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Nea Farm, Phase GP9, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire

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Nea Farm, Phase GP9, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire Nea Farm, Phase GP9, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire An Archaeological Excavation Draft Publication Report for Tarmac Southern Ltd by Andy Taylor and Richard Tabor Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code SOM11/72 March 2017 Summary Site name: Nea Farm, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire Phase GP9 Grid reference: SU 1310 0870 Site activity: Excavation Date and duration of project: 1st August–10th November 2011 Project manager: Steve Ford Site supervisor: Andy Taylor Site code: SOM 11/72 Area of site: 5.5ha Summary of results: The fieldwork revealed an extensive complex of archaeological deposits spanning several periods. The earliest datable feature was an Early Bronze Age Beaker cremation burial. Three pits may be datable by Bronze Age pottery in their fills and other pits with undiagnostic prehistoric pottery may have been of the same period. By the Iron Age in the 4th to 3rd century BC a track linking the plateau to the Avon Valley had become the focus for settlement and a field system which remained in use with modification into the Late Iron Age. Many undated pits are likely to be of this period. The evidence of the Roman pottery suggests that occupation of the area ceased at or prior to the Conquest but resumed during the mid to late Roman period. Roman activity was represented by pits and postholes as well as ditches and gullies of badly truncated fields and enclosures as well as ovens, two stone-built corn-dryers and a minimum of three graves. After a further hiatus a field system and settlement were laid out during the late 11th to 12th century, probably lasting until the 13th or 14th century, by which time there are signs of contraction and less intensive land use. Five timber buildings dated only broadly to the medieval period were also recorded. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford 29.03.17 Steve Preston23.03.17 i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 47–49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR Tel. (0118) 926 0552; Fax (0118) 926 0553; email [email protected]; website: www.tvas.co.uk Nea Farm, Phase GP9, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire An Archaeological Excavation by Andy Taylor and Richard Tabor with contributions by Ceri Falys, Steve Ford, Rosalind McKenna, Danielle Milbank, Susan Porter, Jane Timby and David Williams Report 11/72b Introduction An archaeological excavation was carried out by Thames Valley Archaeological Services at Nea Farm, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire (SU 1240 0860) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr Andy Cadell of Tarmac Southern Limited, Stancombe Quarry, Stancombe Lane, Flax Bourton, Bristol, BS48 3QD. Planning consent had been obtained from Hampshire County Council to extract gravel from the area as part of an ongoing extraction programme. The excavation was carried out to a specification approved by Ms Hannah Fluck, Senior Archaeologist with Hampshire County Council. The site code is SOM 11/72. This is one of a long series of archaeological investigations on this quarry site (see below). The phase of fieldwork to which this report refers took place between 1st August and 10th November 2011. The archive is currently held by Thames Valley Archaeological Services in Reading, and will be deposited in due course with Hampshire Cultural Trust. Site location, topography and geology Nea Farm, Somerley, lies to the north-west of Ringwood on the eastern margins of Ringwood Forest (Fig. 1). The geology consists of plateau gravel capped with brickearth underlying slightly acid, free-draining, loamy soils of low fertility (BGS 1990; CSAI 2017). The site lies at a height of 45m to 48m above Ordnance Datum (aOD) on the eastern edge of the plateau overlooking the River Avon which meanders from north to south 800m to the east. From the plateau edge the river’s wooded valley side falls steeply to 20m aOD over a distance of less than 300m. A tributary stream lies 400m to the north of the site (Fig. 2). The current phase of the extraction site comprised two areas totalling 5.5 hectares, separated by one of the estate trackways. Archaeological background The phased extraction of sand and gravel has been preceded by a number of archaeological investigations initiated as part of the planning process (Ford 1992; 2001a; 2001b; Cass 2008; Anthony 2002; Anthony and Ford 2003; Ford and Hall 1993; Oram 2004; Pine 2003; Pine and Bennett 2010; Platt 2010 and 2011; Smith 1996; Taylor 2008 and 2009; Weaver 1995) (Fig. 2). A preliminary study included minimally invasive fieldwork comprising fieldwalking, test pitting and geophysical survey. Later works comprised open area excavations. 