Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire
An Archaeological Watching Brief
For V.K. Cox
by Sian Anthony and Jo Pine
Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd
Site Code PFC04/42
November 2005 Summary
Site name: Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire
Grid reference: SU 3605 8760
Site activity: Watching Brief
Date and duration of project: 24th May 2004–1st November 2005
Project manager: Steve Ford
Site supervisor: Sian Anthony and Richard Oram
Site code: PFC04/42
Summary of results: Two ditches located in foundation trenches.
Monuments identified: Two ditches.
Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Oxfordshire County Museums 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 16.11.05 Steve Preston9 16.11.05
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Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire An Archaeological Watching Brief
by Sian Anthony and Jo Pine
Report 04/42
Introduction
This report documents the results of an archaeological watching brief carried out at Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt
Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire (SU 3605 8760) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr E. Clare, Challow
Design, 2 Elswith Close, Grove, Wantage, OX12 OVT on behalf of Mr V. Cox, V.K. Cox.
Planning consent (CDH/6279/6) has been granted by Vale of White Horse District Council to construct three houses and convert an existing barn to residential use. The consent was subject to a condition (6) relating to archaeology, which required a watching brief to be carried out during groundworks.
This is in accordance with the Department of the Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance, Archaeology and Planning (PPG16 1990), and the District’s policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Hugh Coddington of Oxfordshire County Archaeological Service. The fieldwork was undertaken by Sian Anthony, Pamela Jenkins, Richard Oram and Andy Taylor, between 24th May and 1st November 2005. The site code for this phase of work is PFC04/42.
Part of the consent has been implemented and a watching brief was carried out during construction of the three new houses in 2000. This work revealed a large number of deposits of Roman date (Taylor 2000). The remaining components of the condition on the planning consent, which relate to the barn conversion, are the subject of this report.
The archaeological potential of the area has been highlighted by a brief for the current phase of work
(Coddington 2004). In summary, this acknowledges the presence of Roman occupation on the site found during the earlier watching brief and indicates that further deposits are likely to be present in adjacent areas.
The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Oxfordshire Museum Services in due course.
Location, topography and geology
The site is located in the village of Childrey, near Wantage, 200m south of the church of St Mary and north-east of the High Street and village pond (Figs 1 and 2). The site is level at a height of approximately 109m above
Ordnance Datum on the southern side of Sparsholt Road. The western half of the site has now been developed
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into houses. The eastern portion comprises two standing buildings; the large barn and a standing cart shed that is
Listed, both are incorporated into the development. The underlying geology is mapped as Upper Greensand
(BGS 1971); observation in fieldwork revealed clay, possibly Gault covering the site.
Archaeological background
Settlement at Childrey is documented from the Saxon period in AD 950, but it is likely that the settlement existed earlier. It seems to have been a prosperous settlement at the time of Domesday Book (Williams and
Martin 2002, 151; 155; 157). The first phase of fieldwork on the western portion of this site revealed a number of phases of archaeological activity (Taylor 2000). Residual worked prehistoric flint and Saxon pottery were found in later contexts. Roman ditches and pits, representing occupation in the 3rd to 4th centuries, were also recorded which correspond in date to a hoard of late 3rd century AD Roman coins found in the area. Medieval occupation took the form of poorly dated ditches. Archaeological evidence from the village also includes a middle Bronze Age flanged axe and a Roman quernstone. The site of Challow Roman villa lies approximately
1.5 km to the east.
Objectives and methodology
The purpose of the watching brief was to excavate and record any archaeological deposits affected by the conversion of the barn into three new dwellings. This was to involve examination of any areas of topsoil removal and ground reduction, the digging of trenches for structural foundations and a boundary wall, and the digging of trenches for service runs and soakaways
Foundation trenches were excavated using a toothless ditching bucket, 0.6m wide under constant archaeological supervision. All spoilheaps monitored and all archaeological deposits cleaned in section and recorded.
