NHER 31515 (Monument record) - Possible Early Bronze Age round barrow and undated pits and ditches

8 July 1973. OS aerial photography.
Positive cropmarks.
Ring ditch.
D. Voisey (NLA), 4 September 1995.

2 July 1996. NLA aerial photography.
The previously recorded ring ditch appears to cut across the southwest corner of a slightly irregular rectangular enclosure. Although relationships between aerial photograph features are hard to draw conclusively, the enclosure does appear to be the earlier element. The ring ditch has the appearance of being Bronze Age, therefore the enclosure may be early prehistoric.
Cropmarks of several linear features are also visible. These appear to be field boundaries, probably relatively recent in date, i.e. post medieval.
S. Massey (NLA) 26 July 2001.

December 2022. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development site.
The most notable response is a weak but well defined circular anomaly at TM 2933 9434 that clearly corresponds with the ring-ditch visible as a cropmark on aerial imagery (the extent of which is now recorded as Context 1). This feature has a diameter of 29m and a possible gap to the north-west. Two discrete anomalies within this ring-ditch may represent associated pits or graves. There is though no trace of surviving remains associated with the possible rectangular enclosure that had been noted at this location on aerial photographs taken in 1996 (see above). A weak penannular anomaly approximately 100m to the north is of a similar size, although this is poorly defined and not necessarily of archaeological interest. A series of weak, fragmentary linear anomalies in the northern half of the area examined are also regarded as being of undetermined origin.
Two roughly east-to-west aligned linear anomalies correspond with former field boundaries shown on an enclosure map of 1814 (reproduced in (S1)). Only the northernmost of these is shown on available later 19th-century maps.
A pair of strong discrete anomalies in the central part of the site are thought to represent infilled extraction pits.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 15 August 2025.

May 2023. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of archaeological potential of proposed development site.
No surviving earthwork were noted during a site visit undertaken as part of this study.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 15 August 2025.

November-December 2024. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
Two of the 20 trenches excavated were placed to investigated the previously identified ring-ditch in the southernmost part of the site. The trench placed to coincide with the south-western portion of the ring-ditch revealed a broad, substantial ditch that was 3.97m wide and at least 0.8m deep. A trench placed across the northern portion of the ring-ditch also revealed a corresponding ditch, although this appeared to terminate within the trench. It should though be noted that photos suggest that the base of the ditch was not necessarily reached in either trench. A dark, charcoal-rich deposit overlying the main fill of the possible terminus was interpreted as the fill of a distinct, later feature. The bulk of the finds recovered during this work came from this deposit, including 52 pottery sherds of probable Early Iron Age date, a small amount of potentially contemporary flint debitage, a residual Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Beaker pottery sherd, fragments of burnt flint and fired clay and a single, presumably intrusive Roman pottery sherd. A sample taken from this deposit was found to contain fairly frequent indeterminate charred grains and occasion nutshells, along with charcoal and a small amount of burnt flint. At the very least, this material demonstrates that this monument was the focus of later activity and it is possible that the ring-ditch was also reworked at this time. No features were identified within the interior of the ring-ditch, although only a small portion was examined.
Features across the remainder of the site were limited to a small number of scattered pits and ditches. The majority of these features were of uncertain age – datable finds being limited to a single scrap of prehistoric pottery recovered from a north-to-south aligned ditch and a late medieval/early post-medieval brick fragment found in a pit or ditch terminus. The former was potentially associated with one of the fragmentary linear anomalies recorded by the preceding geophysical survey and an undated north-east to south-west aligned ditch coincided with another of these weak responses. There was though no evidence for archaeologically-significant remains associated with the weak penannular geophysical anomaly recorded in the central part of the site.
Unstratified finds were limited to two metal objects of uncertain date.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 15 August 2025.