Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Oxfordshire
An Archaeological Evaluation
for Mr and Mrs Sarll
by Clare Challis and Steve Ford
Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd
Site Code WRB 03/43
June 2003 Summary
Site name: Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Oxfordshire
Grid reference: SP 3846 0369
Site activity: Evaluation
Date and duration of project: 22nd and 23rd May 2003
Project manager: Steve Ford
Site supervisor: Clare Challis
Site code: WRB 03/43
Area of site: 0.13ha
Summary of results: Only modern (20th-century) features were revealed.
Monuments identified: None
Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, 47-49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 5NR and will be deposited at Oxfordshire Museum Service in due course.
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 Ford9 09.06.03 Steve Preston9 09.06.03
i Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton An Archaeological Evaluation
by Clare Challis and Steve Ford
Report 03/43
Introduction
This report documents the results of an archaeological field evaluation carried out at Green Acres, Witney Road,
Brighthampton, Oxfordshire (SP 3846 0369) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr Graham Soame of
Soame and Associates, Acre Cottage, Chapel Road, South Leigh, Witney, Oxfordshire OX29 6UP on behalf of
Mr Alan and Ms Karin Sarll, Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX29 7QQ.
Planning permission is to be sought from West Oxfordshire District Council (App no W2003/0113) for the development of the site for housing. Due to the possibility of archaeological deposits being damaged or destroyed by groundworks, a field evaluation has been requested. This is in accordance with the Department of the Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance, Archaeology and Planning (PPG16 1990), and the District policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Hugh Coddington,
Deputy County Archaeological Officer at Oxfordshire County Archaeological Service.
The fieldwork was undertaken by Clare Challis and Simon Cass on 22nd and 23rd May 2003 and the site code is WRB 03/43. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, 47-49 De
Beauvoir Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 5NR and will be deposited at Oxfordshire Museum Service in due course.
Location, topography and geology
The site is located on the northern fringes of Brighthampton which lies to the west of Standlake and south of
Witney. The site lies on the east side of the Witney Road and comprises a T-shaped parcel of land of c.0.13ha which was formerly a farmyard (Figs 1 and 2). The site lies on level ground at a height of about 64m above
Ordnance Datum on river gravel (BGS 1982)
Archaeological background
Documentary evidence suggests Brighthampton was in existence from at least the later Anglo-Saxon period. To the south of the proposal area within the settlement, an archaeological excavation established the presence of medieval activity with a possible building, much pit digging and possibly a road surface (Ford and Preston in
1 press). For the proposal site itself, a map of 1797 depicts occupation in the vicinity. At a more general scale, the gravel terraces surrounding Standlake are notable for the density and complexity of Roman and Saxon sites represented by cropmarks visible from the air (Benson and Miles 1974)
Objectives and methodology
The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the presence/absence, extent, condition, character, quality and date of any archaeological deposits within the area of development in order to inform proposals for mitigation measures that might be required. This work was to be carried out in a manner that would not compromise the integrity of archaeological features or deposits which might warrant preservation in situ, or might be better excavated under conditions pertaining to full excavation.
Specific research aims of the project were:
To determine if archaeologically relevant levels have survived on the site.
To determine if archaeological deposits of any period were present.
To determine if any deposits of late Saxon or medieval date were present which reflect the early
history of the village.
In order to fulfil these objectives four trenches were originally proposed, each 10m long and 1.6m wide.
They were to be dug by a JCB-type machine fitted with a toothless ditching bucket operated under constant archaeological supervision.
The trenches were intended to be located as close as possible to the positions indicated in the project specification but in the event one trench had to be subdivided due to access restrictions. All spoilheaps were monitored for finds and a metal detector employed to enhance the recovery of metal finds as appropriate.
A complete list of trenches giving lengths, breadths, depths and a description of sections and geology is given in Appendix 1.
Results
Five trenches were eventually dug ranging in length from 4.1m to 11.6m, in the positions shown on Figure 3.
The trenches were similar to each other with topsoil or turf overlying gravel with natural silt patches. Sometimes there was a silty subsoil present. Man-made disturbance was evident in two trenches (Fig. 3):
2 Trench 2 (Plate 1)
This trench was located towards the centre of the plot. It was 11.6m long and 0.44m deep. Seven features and a silty spread were identified, and five of these were examined.
Linear feature 1 was aligned north-south and was 0.75m wide and 0.2m deep. Its fill contained brick, tile, metal and concrete fragments (not retained) and is clearly of modern date.
Postholes 2 and 3, along with two other unexcavated examples were square in plan suggesting that they were of relatively modern date. Posthole 3 contained 20th-century pottery and brick/tile.
Pit or gully 4 was 0.58m wide and 0.14m deep. It also contained modern (20th century) pottery and brick/tile.
Pit or gully 5 was 0.47m wide and 0.12m deep. It did not reveal any datable finds, but in other respects was similar to feature 4.
Finally, a spread of brown sandy clay with frequent gravel (56) occupied most of the south-west end of the trench was examined by a slot 6m long and 0.4m wide. This revealed that the spread was 0.12m deep and contained 20th-century pottery and brick/tile.
