron Age pits.

Kelly Saunders, CA

DYRHAM AND HINTON, Dyrham Park, West Garden, ST 74157576. A watching brief identified a Roman ditch filled by a dark greyish-brown soft silty clay. This contained Romano-British pottery, animal bone, brick fragments, mortar and one unidentified iron object. The ditch was c. 3.5m (oblique width) in section although 17th-century landscaping of the garden had almost



certainly truncated its depth. A limestone culvert and pitched stone courtyard surface, dating to the 17th century, were associated with an earlier phase of Dyrham House.

AA

EASTLEACH, St. Andrews House, SP 20180536. A watching brief during the excavation of footings for a new garage, extensions to the house and associated service trenching identified no archaeological features and found no evidence for an undated linear feature identified in earlier evaluation. Landscaping around the house and earlier terracing into the hillside may have removed evidence for earlier deposits.

FA

FAIRFORD, Fairford House, SP 15140110. A watching brief during groundworks associated with the construction of a linked orangery and pool building revealed three possible pits and a possible ditch which, although undated, may be related to medieval settlement activity. Frequent modern disturbance was also recorded.

FA

FARMINGTON, Farmington Lodge, SU 13701530. Although the listing description describes the property as a mid to late 18th-century house altered in the mid 19th century, architectural and archaeological analysis during refurbishment suggested a more complex development.The evidence of construction breaks and architectural detailing fossilised in the fabric suggests that the ranges at either end of the rear part of the building could date to the late 17th century, perhaps flanking a central block which has since been replaced, and may have been part of the house shown on the 1714 estate map. The earlier 17th-century core of the house may have been incorporated into or replaced by the present central frontage block on its west side by Edmund Waller who owned the house between 1724 and 1771. There was no evidence to support the tradition that the central portico was added to this elevation in the mid 19th century.

The wings to either side of the entrance have different floor levels and were probably added in front of the two late 17th-century wings in the later 18th century. The ceiling of the dining room in the northern of these wings is typical of Adam style work of the period from the 1760s to 1780s.

In the early 1850s the house was much altered in a relatively sympathetic neo-classical style by the architect David Brandon, and a large new range was built to the rear of the entrance block, between the two 17th-century wings.

Radical alterations were made to the interior after the house was acquired by Edward Wills in the early 1950s. These included the conversion of the former service end on the southern side of the house into family rooms, the demolition of the adjacent kitchen court, and new services converted from former family rooms in the northern part of the house. The decoration was mainly neo-classical and some details, such as part of the mid 18th-century stair, were re-used.

Richard Morris

FOREST OF DEAN, Forest of Dean Archaeological Survey, Tidenham, SO 55950016, Drybrook, SO 63671641, West Dean, SO 60431296 (C) and SO 60431296 (C). A further phase of fieldwork investigated four lidar-detected earthworks within Forestry Commission woodland.

Tidenham: Topographical survey, geophysical survey and limited excavation were undertaken at a small sub-circular enclosure in woodland to the north of Tidenham. The enclosure was c. 25m in diameter and was defined by a low (c. 0.5m high) bank made up of sandstone and limestone rubble with twelve small limestone standing stones set vertically on its surface. In the centre of the enclosure a large geophysical anomaly may have represented spread from a low central



mound. The earthwork has been interpreted as an early-middle Bronze Age ritual monument, perhaps a ring cairn or embanked stone circle. This is the only monument of this class known in Gloucestershire, although similar sites are known in Glamorgan and Gwent to the west. Two small mounds, perhaps barrows, were recorded in the immediate vicinity of the enclosure which is on the eastern side of Tidenham Chase, an area containing a number of known and possible barrows sites. The site is also in a geologically significant location at the boundary of sandstone and limestone geologies and close to significant visible geological features such as exposed limestone pavement and natural large sink holes.

Drybrook: Evaluation of the bank and ditch of a small (c. 26m × 23m) sub-rectangular enclosure at Ruardean Hill demonstrated that it had been constructed in the 1st century AD and fell out of use during the 2nd century AD. Pottery recovered from the ditch included early Severn Valley ware and some sherds of Lyon ware, a pre-Flavian or early Flavian pottery type often associated with early Roman military sites. The enclosure was one of five similar features (four of which were identified by lidar) which may represent small military fortlets dating to the earliest years of Roman expansion into the Forest of Dean, perhaps as a means of securing control over or monitoring the area’s iron industry at that time.