Results (Figs 2 and 3)
A full list of all features recorded is presented as Appendix 1.
Exterior Foundation trenches A wing of one of the new houses extended outside the existing barn to the east and in the foundation trenches for this archaeological deposits were revealed. A ditch (100) was observed through several sections of foundation
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trench on a north-south alignment and recorded as slots 2, 6 and 7. The ditch ranged in width from 1.54m to
2.3m being narrower to the south, and is at least 0.95m deep. The full depth was not reached in slots 6 and 7. The ditch remained a slightly irregular curved ditch with a flat or rounded base with a firm dark brown, mottled green silty clay fill. Slot 2 contained 3 sherds of 3rd- or 4th-century Roman pottery with a single sherd of late 12th- to
14th-pottery. It is possible this later sherd is intrusive, and if so ditch 100 was late Roman in date however it is equally possible that this ditch is medieval in date. In one of the sections, a cut (4) was observed truncating the centre of ditch 100 (Fig. 3). This cut had almost straight sides with a flat base, was 0.60m wide and 0.77m deep and was filled with chalk pieces (52) in a silly clay matrix (53). A sherd of late 12th- to 14th-century pottery together with a fragment of ceramic building material and a shard of post-medieval/modern glass were retrieved from this feature. This may have been part of a foundation for a structure or a postpad.
A possible second ditch (101) was observed aligned with ditch 100, only 1.6m to the west. It had a rounded base and gently curving sides (slot 3) with a very similar dark brown, mottled green silty clay fill. A secondary fill (57) which lay in the centre of the ditch, filled with chalk blocks, was similar to the fill in feature 4, however no obvious cut was observed. This may form a dump deposit in the centre of 101 or again be part of a foundation or postpad similar to feature 4. Feature 101 was not observed through the rest of the foundation trenches like ditch 100 however there is a possibility that it terminated, or turned and continued in an east-west direction.
It is possible that 101 continued as slot 5 but this slot was not closely examined due to the depth of the foundation trench. Finally, cuts 3 and 5 rather than being part of the same ditch (101) may be elements of separate ditches or represent pits.
A further feature (1) was observed closer to the existing barn. Although having a clearly defined cut, the shape was extremely irregular and may represent a modern disturbance or geotechnical cut. It was filled with solid stiff brown, mottled grey and orange clay and contained no finds.
Internal foundation trenches Inside the standing barn, internal foundations and pads/plinths were excavated and these were observed and recorded. The majority of the sections showed the modern concrete floor above made ground (bricks and crushed mortar) although parts of this may have been a former floor surface as in areas the bricks appear to be laid ends up. This overlay a clayey silt subsoil, which overlay the natural clay. Some trenches showed made ground directly on the natural geology.
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A feature (8) was observed in one of these foundation trenches. Its true nature could not be discerned and it could have been either a pit or linear feature. It was steep sided, at least 0.60m deep and contained a silty clay fill with charcoal flecks (61). No finds were retrieved from this.
A small gully 10 was 0.40m wide and 0.15m deep. Again the fill (70) was a silty clay and again no finds were retrieved from this feature.
Finds
Pottery by Jane Timby
The watching brief resulted in the recovery of five sherds of pottery (36g) from two defined features. The pottery comprises two medieval and three Roman sherds (see Appendix 1). The Roman sherds from feature 2 (54) include one white-slipped oxidized ware and two sherds of Oxfordshire red-slipped ware suggesting activity dating to the mid 3rd-4th century. Accompanying these sherds, however, is a flint-tempered medieval cooking pot sherd (freshly broken into two pieces), which, if not intrusive, dates the feature to the late 12th to 14th century. Feature 4 produced a single medieval sherd (Newbury fabric B) of similar date.
