East End Farm Cholsey Oxfordshire

East End Farm Cholsey Oxfordshire Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design for Environmental Dimension Partnership on behalf of Bellway Homes Limited (Thames Valley) CA Project: 779047 CA Report: 18742 March, 2019 East End Farm Cholsey Oxfordshire Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design CA Project: 779047 CA Report: 18742 prepared by Sam Wilson, Project Supervisor date checked by Richard Massey, Post-Excavation Manager date approved by Alistair Barclay, Principal Post-Excavation Manager signed date issue 02 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. 1 East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 1 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 2 Location, topography and geology ......................................................... 2 Archaeological background ................................................................... 3 Previous work ........................................................................................ 7 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 7 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 8 4 RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 9 Evaluation 9 Fieldwork summary: Area 1 ................................................................... 11 Area 2 .................................................................. 20 5 FACTUAL DATA AND STATEMENTS OF POTENTIAL ..................................... 25 Stratigraphic Record: factual data .......................................................... 25 Stratigraphic record: statement of potential............................................ 27 Artefactual record: factual data .............................................................. 27 Artefactual record: statements of potential ............................................. 30 Biological record: factual data ................................................................ 31 Biological record: statements of potential .............................................. 32 6 SUMMARY STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL ........................................................ 33 7 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 35 8 STORAGE AND CURATION .............................................................................. 34 9 UPDATED AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................. 40 10 PUBLICATION ................................................................................................... 40 Synopsis of Proposed Report ................................................................ 40 11 PROJECT TEAM ............................................................................................... 41 12 TIMETABLE ....................................................................................................... 42 2 East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology 13 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 44 APPENDIX A: STRATIGRAPHIC ASSESSEMENT ....................................................... 51 APPENDIX B: LITHICS by Jacky Sommerville 52 APPENDIX C: POTTERY by Ioannis Smyrnaios 53 APPENDIX D: MIXED FINDS by Katie Marsden 63 APPENDIX E: METALWORK by Katie Marsden 65 APPENDIX F: ANIMAL BONE by Matilda Holmes 67 APPENDIX G: CHARCOAL AND CHARRED PLANT REMAINS by Sheila Boardman 68 APPENDIX H: OASIS REPORT FORM 74 3 East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Site Plan, showing locations of Areas 1 and 2, and evaluation trenches (1:1500) Fig. 3 Area 1: plan of excavated features (1:250) Fig. 4 Area 1: Ditch 10011: section and photograph Fig. 5 Area 1; Ditch 10020: section and photograph Fig. 6 Area 1: Ditch 10080: section and photograph Fig. 7 Area 1: Ditch 10051: section and photograph Fig. 8 Area 1: north-west terminal of Ditch 10020: section and photograph Fig. 9 Area 1: sunken-featured building 10158: sections and photographs Fig. 10 Area 1: sunken-featured building 10158: photograph Fig. 11 Area 2: Plan of excavated features (1:200) Fig. 12 Area 2: pit 20003: section and photograph Fig. 13 Area 2: bone deposit at base of pit 20003 Fig. 14 Area 2: Ditch 20009: section and photograph Fig. 15 Area 2: pit 20027: section and photograph Fig. 16 Area 2: Ditches 20009 and 20018: section and photograph Fig. 17 Photograph: working shot across Area 1 4 East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Quantification of site records Table 2: Quantification of Finds Table 3: Quantification of Biological Material Table 4: Task List Table 5: Breakdown of the Lithics assemblage Table 6: Quantification of pottery by chronological groups Table 7: Fabric distribution by chronological groups Table 8: Distribution of pottery by feature type Table 9: Summary of metalwork items Table 10: Preservation and bone modification observed for each context Table 11: Number of fragments recorded for the major domesticates, birds, and other taxa (hand collection) Table 12: Number of bones identified to taxa, or having been burnt, from samples Table 13: Number of bones and teeth likely to provide ageing and metrical data for the major domesticates Table 14: Charcoal identifications Table 15: Charred Plant Remains identifications. 5 East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology SUMMARY Site Name: East End Farm Location: Cholsey, Oxfordshire NGR: 459173 186756 Type: Trial Trench Evaluation and Excavation Date: June – July 2018 Planning Reference: APP/Q3115/W/17/3179191 Location of archive: Oxfordshire County Museums Service Accession Number: OXCMS: 2018.55 Site Code: EEC18 Archaeological excavation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology, in June and July, 2018, at the request of the Environmental Development Partnership (EDP), at East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire. Two excavation areas, totalling 2,950m2, were excavated across the development area, together with five evaluation trenches. Within Excavation Area 1, ditched features representing elements of a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age field system included a trackway with subsidiary field boundaries, with evidence of phased development. An Early Saxon sunken-featured building (SFB) cut a late prehistoric ditch, and was the only confirmed feature of this date. Its fills contained metalwork and items of worked bone, together with environmental evidence. Area 2 of the excavation contained boundary ditches of Middle/Late Iron Age date, together with three Iron Age storage pits, one of which contained a recut feature of Early Roman date. A placed deposit of animal bone under large stones was found at the base of one pit. A single medieval gully partly extended into Area 2, and may represent a field boundary of 11th-12th- century date. Five evaluation trenches contained only a few archaeological features, of probable post-medieval date. The East End Farm site recorded elements of a later prehistoric farming landscape and land division, which complement examples recorded elsewhere in the middle Thames valley. The Iron Age pits and Saxon SFB were spatially and chronologically discrete features, and suggested wider patterns of activity of these periods within the vicinity of the site. The SFB is a locally rare, but notable, addition to the regional record of Early Saxon settlement. This document presents a quantification and assessment of the evidence recovered from the excavation. It considers the evidence collectively in its local, regional and national context, and presents an updated project design for a programme of post-excavation analysis to bring the results to appropriate publication. 1 East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 During June and July, 2018, Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological excavation on land at East End Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire, (centred on NGR 459173 186756; Fig. 1). This investigation was required by Condition 19 of the planning permission for the development of the site (ref: APP/Q3115/W/17/3179191). 1.2 The excavation was undertaken at the request of the Environmental Dimension Partnership (EDP), on behalf of Bellway Homes Limited (Thames Valley), and was in accordance with a brief for archaeological recording prepared by Richard Oram (Oxford County Council), the archaeological advisors to South Oxford District Council (SODC), the Local Planning Authority. It also followed a detailed Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by EDP (2018), and a

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