West Dean: Two adjacent earthwork systems were investigated in Sallowvallets Enclosure. One of these, consisting of parallel linear terraces, was made up of a colluvial deposit which contained sherds of abraded Roman pottery. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of the deposit suggested that the colluvium had formed either in or soon after the later part of first millennium BC. The second earthwork system, made up of rectilinear enclosures defined by terraces, had also been formed by colluvium which appeared to have accumulated against the back of a small bank. The colluvium contained no datable artefacts, but two charcoal fragments were radiocarbon dated and the results, when combined with OSL, suggested that the earthwork system had been laid out in the mid first millennium BC. The colluvium was sealed by a thick deposit of bloomery iron slag, fragments of burnt furnace material and charcoal which was interpreted as the residue from nearby iron smelting. The deposit produced two sherds of early Roman Severn Valley ware and radiocarbon dates from two fragments of charcoal were also consistent with an early Roman date. Magnetic susceptibility survey showed this to be a discrete deposit measuring c. 14m × 14m and particularly high magnetic readings immediately to the north of the excavation trench may indicate the site of the smelting furnaces.

A palaeoenvironmental assessment of an area centred on the Cannop Brook valley was undertaken to determine the potential for palaeoenvironmental study of small wetland sites to investigate historic land-use. GIS mapping identified a small number of undated features of medium to high potential including Cannop Ponds and marsh, a small number of other ponds, a palaeochannel and an osier bed. Augering and pollen assessment did not indicate any deposits pre-dating 19th-century industrial activity, although at present no deposits have been radiocarbon dated and the possibility that they are earlier cannot be ruled out. Despite the potentially modern date of many features in this area, the method of mapping could be usefully applied in other areas.

Jon Hoyle, GCCAS

FRAMPTON ON SEVERN, Middle Field, Netherhills Quarry, SO 76490669. Archaeological recording in advance of a small-scale extension to the existing mineral extraction area recorded evidence of Neolithic, other prehistoric and Romano-British activity sealed by post-medieval ridge and furrow. The features, which were spread across the site with a concentration towards the eastern side, comprised a badly truncated human burial of possible Beaker date and five truncated pits containing Neolithic/Beaker ceramics, over 200 flint fragments, including a leaf-



shaped and a chisel arrowhead, and cattle and pig bones. Five linear features of probable Iron Age to Romano-British date were also observed along with 18 truncated pits and associated features which contained no finds, but may have been anthropogenic in origin. The site may have been used for the disposal of domestic waste or the refuse from feasting during the Neolithic and Beaker periods, and the burial may be contemporary with this phase, although there was limited evidence for this. There was no indication that the waste pits were associated with permanent settlement, although evidence for structures may not have survived. The undated linear features may represent the remains of later prehistoric or Romano-British field boundaries, suggesting the site was farmed during these periods.

Scott Williams, ARS

GLOUCESTER, Commercial Road substation, Commercial Road, SO 82861847. An archaeological watching brief and subsequent excavation within the scheduled area of the Roman town recorded a series of deposits, the latest of which were of 11th/12th century date. These sealed a number of layers and features of late Saxon/early medieval date including a circular pit, a possible backfilled well, and another pit which contained a large limestone block, probably derived from the Roman city wall. The Saxon pottery assemblage has parallels with material from excavations at Gloucester castle. Below this a series of Romano-British layers represented activity, dated by pottery, from the 1st/early 2nd century AD to the 4th century AD.


Blackfriars, SO 82901840. An archaeological watching brief and historic building recording within, and adjacent to, the cloister quadrangle confirmed the survival of medieval tiled surfaces, exposed during previous works. The foundations of the friary buildings and perimeter wall were also exposed in places, and a flagstone surface may have been an original medieval surface within the north range. The base of a fireplace, probably dating to the early post-medieval period, may have been part of alterations made by Thomas Bell following the Dissolution.

Jonathan Hart, CA

Former gasworks, Bristol Road, SO 81901590. Historic building recording demonstrated that only a few boundary walls and a partly demolished gate lodge of the original gasworks, which was founded in 1875, survive above ground. The infilled brick pit for the eastern gasometer, which dated to 1875, was still visible. The northern gasometer, added in 1901, was intact, but empty and sunken. A brick-built office, which looked stylistically contemporary with the 1875 buildings, was not mapped until 1936. Other buildings on the site were all part of an experimental gas production plant established in the 1950s.

Peter Davenport, CA

Gloscat tower block, Brunswick Road, SO 83091832. Historic building recording was undertaken to mitigate the demolition of the tower block and contemporary two-storey annexe, custom-built for the college in 1972. The building had undergone almost no change externally or structurally since its construction, but there had been major internal refurbishment and re-ordering, probably in or after 1997, and the interior had been extensively vandalized in recent years. Little survived of the internal arrangements of the original building with the exception of structural elements such as staircases and lift enclosures, although these had been renewed in the annexe. The lift mechanisms and a few doors and door cases were also original 1972 features.

