East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms Tunstall, Richmondshire North Yorkshire
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East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms Tunstall, Richmondshire North Yorkshire Archaeological Watching Brief for Anesco Ltd CA Project: 660580 CA Report: 15871 February 2015 East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms Tunstall, Richmondshire North Yorkshire Archaeological Watching Brief CA Project: 660580 CA Report: 15871 Document Control Grid Revision Date Author Checked by Status Reasons for Approved revision by A 22.01.16 MW SCC Internal QA SRJ review This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report entirely at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission. © Cotswold Archaeology © Cotswold Archaeology East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms, North Yorkshire: Archaeological Watching Brief CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 3 2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................ 4 3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 4 4. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 5 5. RESULTS (FIGS 2-8) ......................................................................................... 5 6. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 6 7. CA PROJECT TEAM .......................................................................................... 7 8. REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 7 APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS .................................................................... 8 APPENDIX B: OASIS REPORT FORM........................................................................... 10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Area of observed groundworks, showing archaeological features and geophysical survey results (1:3000) Fig. 3 Site, looking south-east (photograph) Fig. 4 Site, looking south-east (photograph) Fig. 5 Trenches 3 and 16, showing archaeological features and geophysical survey results (1:50) Fig. 6 Ditch 302, section and photograph (1:20) Fig. 7 Ditch 306, section and photograph (1:20) Fig. 8 Ditch 1602, section and photograph (1:20) 1 © Cotswold Archaeology East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms, North Yorkshire: Archaeological Watching Brief SUMMARY Project Name: East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms Location: Tunstall, Richmondshire, North Yorkshire NGR: East Appleton: SE 2312 9590 Stripe: SE 2270 9560 Type: Watching Brief Date: 1 December 2015 to 8 January 2016 Planning Reference: 15/00448/FULL and 15/00449/FULL Location of Archive: To be deposited with Richmondshire Museum Accession Number: 4556 Site Code: EASS 15 Between December and January 2016, an archaeological watching brief was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology during groundworks associated with the development of two solar farms at the sites of East Appleton and Stripe, Tunstall, Richmondshire, North Yorkshire. Previous geophysical survey of the site recorded two areas of enclosures and settlement activity, one at each of the sites. The watching brief identified three undated ditches, located on the periphery of the easternmost area of settlement activity. The monitored groundworks lay outside of the main concentration of features recorded by the previous geophysical survey of the site. The lack of features exposed during the present works confirms that the previous survey accurately defined the limits of the archaeological remains at the site. 2 © Cotswold Archaeology East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms, North Yorkshire: Archaeological Watching Brief 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Between December 2015 and January 2016, Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological watching brief at East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms, Tunstall, Richmondshire, North Yorkshire (centred on NGR: SE 2312 9590 and SE 2270 9560, respectively; Fig. 1). The watching brief was commissioned by Anesco Ltd. 1.2 The watching brief was undertaken to fulfil a condition attached to a planning consent granted by Richmondshire District Council (RDC; the local planning authority), for the construction of a solar farm on each of the sites (Planning refs: 15/00448/FULL and 15/00449/FULL). 1.3 The scope of this watching brief was defined during discussions between CA and Lucie Hawkins, North Yorkshire County Council’s Principal Archaeologist (NYCCPA; the archaeological advisor to RDC). 1.4 The watching brief was carried out in accordance with a Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by CA (2015) and approved by Lucie Hawkins. The fieldwork also followed Standard and guidance: Archaeological watching brief (CIfA 2014), the Management of Archaeological Projects 2 (English Heritage 1991) and the Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment (MORPHE): Project Manager’s Guide (Historic England 2015). The site 1.5 The sites of East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms lie immediately adjacent to each other in the Richmondshire District of North Yorkshire (Fig. 1). They lie within a rural landscape, characterised by isolated farmsteads located within a patchwork of fields. 1.6 The small hamlet of East Appleton lies to the immediate south-east of the sites. The East Appleton site is approximately 11.46ha in area and the Stripe site measures approximately 12.1ha in extent. Both sites comprise two arable fields. 1.7 The underlying bedrock geology of the area is mapped as dolostone of the Cadeby Formation. This is overlain by superficial deposits of diamicton (BGS 2015). The sites are characterised by slowly-permeable and seasonally-wet acid loamy and clayey soils (Cranfield University 2015). 3 © Cotswold Archaeology East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms, North Yorkshire: Archaeological Watching Brief 2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 East Appleton and Stripe Farms have been the previous subjects of desk-based heritage assessments (CA 2015b and 2015c) and a geophysical survey (Stratascan 2015). The following section is summarised from these sources. 2.2 The geophysical survey detected two areas of enclosures and settlement activity, one at each of the sites. The enclosure at East Appleton Farm is also visible as cropmarks on historic aerial photographs; that at Stripe Farm was previously unknown, possibly because ridge and furrow cropmarks visible in this area of the site obscured the enclosure. The enclosures are interpreted as being of probable Iron Age or Roman date on the basis of morphology. 2.3 A number of further geophysical anomalies of potential archaeological nature were recorded throughout the sites, but particularly in the northern and western parts of Stripe Farm. 2.4 Cropmark and geophysical evidence for ploughed-out ridge and furrow at Stripe Farm indicates that the site formed part of the agricultural hinterland of the surrounding settlements during the medieval period. 2.5 The geophysical survey also detected the remains of a possible post-medieval field boundary within Stripe Farm. 3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 3.1 The objectives of the archaeological works, as stated in the WSI (CA 2015a), were: • to monitor groundworks, and to identify, investigate and record all significant buried archaeological deposits revealed on the site during the course of the development groundworks; • at the conclusion of the project, to produce an integrated project archive and a report setting out the results of the archaeological conclusions that can be drawn from the recorded data. 4 © Cotswold Archaeology East Appleton and Stripe Solar Farms, North Yorkshire: Archaeological Watching Brief 4. METHODOLOGY 4.1 The fieldwork followed the methodology set out within the WSI (CA 2015a). An archaeologist was present during intrusive groundworks comprising the ground reduction for four transformer pads, two on each site; the ground reduction for a substation situated within East Appleton; and the excavation of all low voltage (LV) and high voltage (HV) cable trenches (Fig. 2). 4.2 Where archaeological deposits were encountered written, graphic and photographic records were compiled in accordance with CA Technical Manual 1: Fieldwork Recording Manual. 4.3 No finds were recovered from the features or deposits encountered during the watching brief and no deposits were identified which were suitable for environmental sampling. 4.4 The archive from the evaluation is currently held by CA at their offices in Milton Keynes. Following full reporting the archive will be deposited with Richmondshire Museum, under accession number 4556. A summary of information from this project, set out within Appendix B, will be entered onto the OASIS online database of archaeological projects in Britain. 5. RESULTS (FIGS 2-8) 5.1 A broadly similar stratigraphic sequence was encountered across the area of observed groundworks. The geological substrate was identified at depths of between 0.25m and 0.4m below present ground level (bpgl). Within the eastern part of the site this comprised dark purple grey sandy clay with frequent unsorted stones and boulders (Figs 3 and 4). In the eastern part of the site, the geological substrate consisted of mid brown grey silty sand with