Land West of Octagon Farm Bungay Road Bixley Norfolk
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Land West of Octagon Farm Bungay Road Bixley Norfolk Archaeological Excavation for Lanpro Services on behalf of Bennett Homes CA Project: 661130 CA Report: 18388 August 2018 Land West of Octagon Farm Bungay Road Bixley Norfolk Archaeological Excavation CA Project: 661130 CA Report: 18388 Document Control Grid Revision Date Author Checked by Status Reasons for Approved revision by A 10/07/18 AW APS Draft Internal review APS B 04/08/18 AW APS Draft Client review APS 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 Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Rd, Bixley: Archaeological Excavation CONTENTS SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 4 2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................. 6 3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES .................................................................................... 7 4. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 8 5. RESULTS (FIGS 2–5) .......................................................................................... 7 6. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................... 8 7. CA PROJECT TEAM ........................................................................................... 9 8. STORAGE AND CURATION ............................................................................... 9 9. REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 10 APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS ..................................................................... 11 APPENDIX B: OASIS REPORT FORM ........................................................................... 12 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Site, showing the excavation/mitigation area, the test trench location, topsoil bund location, and the areas already developed (1:750) Fig. 3 Photo of site looking south, from northern extent Fig. 4 Photo of topsoil bund looking west across site Fig. 5 Photo of test trench under excavation looking southeast 1 © Cotswold Archaeology Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Rd, Bixley: Archaeological Excavation Summary Project Name: Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Road, Bixley Location: Bungay Road, Bixley Norfolk NGR: 625800 303700 Type: Excavation Date: 04 June to 05 June 2018 Planning Reference: 2012/0405/O Location of Archive: Norfolk Museums Service Accession Number: BEN001/1001H/01 Site Code: OCTF18 In June 2018 Cotswold Archaeology was commissioned by Lanpro Services Ltd acting on behalf of Bennett Homes, to carry out an archaeological excavation on Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Road, Bixley, in advance of the residential development of the site. The excavation was subsequently aborted when the site was shown to have been extensively disturbed/ truncated by construction works that had occurred prior to the implementation of the required excavation. A preceding geophysical survey and trial trench evaluation had identified undated and Roman remains; however, the excavation was unable to expand upon the results of this work due to the extent of disturbance arising from the development works that had taken place. The excavation area had been stripped entirely of topsoil using a toothed excavator working without archaeological supervision. The stripped area had then been subject to extensive vehicle movements over the winter of 2107 – 18 as the adjacent parts of the development were built-out, resulting in deep areas of rutting and compaction. Subsoil and part of the underlying natural geology had then subsequently been removed/ truncated by the levelling of the site and the removal of the above-noted areas of rutting using a toothed bucket. In order to test the severity and depth of the disturbance, and as a means of prospection for any surviving archaeological remains an area was machine stripped in the vicinity of evaluation trench 18, which had been noted to contain a pit and ditch terminus. The re- machined area was 20m in length by 1.8m wide and confirmed that all of the subsoil in this area had been removed and the upper surface of the natural substrata had been truncated. 2 © Cotswold Archaeology Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Rd, Bixley: Archaeological Excavation The base of excavation in areas where drainage and other infrastructure had already been installed was confirmed by the contractors on site to be at a maximum depth of 4mAOD, significantly below the archaeological horizon. Areas that had been benched/ levelled ahead of house building were inspected and seen to be truncated into the natural substrate, while the footprint of the dwellings that had already been constructed is expected to have been disturbed to a similar extent. No surviving archaeological features were noted in those areas that were inspected and/ or re-stripped and no artefactual or biological material was recovered during the works. 3 © Cotswold Archaeology Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Rd, Bixley: Archaeological Excavation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In June 2018 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) was commissioned by Lanpro Services Ltd (the consultant) acting on behalf of Bennett Homes, to carry out an archaeological excavation on Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Road, Bixley (centred at NGR: 625800 303700; Fig. 1), in advance of the residential development of the site. 1.2 Planning permission (Planning ref: 2012/0405/O) for residential development was granted by South Norfolk Council (SNC) in 2013. The application had been supported by the results of a geophysical survey (Stratascan 2012) which identified possible archaeological remains that correlated with the location of cropmarks indicative of possible Roman or medieval remains record on the Norfolk Historic Environment Record. Consequently, the Norfolk Historic Environment Service (NHES), in their capacity as archaeological advisors to SNC, requested that a condition for further archaeological work be attached to any grant of planning permission, to comprise a trial trench evaluation to determine the extent and type of any archaeological remains that were present and the scope of any mitigation works that may be required. Condition 8 subsequently attached to the grant of consent states: A) No development shall take place until a Written Scheme of Investigation for a programme of archaeological works has been submitted to and approved by the local planning authority in writing. The scheme shall include: 1. An assessment of the significance of heritage assets present 2. The programme and methodology of site investigation and recording 3. The programme for post investigation assessment of recovered material 4. Provision to be made for analysis of the site investigation and recording 5. Provision to be made for publication and dissemination of the analysis and records of the site investigation 6. Provision to be made for archive deposition of the analysis and records of the site investigation 7. Nomination of a competent person or persons/organization to undertake the works set out within the Written Scheme of Investigation B) No demolition/development shall take place other than in accordance with the Written Scheme of Investigation approved under part (A). 4 © Cotswold Archaeology Land West of Octagon Farm, Bungay Rd, Bixley: Archaeological Excavation C) The development shall not be occupied until the site investigation and post investigation assessment has been completed in accordance with the programme set out in the Written Scheme of Investigation approved under part (A) and the provision to be made for analysis, publication and dissemination of results and archive deposition has been secured. Reason for the condition To ensure the potential archaeological interest of the site is investigated in accordance with Policy 2 of the Joint Core Strategy and Policy ENV9 of the South Norfolk Local Plan 2003. 1.3 The trial trench evaluation was undertaken in 2014 (NPS 2104) and identified the presence of archaeological remains in the northern part of the site. The site was acquired by the current developer, Bennett Homes, in 2015. In July 2015 an application was made to discharge condition 8. However, only the WSI for the trial trench evaluation was submitted with the application even though the trenching had been completed in the previous year. NHES approved the WSI and advised SNC that part A of condition 8 could be discharged, but that parts B and C should remain in force until a report on all phases of archaeological works had been approved. At this stage no reference was made by NHES to the completed trial trench evaluation. 1.4 In October 2015 a reserved matters application (2015/2326) was submitted to SNC. Advice issued by NHES at this stage referenced the 2014 trial trench evaluation and recommended that further archaeological work should be undertaken under condition 8 of the outline permission. The reserved matters application was subsequently approved in April 2016, conditional on complying with