Peter Davenport, CA



Gloucester Folk Museum, SO 82851871. An archaeological watching brief during the construction of an education wing in the rear courtyard of the museum and a two-storey extension linked to the existing cider house revealed the northwest facing exterior wall of the cider house and adjoining Cider House Cottage. A reinstated floor surface and a short length of the northeast facing wall of an exterior structure interpreted as a wash house was also recorded. The trench for a modern soil pipe cut layers of made ground above a thick deposit of soil similar to dark earth, which was not bottomed at a depth of 0.94m below the current ground surface. Multiple post-medieval floor surfaces and two interior walls on either side of a staircase leading to the second floor were also exposed. A large grinding stone, recovered from a deposit of made ground, was left on site.

Chris Gibbs, WHEAS

HARESFIELD, Shortwood, SO 83140857. The results of resistivity surveys of a small low mound next to the car park did not confirm its interpretation as the remains of a round barrow.

Ann Maxwell, GADARG

Shortwood, SO 82650827. A resistivity survey over two adjacent mounds on the southwest facing slope of Haresfield Hill shows a circle of high resistance on top of each mound. Overlapping layers of stone are visible just below the top of the southern mound and a small break in the turf on the top of the northern mound reveals similar layers. Curving lines of lower resistance around the edges of the features coincide with the visible depressions, but more obviously follow the circular shape of the mounds, suggesting the remains of enclosing ditches rather than just a quarry for their construction.

Ann Maxwell, GADARG

KEMBLE, land at Top Farm, ST 98689700. Evaluation confirmed the presence of a sub-rectangular enclosure first identified on an aerial photograph during a desk-based assessment. A human cremation, a stakehole and a possible quarry pit were also identified. All of these features remained undated.

Sian Reynish, CA

KEMPSFORD, Manor Farm, SU 17509790. Exploration of a further 4.4ha (adding to a block of over 55ha already examined) recorded poorly dated features interpreted as two phases of a Roman field system and post-medieval field boundaries on the same alignment. These did not match the alignment of Iron Age and Roman fields recorded in previous work, perhaps suggesting separate ownership.

David Platt, TVAS.

The Axe and Compass, SU 15389705. An historic building assessment, in advance of development, demonstrated that the complex of buildings had retained some original features. Historical mapping showed the earliest structures to date from between 1829 and 1875 and visual inspection confirmed the earliest surviving elements to be early to mid 19th century in date. Early features such as the external stone walls and one of the chimneys are to be retained to minimise the visual impact of the proposed development.

FA

Arkell’s Land, SU 18109930. An area of c. 15.7ha, excavated in advance of gravel extraction between 2006 and 2011, revealed a Roman settlement and associated trackway and fields that form part of



an extensive landscape contemporary with previously excavated sites at Coln Gravel, Thornhill Farm and Claydon Pike.

Two main phases of early Roman (late 1st/early 2nd century AD) features were identified near the northern edge of the site. The earlier comprised ditches of a probable rectilinear enclosure which was cut by a boundary ditch on a northeast/southwest alignment. The boundary ditch was of several phases and extended just over 100m into the area from the north. Fragmentary curvilinear ditches of two enclosures were also assigned an early Roman date. Comprehensive reorganisation during the first half of the 2nd century AD swept away the earlier features and the site was bisected by a ditched trackway which extended on a slightly circuitous east-northeast to west-southwest alignment for 220m before petering out. A settlement was established on the northern side of the trackway, in the area that had previously been occupied by the early Roman rectilinear enclosures and boundary ditch. The remainder of the site was divided up by linear features, while two outlying enclosures were sited at its western and southwestern limits. To the south of the trackway the area was enclosed by ditches forming a complex of rectilinear fields. These were re-arranged on at least two occasions, on slightly varying alignments, although the predominant orientation was generally northwest/southeast, parallel to the trackway. The southwestern enclosure, which was slightly trapezoidal in plan and aligned northeast/southwest, was defined by a ditch with a fence line along its inside edge, represented by 56 stone-packed postholes. It measured at least 42m long, while its width tapered from 33m at the northeastern end to 24m at the edge of the site. It appeared isolated, but may have originally been accessed by the trackway.

Between AD 250 and AD 350 the layout of the settlement area was re-arranged several times in fairly rapid succession. The part of the trackway ditch that formed the boundary of the settlement was recut in the vicinity of the entrance itself but allowed to silt up in other areas. To the west of the entrance the settlement was either abandoned or retained in its middle Roman arrangement. To the east a sequence of enclosures was constructed, but succeeded by an oval enclosure with an associated L-shaped ditch, followed by a larger, more rectangular enclosure, and then by an arrangement of three rectangular enclosures of differing sizes with an open area to the north west. The final phase consisted of a linear boundary ditch and a single rectangular enclosure. At the northern edge of the site a large L-shaped ditch, extending beyond the limits of the excavation, corresponded with features already recorded at Coln Gravel. Further west, elements of a possible larger double ditched enclosure, perhaps abutting the trackway on the western side of the settlement, were recorded.