Trench 4
A single feature (6) was located within this trench. This was a shallow linear feature 0.82m wide and 0.2m deep aligned NE-SW. It contained large fragments of limestone and finds of modern clay pipe, glass and metal (not retained) along with a single sherd of medieval pottery. It is possibly a former wall foundation trench. Two unstratified sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from the spoilheaps.
Finds
Pottery by Paul Blinkhorn
The retained pottery assemblage comprised 3 medieval sherds with a total weight of 34g. They were recorded utilizing the coding system and chronology of the Oxfordshire County type-series (Mellor 1984; 1994), as follows:
OXBF: North-East Wiltshire Ware, AD1050 – 1400. 2 sherds, 20g.
OXAG: Abingdon ware, mid/late 11th – mid 14th century. 1 sherd, 14g
The pottery occurrence by number and weight of sherds per context by fabric type is shown in Appendix 3.
3 Conclusion
The evaluation revealed a number of deposits cut into the subsoil but on investigation, these were all shown to be of certain or probable modern date. A few sherds of medieval pottery indicate some activity of this date within the vicinity but need represent no more than casual dispersal of material from an adjacent settled area, such as during manuring of farmland. On this basis of these findings, the site has no archaeological potential.
References Benson, D and Miles, D, 1974, The Upper Thames Valley: an archaeological survey of the river gravels, Oxfordshire Archaeol Unit Survey 2, Oxford BGS, 1982, British Geological Survey, 1:50,000, Sheet 236, Solid and Drift Edition, Keyworth Ford, S and Preston, S (in press), Excavation of medieval features at The Orchard, Brighthampton, Oxfordshire (Oxoniensia) Mellor, M, 1984, ‘A summary of the key assemblages, a study of pottery, clay pipes, glass and other finds from fourteen pits, dating from the 16th to the 19th century’, in T G Hassall, C E Halpin and M Mellor, ‘Excavations at St Ebbe’s’, Oxoniensia 49, 181–219 Mellor, M, 1994, ‘Oxfordshire Pottery: A Synthesis of middle and late Saxon, medieval and early post-medieval pottery in the Oxford Region’, Oxoniensia 59, 17–217 PPG16, 1990, Archaeology and Planning, Dept of the Environment Planning Policy Guidance 16, HMSO
4 APPENDIX 1: Trench details 0m at S or W end
Trench No. Length (m) Breadth (m) Depth (m) Comment 1A 7.4 1.6 0.22 0-0.13m topsoil/turf; 0.13m+ gravel 1B 4.1 1.6 0.20 0-0.12m topsoil; 0.12m+ gravel 2 11.6 1.6 0.48 0-0.25m topsoil/turf; 0.25m-0.44m subsoil, 0.44m+ Gravel [Plate 1] 3 10.4 1.6 0.40 0-0.35m topsoil/turf; 0.35m+ gravel [Plate 2] 4 11.4 1.6 0.4(W); 0-0.37m topsoil/turf; 0.37m+ gravel 0.32(E)
5 APPENDIX 2: Feature details
Trench Cut Fill (s) Type Date Dating evidence 2 1 50 gully modern concrete 2 2 51 posthole (square) modern? 2 3 52 posthole (square) modern brick/tile, pottery 2 4 53 gully/pit modern brick/tile, pottery 2 5 54 gully/pit - - 2 55 Redeposited natural modern stratigraphy (above 56) 2 56 Silty spread modern brick/tile, pottery 4 6 57 gully/foundation trench modern glass, pottery
6 APPENDIX 3: Retained pottery occurrence by number and weight (in g) of sherds per context by fabric type
OXBF OXAG Trench Cut Fill No Wt No Wt 4 Spoil - 1 6 1 14 4 6 57 1 14 Total 2 20 1 14
7 05000
SITE
SITE
04000
03000
SP38000 39000 WRB03/43 Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Standlake, Oxfordshire, 2003, Archaeological Evaluation
Figure 1. Location of site within Brighthampton and Oxfordshire. Reproduced from Ordnance Survey Pathfinder 1115 SP20/30 at 1:12500 Ordnance Survey Licence AL52324A0001 Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Oxfordshire 2003
N
03725
3
1,2 2
3,4,5
03700
1B
d a o 1A R
y e n t i 4 6 W
03675
SP38450 38475 38500
0 25m
Figure 2. Location of trenches. WRB03/43 Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Oxfordshire 2003 Trench 2
1m 3m 7m 11m N 2 3
56 4 5 1
Trench 4
N
4m 6m 6
0 25m
Figure 3. Details of features in Trenches 2 and 4. WRB03/43 Green Acres, Witney Road, Brighthampton, Oxfordshire 2003
WEWE N S 63.59m AOD 52 50 51
2 1 3
E W NSNS
53 54
4 5 63.75m 57
6
0 1m
Figure 4. Sections. WRB03/43 Plate 1. Trench 2, Post-medieval features 2 and 1 looking north, scales 0.5 and 0.1m
Plate 2. Trench 3, looking north-east, scales 2m and 1m.
WRB03/43