1 The preliminary fieldwork (Weaver 1995) is particularly relevant for this phase of fieldwork (GP8) as it partly covered this specific part of the quarry complex. A small area of archaeological potential was defined in what would become the northern extent of the area covered in this report (at that time the southern part of an area referred to as ‘Field 4’), on the basis of fieldwalking and a dense concentration of Iron Age or Roman features in a cluster of six evaluation trenches. Two smaller areas of potential within the then ‘Field 4’ were excavated (Smith 1996) but the present area was not scheduled for extraction until now so the third area of potential was not explored until the current phase of works. The southern part of the current area had not been evaluated and so its potential was unknown. To the south and west of this phase of extraction a complex of medieval boundary features were identified in excavation phase GP3–GP5 and phase 5 areas (Cass 2008; Oram 2004; Taylor 2008 and 2009), of which Phase 5 lay immediately adjacent to the current area, to the south. Prehistoric features included an early Bronze Age Beaker with barbed and tanged arrowhead from GP3 and, closer to the south-west in extraction area GP5, three pits. A radiocarbon determination of 3517–3393 cal BC (KIA39673) indicated an Early Neolithic date for one, whilst Beaker pottery from a second was consistent with an Early Bronze Age radiocarbon determination of 2134–2078 cal BC (KIA39674); and the third was of Middle Bronze Age or Iron Age date. Nea Farm, though, is chiefly notable for its Upper Palaeolithic site (SOM 01/41: Barton et al. 2009) which lies c.150m to the west. The Excavation (Figs 3–6) Two entire areas for extraction in this phase were stripped (Fig. 3) of topsoil and overburden under constant archaeological supervision using a 360º type machine fitted with a toothless grading bucket. About a quarter of a hectare in the north-east corner had previously been truncated, accounting for the absence of features in what would surely have been an archaeologically dense area (Fig. 3). For many features in this phase of the work, there is little or no dating evidence either in the form of associated artefacts or of stratigraphy. Of these, some have morphological characteristics which are likely to exclude some periods or, in the cases of some ditches and gullies, may share a similar orientation with one or more other linear features. All archaeological features and deposits are listed in Appendix 1. The evidence for dating is given; this may be datable artefacts, stratigraphic relationships or a perceived association with other datable features. On a site occupied over a long period it is inevitable that some finds from earlier periods are incorporated into later deposits. Conversely, later activity, particularly cultivation, may introduce later finds into earlier deposits. The 2 greatest problem for dating on the present site is that the majority of discrete features, pits and post holes, contained no datable finds. In the phased plans below undatable features are represented in grey for those periods during which their stratigraphic positions would allow them to have been in use. Where features have been allocated to a particular phase with a moderately high or high level of confidence they are marked in solid red; in instances where features are deemed likely to have belonged to one of two periods they are shown in both phase plans in green. There was variation in the size, shape and fill character of the many discrete cut features which has influenced interpretation of them. Where possible datable pits have been classified in terms of the character and rate of their fills, bearing in mind the issues raised by Lock (1995) but with a simplified classificatory system based on deposit formation. Group 1 comprises pits where one or more fills are judged to be entirely of slow to moderate formation. The implication is that natural process of erosion have washed or blown in the surrounding soil or natural geology. Group 2 are pits with one deposit which was made rapidly. This includes naturally induced collapsing of the pit’s sides but also the introduction of a single deposit by human agency. This may be a simple backfilling of the entire pit by natural gravel, soil, a mixture of the two, or a deposit notably rich in humus and/or burnt material. In some instances it may be the introduction of one or more substantial artefacts (i.e. too large or too many to have been introduced by natural agency) in a pit otherwise filled by gradual natural processes. Probably the most common rapid deposit-type in pits of this group is localized introduction of humic material on the base, in the middle or more rarely on the top of a sequence of gradual erosion deposits. Group 3 at its simplest may include a single humic and a single collapse deposit with the remaining infilling occurring by gradual natural agency.
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