The majority of the pits scattered around the settlement were late Roman and included features, between 0.75m to 1m deep, that may have served as waterholes before being used for the disposal of domestic refuse. No new features were established south of the trackway during the late Roman period, and it is likely that the fields laid out earlier in the Roman period remained in use. The finds suggest a relatively low status settlement, whilst the environmental material suggests an emphasis on pastoral agriculture consistent with the low lying setting and the evidence from adjacent sites.

Ken Welsh and Andy Simmonds, OAS

KING’S STANLEY, Rectory Meadows, SO 81050362. Excavation to the rear of the rectory exposed a complex of enclosures or pens associated with 11th- to 13th-century pottery. These were defined by ditches with evidence for repeated remodelling. The ditch fills produced many finds including large pottery sherds which suggest nearby occupation, although no definite structural remains were encountered other than a few postholes. A feature within one enclosure may have been a sunken-featured building but the absence of associated features and of Anglo-Saxon pottery suggests that this is more likely to have been a medieval working hollow. Small quantities of residual Roman finds were also recovered from one ditch and from the hollow. A possible fish



pond, which post-dated the enclosures, contained late 13th- or 14th-century pottery, suggesting it dated to a documented remodelling of the village in the mid to late 13th century, possibly after the grant of a market charter in 1251. Demolition rubble within its upper fills, which probably derived from a 19th-century modernisation of the rectory, included 13th- or 14th-century glazed ridge tiles, suggesting the rectory was originally built around the time of the 1251 charter.

Jamie Wright and Cliff Bateman, CA

LECHLADE, Church House, SU 21479948. A watching brief identified brick and limestone walls and floors. The heat-affected nature of some of the features, and the quantities of tiles with aeration holes, suggests that these were part of a former malthouse depicted on late 19th- and early 20th-century maps.

Alexandra Wilkinson, CA

LYDNEY, land south of Lakeside Avenue, Tutnalls, SO 64200240. Excavation exposed a small pit containing early Bronze Age/Beaker pottery and a thin, roughly circular deposit 12m in diameter occupying a slight natural promontory which may be the remains of an unenclosed mound or round barrow. A total of 22 cremations, three within middle Bronze Age urns, were cut into this deposit which also sealed 14 further un-urned cremations and two pits, as well as a centrally located un-urned cremation within a cist. Scorching at the cist base suggests that cremation may have occurred in situ. A second possible cist was identified 35m to the northwest. Later features comprised a rectangular Iron Age/1st-century AD ditched enclosure and elements of an associated field system. The enclosure contained postholes, stone-filled pits and two possible graves, although the latter contained no human remains. The enclosure was remodelled during the 2nd century AD, with areas of cobbling and timber structures represented by postholes. Post-medieval activity included a structure surviving as stone-packed postholes, along with a metalled surface and a stone culvert.

Steven Sheldon and Laurent Coleman, CA

Naas Court Farm, SO 64920211. A building record of the farmhouse and remains of the attached granary revealed that the granary is the remnant of Naas Court, a 16th–century, or earlier, dwelling which was probably more extensive than the current building and may have had a wing to the south. Although much altered and in a derelict state some features survive from this phase including a decorative stone mullioned window, ogee corbelled hearth support and a timber framed partition and doorway, all on the first floor, and also the chimney on the granary’s south wall which is now incorporated into the 18th-century structure.

The north range and west wing of the farmhouse appear to have been added in the 17th century and remodelled internally in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The roof of the northern range was once lower and slightly steeper, suggesting that the northern range may be earlier than the west wing. The decorative three-light stone mullioned window on the east elevation of the northern range pre-dates the north range and was probably reused from an earlier phase of Naas Court.

The remnants of the threshing barn on the east side of the farmyard may date from the 14th century, but its timber roof structure was destroyed by fire in the late 20th century.

Julian Blagg, CHHC

MAUGERSBURY, Oxleaze Farm Lane, SP 20152482. Evaluation recorded a possible field boundary represented by a hedge line. This may have formed a close and was probably associated with the remains of early post-medieval ridge and furrow which had fallen out of use by the latter part of the 18th century.

Gwilym Williams, JMHS



The Lemon Field, Friday Street, SO 87320064. Geophysical survey over an area of c. 0.40ha identified a series of magnetic and resistance anomalies of potential archaeological origin. The survey failed to identify a very large rock-cut ditch recorded in 1992 in the extreme west of the site, although this was subsequently identified by excavation. The ditch had a southwestern terminal, and possibly another to the northeast, and the fill contained medieval ceramics suggesting it may have been partly open during this period. It had, however, been infilled by the 18th century as its upper fill was sealed by an 18th-century building foundation or boundary wall and associated domestic deposits. Part of a second boundary wall, of similar date, was identified immediately below the topsoil in the western part of the site. Further evaluation in the eastern and central parts of the site revealed a simple sequence of shallow deposits, of limited archaeological significance, overlying heavily weathered limestone bedrock. Significant buried archaeological features and deposits were, however, preserved within a narrow corridor adjacent to the site’s extreme western boundary

Andrew Young, AAU

MITCHELDEAN, land at the former George Inn, Stars Pitch, SO 66301850. Evaluation identified a range of well-preserved post-medieval features dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. These were mainly pits but also included a ditch/gully, an animal burial and a probable post-hole. These were associated with domestic/agricultural activity and the construction/demolition of post-medieval buildings on the site. Some residual medieval pottery (12th-14th century) and industrial residues were also recovered.


