Land at Quedgeley East Haresfield Gloucestershire
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Land at Quedgeley East Haresfield Gloucestershire Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design for St Modwen Ltd CA Project: CR0078 CA Report: CR0078_1 December 2019 Land at Quedgeley East Haresfield Gloucestershire Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design CA Project: CR0078 CA Report: CR0078_1 Mark Brett, Senior Project Officer prepared by And Jonathan Hart, Senior Publications Officer date 25 November 2019 checked by Jonathan Hart, Senior Publications Officer date 3 December 2019 approved by Sarah Cobain, Principal Post-Excavation Manager signed date 27 November 2019 issue 01 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 Land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 5 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 7 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 10 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 10 4 RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 12 5 FACTUAL DATA AND STATEMENTS OF POTENTIAL ..................................... 22 6 SUMMARY STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL ........................................................ 30 7 STORAGE AND CURATION AND PROJECT TEAM ......................................... 32 8 UPDATED AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................. 32 9 THE PUBLICATION ........................................................................................... 36 10 PROJECT TEAM ............................................................................................... 38 11 TIMETABLE ....................................................................................................... 39 12 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 40 APPENDIX 1: STRATIGRAPHIC ASSESSEMENT BY JONATHAN HART .................... 42 APPENDIX 2: FLINT BY JACKY SOMMERVILLE .......................................................... 43 APPENDIX 3: MEDIEVAL POTTERY BY STEPHANIE RATKAI ..................................... 44 APPENDIX 4: POTTERY, EXCLUDING MEDIEVAL BY E.R. MCSLOY ......................... 50 APPENDIX 5: METALWORK BY KATIE MARSDEN ....................................................... 53 APPENDIX 6: WORKED BONE BY KATIE MARSDEN .................................................. 54 APPENDIX 7: FIRED CLAY BY IOANNIS SMYRNAIOS ................................................. 54 APPENDIX 8: CERAMIC BUILDING MATERIAL BY IOANNIS SMYRNAIOS ................. 55 APPENDIX 9: WORKED STONE BY RUTH SHAFFREY ............................................... 56 2 Land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology APPENDIX 10: ARCHITECTURAL STONE BY PETER DAVENPORT ........................... 57 APPENDIX 11: METALWORKING DEBRIS BY DAVID DUNGWORTH.......................... 58 APPENDIX 12: HUMAN BONE BY SHARON CLOUGH ................................................. 60 APPENDIX 13: ANIMAL BONE BY MATILDA HOLMES ................................................. 62 APPENDIX 14: GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF MONOLITH SAMPLES BY AGATA KOWALSKA .......................................................................................... 65 APPENDIX 15: PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL EVIDENCE BY EMMA AITKEN ............... 72 APPENDIX 16: POLLEN BY DR MICHAEL GRANT ....................................................... 83 APPENDIX 17: RADIOCARBON DATING BY EMMA AITKEN ....................................... 87 APPENDIX 18: OASIS REPORT FORM ......................................................................... 88 3 Land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire: 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 location of groundworks (1:1500) Fig. 3 Area A plan (1:1000) Fig. 4 Photograph: Ring-ditch A, looking north (1m scales) Fig. 5 Photograph: Section through south-eastern corner of enclosure ditch A22 (1m scale) Fig. 6 Photograph: Ring-ditch B, looking south Fig. 7 Photograph: Ring-ditch B, looking south-east Fig. 8 Photograph: Post-excavation aerial image of Ring-ditch B, looking north-west Fig. 9 East-facing section through Ring-ditch B, showing location of monolith samples (1:20) Fig. 10 Photograph: Recovering monolith samples from Ring-ditch B, looking north-west Fig. 11 Area B plan (1:2500) Fig. 12 Photograph: SK6400 in grave 6399, looking west (1m scale) Fig. 13 Photograph: dump of Gloucester TF41b pottery within Ditch B19, looking north- west (0.5m scale) 4 Land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology SUMMARY Site Name: Land at Quedgeley East Location: Haresfield, Gloucestershire NGR: 380501 211080 Type: Excavation Date: January–May 2019 Planning Reference: S.16/1724/OUT Location of archive: To be deposited with The Museum in the Park, Stroud Site Code: CAQUED19 An archaeological excavation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology between January and May 2019 at the request of St Modwen Ltd on land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire. Two areas together amounting to 6.6ha were excavated. The earliest remains comprised two flints, both residual within later deposits. One is only broadly dateable as prehistoric, whilst the other is a Mesolithic or Early Neolithic blade. A small ring-ditch is undated but may be prehistoric, and there was also a residual sherd of Early to Middle Bronze Age pottery and a small assemblage of later prehistoric pottery, although it is unclear at this stage whether the latter material was stratified or residual. A single Roman inhumation burial was found. The bones were in very poor condition but radiocarbon assay produced a determination of cal. AD 125–251 (SUERC-88058; 95.4% probability). The majority of the remains relate to what seems to have been a medieval farmstead, associated with locally produced TF41b pottery dateable to the mid 11th to early 13th centuries. An enclosure containing sub-enclosures and may have been the location of the farm buildings, although, if so, these were been built in a form that has left no archaeological trace. Other enclosures may have been for livestock, and there were trackways or droveways. Palaeoenvironmental remains suggest that the landscape immediately surrounding the farm was open, although the wider environment may have been more wooded, perhaps indicating a wood-pasture landscape on this part of the Severn vale. There are indications from the pottery assemblage that at least some of the sherds may be wasters from a pottery kiln; although no kiln structure was found, five potters were recorded at Haresfield in the 1086 Domesday Survey. Some of the earlier enclosures were truncated by a large ring-ditch. Dating evidence for this suggests that it was in use up to the mid 13th century, whilst palaeoenvironmental remains from its fills indicate that it was water filled and was probably a moat. Although no 5 Land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology contemporary internal features were found, it is likely that this moat enclosed the dwelling of a wealthy peasant or minor member of the gentry. Later remains comprised plough furrows and field boundary ditches. 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. 6 Land at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Between January and May 2019, Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological excavation at Quedgeley East, Haresfield, Gloucestershire (centred on NGR: 380501 211080; Fig. 1). The work was undertaken at the request of St Modwen Ltd as part of an outline planning application for the development of a business park submitted to Stroud District Council (SDC; ref: S.16/1724/OUT). The archaeological work was undertaken in accordance with a detailed WSI produced by CA (2018) and approved by Charles Parry, Archaeologist for Gloucestershire County Council (GCC), the archaeological advisors to Stroud District Council. The fieldwork also followed Standard and Guidance for Archaeological Excavation issued by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (2014); the Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment (MORPHE): Project Manager’s Guide and accompanying PPN3: Archaeological Excavation issued by Historic England (2015) and the Statement of Standards and Practices Appropriate for Archaeological