Animal Bone by Sian Anthony
Nine pieces of bone weighing 522g, were retrieved from two features. Bones from slot 2 included a cow vertebra, a cow metacarpal shaft, calcaneous, femoral head and lower P4 tooth. Both the vertebra and metacarpal were unfused indicating an immature animal, it is unlikely to be the same animal as the mandible from slot 4. A right cow mandible was retreived from the section of slot 4, containing just two in situ molars, it is likely that the animal was of a mature age from the dental attrition.
Other finds by Sian Anthony
Two finds including a tiny fragment of ceramic building material weighing 2g and a shard of brown late post- medieval/modern glass were recovered from slot 4, deposit 53.
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Conclusion
This phase of fieldwork recorded a possible late Roman ditch, although there is a strong possibility this may be late 12th- to 14th-century in date. Poorly dated building elements, possibly of post-medieval date, were also recorded together with undated pits and linear features.
This phase of watching brief has revealed a density of archaeological deposits on this small development site. It has added to the information gained from the previous fieldwork on the site and suggested the high archaeological potential of this area of Childrey.
References BGS, 1971, British Geological Survey, 1:50 000, Sheet 253, Drift Edition, Keyworth Coddington, H, 2004, ‘Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey. Design brief for Archaeological Watching Brief’, Oxfordshire County Council, Environment and Economy PPG 16, 1990, Archaeology and Planning, Dept of the Environment Planning Policy Guidance 16, HMSO Taylor, K, 2000, ‘Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey,Oxfordshire, an archaeological watching brief’, Thames Valley Archaeological Services report 00/37, Reading Williams, A and Martin, G H, 2002, Domesday Book, A complete Translation, London
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APPENDIX 1: Feature List
Group Cut Deposits Type Date Dating evidence 50 Topsoil N/a 55, 62 Subsoil and made ground N/a 1 51 Unknown Modern? 100 2 54 Ditch Roman or medieval Pottery 101? 3 56, 57 Ditch? Undated 4 52, 53 Post-pad or foundation Medieval Pottery 101? 5 58 Ditch? Undated 100 6 59 Ditch Roman or medieval Association 100 7 60 Ditch Roman or medieval Association 8 61 Pit? Linear? Undated 9 65, 66 Foundation Modern 10 71 Gully Undated 63 Natural clay N/a 64, 67, 68 Made ground Modern Modern rubble 69 Possible floor Modern Modern brick
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APPENDIX 2: Pottery Catalogue
Cut Context Fabric Wt No Date (century AD) 2 54 MEDA 20 1 12-14th 2 54 WSOXID 3 1 Roman 2 54 OXFRS 4 2 3rd-4th 4 53 MEDB 9 1 12-14th TOTAL 36 5
7 89000
SITE
88000
SITE
87000
SU36000 37000 PFC04/42 Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire, 2004 An Archaeological Watching Brief
Figure 1. Location of site within Childrey and Oxfordshire.
Reproduced from Ordnance Survey Pathfinder SU28/38 at 1:12500 Ordnance Survey Licence AL52324A0001 Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire, 2005
N
87650
Plot 1
17
14 15 16 SITE 10
8 11
Plot 2 Ditch 100 7 12 13 Ditch 101 2 1 6 3 5 6 1 5 8 7 9 87600 3
Plot 3 2
Plot 3g 10 4
SU36000 36050
Areas monitored 2000 Areas monitored 2004/5
0 50m
Figure 2. Location of archaeological deposits recorded during watching briefs. PFC04/42 Parsonage Farm, Sparsholt Road, Childrey, Oxfordshire, 2005
W E EW 50 50 55 55
5452 54 NAT NAT 54 53 4 2 Chalk rubble Cow mandible 2
EW WE 50 50 55 55
51 56 56 NAT 57 NAT 1
3
W E W WW W
50 50 Concrete made ground 55 55 Foundation 62 trench
59 59 Nat 61 61 61
6 Nat 8 Concrete
E W
Concrete
Made ground
71 10
0 2.5m
Figure 3. Sections PFC 04/42