MORETON-IN-MARSH, Fire Service College, SP 21523261. Excavation prior to residential development recorded multi-period remains, the earliest of which was an unstratified middle Palaeolithic handaxe of Bout Coupé type, dating to 50,000 to 30,000 BP, indicative of Neanderthal activity. A pit and a large, shallow circular feature, c. 10m in diameter, dated to the Bronze Age. A low density distribution of undated pits found across parts of the site, some of which contained burnt stone, might also be of this period. Three Roman ditches, one containing late 2nd-/3rd-century AD pottery were also recorded. Post-medieval remains included a rectangular stone-founded building, depicted as ‘Parsons Heath’ on the 1892 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map, three post-medieval ditches and a quarry pit. The site was used as an airfield between 1940 and 1948 and concrete and brick foundations from this period were recorded along with a series of machine-cut trenches which might also relate to the airfield.

Tom Weavill and Laurent Coleman, CA

Fosseway Farm Caravan and Camping Park, Stow Road, SP 20313178. Geophysical survey and field evaluation recorded no significant archaeological deposits or artefacts. Geophysical anomalies in the central portion of the site corresponded with ridge and furrow visible on mid 20th-century aerial photographs and a linear geophysical anomaly was a modern field drain. Late 19th- and 20th-century agricultural features, including a field boundary, shed, infilled pond/depression and field drains, were also recorded.

LHA

NAUNTON, St. Andrew’s Church, SP 10161598. The excavation of a single test pit in advance of a new extension to the vestry found no evidence for in situ human burials, burial structures or other archaeological features, although a small quantity of disarticulated human bone and medieval pottery was recovered. A subsequent watching brief recorded a single adult burial probably pre-dating the 19th-century vestry. There was no evidence for a coffin and the narrowness of the grave



and its simple stone lining suggest the burial was in a winding sheet and probably of medieval to c. mid 17th-century date. No further deposits of archaeological significance were identified, although a small assemblage of medieval to modern finds included domestic and horticultural ceramics, a single animal bone fragment and an iron key from a chest or other item of furniture of probable medieval date.


NEWENT, Kingshoot, SO 72432599. Evaluation identified intercutting features adjacent to the churchyard of Newent church, including a large linear ditch which produced pottery from the 12th to 14th centuries and may be associated with the priory thought to have been located to the west of the site. Two burials, one of which produced a single sherd of 12th- to 14th-century pottery, were also found. This may indicate that the churchyard boundary had moved since the medieval period or that these burials were interred outside consecrated ground. Two small pits, a gully and a possible pit, all dating to the 12th to 14th centuries, were also recorded along with three further features dating from the 14th to 17th centuries and four undated features. There was also a high level of post-medieval activity and modern landscaping within the evaluation area.


NORTH NIBLEY, Brackenbury Ditches, ST 74709480. Archaeological recording was undertaken during the consolidation and backfilling of three trenches illicitly excavated to create a mountain bike course. Archaeological features identified in the trenches included a large possible pit, a post pad with areas of associated burning, and a mixed deposit containing early-middle Iron Age pottery.

Nathan Thomas, GCCAS

NORTHLEACH WITH EASTINGTON, Egmont, Tannery Lane, SP 11561451. A watching brief during construction of a rear extension to the house and a detached garage recorded four features, three of which could be interpreted as 19th-century pits.

Sean Cook, 110 Arch

NORTON, Reed Field, SO 86132451. Evaluation exposed alluvium (up to 1.6m deep), a broad palaeochannel and a pit, all containing Roman pottery possibly derived from a nearby Roman site. A ditch excavated along the line of the palaeochannel may have been the Queens Dyke, depicted on the 1840 tithe map.

Jamie Wright, CA

PAINSWICK, Ifold Villa, Highfold Farm, SO 85781019. A magnetic gradiometry and resistivity survey over 6.3ha of former agricultural land on the site of the Ifold Villa identified a series of positive and negative anomalies indicative of bank and ditch features which appeared to form enclosures. One of these was identified in the area surrounding the known villa location, while the second was to the north, in an area known to have produced Roman material through field walking.

Andrew Armstrong, GCCAS

PAUNTLEY, The Corn Mill, SO 75082899. The recording of a former water-powered corn mill close to Pauntley Court was carried out prior to its conversion. The layout of the building indicates that it was constructed as a water-powered threshing barn, probably between 1815 and 1822, and converted to a mill some time later in the 19th century. The mill was used until the late



1930s and although the internal waterwheel was subsequently removed, some displaced elements of mill machinery remain on site. The building has considerable architectural merit and was built or re-modelled for visual impact when viewed from the Court.

Martin Watts

PRESTBURY, No. 8 High Street, SO 97012386. A single evaluation trench exposed three small pits dating to the post-medieval or modern period along with the remains of a building last recorded on the 1968 Ordnance Survey map.


Moat Corner, Spring Lane, SO 96762456. A watching brief recorded an undated linear feature orientated northeast/southwest and probably associated with the neighbouring scheduled monument of Prestbury Moat.


PUCKLECHURCH, Congregational Chapel, Abson Road, ST 69967642. Evaluation revealed no archaeological features, although there was evidence of major soil disturbance probably relating to the demolition of the chapel in 1991.

AA

RANDWICK, Standish Wood, SO 82360679. A resistivity survey over a low mound c. 200m south-southwest of Randwick Long Barrow showed a circle of high resistance at the centre of the mound and a line of lower resistance curving round its east, south and west sides, approximately 8m from the centre. The mound was identified in 2008, during transcription of the results of an earlier lidar survey, and surveyed in 2010.

Ann Maxwell, GADARG

RUDFORD AND HIGHLEADON, Station House, Barber’s Bridge, SO 77212226. A watching brief recorded a Romano-British ditch and a possible feature of unknown date. Romano-British pottery was also recovered from the overlying soil, although no finds or features relating to the Civil War skirmish that took place close to the site were identified.


SEVENHAMPTON, The Old Dower House, Brockhampton, SP 03662250. A watching brief during groundworks for an extension and associated service trenches revealed a double inhumation burial containing the crouched remains of a 2–3 year old child and a neonate. The child has been radiocarbon dated to AD 52–215 (94.8% probability). A layer containing Roman pottery was also identified across the development area.


SEVERN ESTUARY, Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment. The Severn Estuary Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (RCZAS), detailed in AR34 and 35, was completed in 2011. Intertidal survey was undertaken on the Forest of Dean foreshore between Beachley and Woolaston, between Gatcombe and Brims Pill, and also along the left bank in Gloucestershire at Elmore and between Sharpness and Berkeley Pill. The survey also included the area to the north of the M48 Severn Bridge in Aust and Oldbury in South Gloucestershire and a number of locations in North Somerset and Somerset, including Stert Flats. Possibly the most significant results were the identification and radiocarbon dating of early medieval fish traps at Beachley and Aust, the earliest of which



dated to the 7th-8th century AD. A further programme of radiocarbon dating, to include further samples from fish traps at Beachley will proceed in 2012.

Toby Catchpole and Adrian Chadwick, GCCAS

SHERBORNE, Woeful Lake Farm, SP 15511312. Resistivity survey and field walking was undertaken over thirteen 20m squares immediately east and south of a scheduled round barrow. The geophysics showed a 2m wide linear feature, probably a ditch, extending southeast from the barrow, and a band of high resistance curving round its southeast edge which may be a contemporary bank. Flint flakes dating from the Mesolithic to Bronze Age and Romano-British pottery and ceramic building material were also recovered.

Ann Maxwell, GADARG

SIDDINGTON, Shorncote Quarry, Dryleaze Extension, SU 03009800. Continuing fieldwork on this quarry site added an additional 15ha to the area explored and identified further areas of palaeochannels and alluvium. Although similar deposits identified in earlier work had sealed Bronze Age burnt mounds, and been cut by Roman ditches, all the features identified in 2011 were either undated or relatively recent.

Daniel Bray and Jo Pine, TVAS

SHORNCOTE, Shorncote Quarry, Spratsgate Lane, SU 02549620. A programme of archaeological recording in advance of mineral extraction recorded evidence of probable activity dating from the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age to the Romano-British period.

The earliest occupation evidence was a late Neolithic/early Bronze Age pit which contained a domestic assemblage of broken pottery and a broken flint flake and flint blade. Two probable Bronze Age post-built roundhouse structures to the northeast of the site suggest permanent settlement at this location. During the Iron Age activity was both domestic and agricultural, and was represented by two waste pits containing domestic pottery and an isolated posthole which was of unknown function. Three segmented or causewayed linear alignments of elongated pits have been interpreted as Iron Age boundary features. Romano-British activity was confined to the northwest of the site, and consisted of a trackway which extended northeast/southwest for a distance of approximately 91m and continued beyond the limits of excavation. Two undated burials were also found. One was a supine inhumation, oriented east/west, of a male aged between 30 and 50 years, who suffered poor dental hygiene, and displayed evidence of two instances of severe sharp force trauma to the cranium. The other was a crouched inhumation of a female aged 45 or more, who suffered dental disease, but was relatively strong, perhaps as a result of frequent physical activity. Four post-built structures, one steep-sided ditch, three shallow gullies and 175 isolated pits and posthole features of unknown date were also recorded.

Post-medieval ridge and furrow sealed all earlier features and at some time during the post-medieval period the area was divided by a field boundary ditch.

Scott Williams, ARS

SOUTHAM, Cleeve Hill Camp, SO 98442555. Archaeological recording during repair of an erosion scar identified a number of deposits including a dry stone wall, composed of blocks of oolitic limestone within regular courses, which was interpreted as part of the original rampart construction.




STOW-ON-THE-WOLD, Huntington Courtyard, Sheep Street, SP 19122568. Evaluation revealed a circular pit containing a fragmentary but largely complete late Bronze Age pottery vessel. A further pit containing 12th- to 14th-century pottery and two undated pits were also recorded.

Stuart Joyce, CATETBURY, Nesley Farm, ST 85309250. In 2011 excavation focused on a 3rd-/4th-century stone Roman building which consisted of a three-roomed structure surviving as one or two dressed courses above foundation level. The larger room displayed signs of agricultural/industrial activity whilst the two smaller rooms, which were added in a second phase of building, had evidence of painted wall plaster. Geophysical survey showed the building to be sited within a complex of ditch systems and positioned to the west of a metalled road, aligned north/south, which formed the eastern boundary of the site. Artefacts, including pottery and worked flint arrowheads, indicate extensive occupation during the prehistoric period. Post-excavation analysis confirmed that the western boundary ditch, excavated in 2010, was late Iron Age in date.

Tony Roberts, ArScn

TEWKESBURY, Mason’s Court, SO 89343265. A single hand-excavated evaluation trench to the rear of the property revealed a deep sequence of post-medieval deposits and a post-medieval pit and large linear cut.


No. 5 Old Hospital Lane, SO 89583313. Evaluation identified a large pit and an east/west orientated linear feature, both of which dated to the Roman period. A second east/west orientated linear feature was post-medieval in date.


TIDENHAM, Parkside, Buttington Terrace, Beachley, ST 54879301. Archaeological recording during groundworks for the erection of a garage, soakaway and drainage trench showed that much of the area to the northeast of the house had already been disturbed by soakaways and related drainage pipe trenches. Finds from the roots of tree stumps removed from the eastern boundary included a green glass bead and a polished quartz pebble (both c. 1cm in diameter). These probably derived from the Romanised homestead thought to have existed in the vicinity.

Stephen Clarke and Jane Bray, MA

TODDINGTON, Toddington Manor gatehouse, SP 03453307. Historic building recording and analysis of the gatehouse at the former Toddington Manor was undertaken to inform a programme of restoration works. The recording confirmed that the old manor house was constructed in the early 17th century, that the gatehouse and courtyard wall were later additions (as suggested by their style) and also that the building was originally rendered and painted. There was also some evidence of early 19th–century repair and alteration (following a fire in 1800), and former doors and windows in the stair turret had been blocked in the mid to later 19th century. The old manor, which had been replaced by the present manor house, was largely demolished in the mid 19th century and what survives appears to have been retained as a picturesque ruin. Much stonework was lost or seriously eroded in the 20th century, particularly at the gatehouse itself, but the ruins remain an important survival of one of Gloucestershire’s grandest houses and a significant example of Jacobean architecture.

Peter Davenport and Rachel Leung, CA



UCKINGTON, Uckington Fire Station, Tewkesbury Road, SO 92062466. Excavation produced evidence for activity on the site during the Iron Age, Roman, Saxon and post-medieval periods. A large assemblage of well preserved waterlogged wood, including three wooden structures, was recovered from a number of large pits. These have provisionally been dated to both the Roman and Saxon periods and represent a very rare survival within the UK, particularly in a rural context. Other features included evidence for an Iron Age roundhouse, a Roman cremation dating to the 1st-2nd century AD and a possible Saxon timber framed building, located near the centre of the site.


ULEY, Uley Long Barrow (Hetty Peglar’s Tump), SO 78950003. Following evaluation a trench was excavated to enable access for consolidation and repair works to the reconstructed chambers of the monument. Limestone bedrock immediately west of burial chamber B (southwestern chamber) and within burial chamber D (northwestern chamber) was overlain by a possible soil horizon pre-dating the barrow construction. The south and west walls of chambers B and C (western chamber) were partially exposed. Their capstones had been reset after 19th-century investigations and were rarely supported by orthostats. Burial chamber D, believed destroyed after excavations in 1821, survived largely intact and its clay floor contained fragments of human bone and charcoal flecks. Orthostats forming the possible south and west walls of conjectured chamber E (northeastern chamber) were also recorded. Artefactual material, predominantly from post-medieval/modern backfills, included fragments of human bone, undiagnostic prehistoric pottery, a Roman glass bead and pottery as well as post-medieval clay tobacco pipe and bottle glass fragments and modern metalwork, costume jewellery, tea light candles and coins.

Alistair Barber and Laurent Coleman, CA

UPTON ST LEONARDS, SO 86881452. Resistivity and gradiometer surveys were undertaken to locate the site of the water mill recorded in a manorial survey of 1589. A rectilinear feature adjacent to a surviving deep linear depression, which may indicate the position of the mill building, was identified.

Ann Maxwell, GADARG

WICK RISSINGTON, St. Laurence’s Church, SP 19162149. A watching brief during the excavation of soakaway trenches, positioned along paths to lessen their impact on human burials, recorded a partial and very truncated human burial along with a single fragment of c. 19th-century pottery. The burial is undated, but had been disturbed by the construction of the path, which was first recorded in the 19th century. A small quantity of disarticulated human bone was also found.


WINCHCOMBE, St. Peter’s Church, SP 02302823. A watching brief recorded no features or deposits of archaeological significance and no in situ human burials, although disarticulated human bone and other finds were recovered. These included 11th– to 12th-century pottery which pre-dates the construction of the current church in c. 1468 and suggests earlier activity/occupation on the site. Some floor tile, probably dating to the 13th to early 14th century, and pre-dating the current church, was also found. Similar material was recorded at St. Bartholomew’s, Gloucester, and the tiles may have derived from Winchcombe Abbey or an earlier church on the site.




Greet Road, SP 02762923. Evaluation identified a Roman trackway and possible partial remnants of Roman agricultural or settlement enclosures. Medieval activity largely comprised the remains of ridge and furrow cultivation, although a second trackway, dated to the post-medieval period, may have had medieval origins. A number of post-medieval or modern agricultural features were also identified.

Stuart Joyce, CA

Land off Greet Road, SP 02572954. Evaluation identified Roman settlement remains dating to the 2nd to 4th centuries AD which may have been associated with the scheduled site immediately to the south where Roman settlement activity spanned the early Roman period to the late 3rd century AD. The remnants of ridge and furrow cultivation were evidence for medieval and post-medieval activity.

Stuart Joyce, CA

Parish Hall site, Cowl Lane, SP 02492833. An excavation close to the town centre exposed features relating to former tenements. The earliest was a possible undated quarry pit which pre-dated several small pits backfilled with yard material and domestic waste in the 12th to 13th centuries. Two ditches parallel to High Street and Cowl Lane probably represent burgage plot boundaries and may be contemporary with a stone-lined well which was also excavated. A change in land use was suggested by extensive large medieval pits which did not respect these plot boundaries. Evidence for continued use of the land to the rear of the properties in the post-medieval and modern periods was also recorded.

Jon Hart, Kelly Saunders and Charlotte Haines, CA

Almsbury Farmhouse, SP 02502808. An evaluation and watching brief during the construction of a new building identified no significant features of archaeological interest pre-dating the post-medieval period. Roman, Saxon and medieval remains are known in the vicinity and it is possible that evidence for these had been destroyed on the site by extensive 20th-century landscaping.

HA

WOODCHESTER, The Old Priory, SO 83920317. A watching brief was undertaken during the construction of a new swimming pool and bath house immediately north of the scheduled monument of Woodchester Roman villa. The groundworks revealed modern brick foundations, land drains or culverts and deposits of broken and crushed debris. The site had formally been a stables and had undergone extensive landscaping and levelling which may have removed earlier deposits. A limestone slab with a shallow groove was also exposed but its date and function is not clear. An earlier watching brief within the scheduled area had recorded part of a stone-built water conduit of medieval or later date and evidence of possible medieval buildings. These may have been associated with the medieval manor house thought to have occupied the site prior to the construction of The Old Priory in c. 1510.

Briege Williams and Nick Witchell, GCCAS

Woodchester Park, SO 80870141. Work was undertaken to reveal and consolidate the range of outbuildings on a terrace above and to the northwest of Woodchester Mansion. These were demolished in the mid 20th-century, but were recorded on 18th-century and later maps, and consisted of a coach house, stables and various ancillary buildings laid out in two parallel ranges either side of an entrance track. Excavation of the southeast range revealed a series of development



phases dating from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Investigation of the ruins of a garden folly at the head of the valley, and within the terraced Italianate early 19th-century garden to the north of the outbuildings, revealed the remains of a small and badly robbed rectangular stone building. This was open on its southeast side, where it faced down the valley, and may have had a decorative façade fixed by metal bars which had been removed. Further excavation of the northwest range and the folly will take place in 2012.

Martin Papworth, NT


Documents

Archaeological Review No. 36 2011