Plot a Bath Business Park Peasedown St John Banes Archaeological Evaluation

Plot A Bath Business Park Peasedown St John BaNES Archaeological Evaluation for Hartwell plc and Cubex Land (Wellow Vale) Ltd CA Project: 3904 CA Report: 12350 November 2012 Plot A Bath Business Park Peasedown St John BaNES Archaeological Evaluation CA Project: 3904 CA Report: 12350 prepared by Steven Sheldon, Project Supervisor date 19 November 2012 checked by Simon Cox, Head of Fieldwork date 27 November 2012 approved by Simon Cox, Head of Fieldwork signed date 27 November 2012 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. © Cotswold Archaeology Cirencester Milton Keynes Andover Building 11 Unit 4 Office 49 Kemble Enterprise Park Cromwell Business Centre Basepoint Business Centre Kemble, Cirencester Howard Way, Newport Pagnell Caxton Close, Andover Gloucestershire, GL7 6BQ MK16 9QS Hampshire, SP10 3FG t. 01285 771022 t. 01908 218320 t. 01264 326549 f. 01285 771033 e. [email protected] © Cotswold Archaeology Plot A, Bath Business Park, Peasedown St John, BaNES: Archaeological Evaluation CONTENTS SUMMARY........................................................................................................................ 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 3 The site ................................................................................................................ 3 Archaeological background.................................................................................. 4 Archaeological objectives .................................................................................... 4 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 5 2. RESULTS (FIGS 2-5) .......................................................................................... 6 3. DISCUSSION....................................................................................................... 8 4. CA PROJECT TEAM ........................................................................................... 11 5. REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 11 APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS..................................................................... 13 APPENDIX B: GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT.............................................. 15 APPENDIX C: LEVELS OF PRINCIPAL DEPOSITS ...................................................... 17 APPENDIX D: RADIOCARBON DATING........................................................................ 18 APPENDIX E: OASIS REPORT FORM ........................................................................... 20 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Trench location plan showing archaeological features, previous archaeological works and geophysical survey results (1:4000 & 1:500) Fig. 3 Trenches 28 and 29, showing graves/probable graves (1:200) Fig. 4 Sections and photographs Fig. 5 Extract from 1843 tithe map showing current site (1:8000 approx.) 1 © Cotswold Archaeology Plot A, Bath Business Park, Peasedown St John, BaNES: Archaeological Evaluation SUMMARY Project Name: Plot A, Bath Business Park Location: Peasedown St John, BaNES NGR: ST 71210 57215 Type: Evaluation Date: 6-9 November 2012 Location of Archive: To be deposited with Roman Baths Museum, Bath Accession Number: BATRM 2012.43 Site Code: PBA 12 An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in November 2012 on land known as Plot A, Bath Business Park, Peasedown St John, BaNES. Three trenches were excavated. The evaluation has identified a number of archaeological features within the proposed development area; these features were shown to survive at a depth of between 0.44m and 0.52m below the modern ground surface. A total of 20 probable graves, forming part of a cemetery identified by an earlier archaeological evaluation, were identified in the north-eastern half of Trench 28 and the north-western half of Trench 29. A single leg bone was recovered from one of the identified graves for the purposes of radiocarbon dating. Two undated ditches, previously thought to form part of the cemetery boundary, were also identified during the evaluation. However, a grave was shown to cut the northernmost of these ditches suggesting that they may relate to a separate phase of activity on the site. A small number of undated pits were revealed in the central and eastern parts of the site. However, the exact function of these pits and their relationship to the other archaeological features identified remains unclear. 2 © Cotswold Archaeology Plot A, Bath Business Park, Peasedown St John, BaNES: Archaeological Evaluation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In November 2012 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological evaluation for Hartwell plc and Cubex Land (Wellow Vale) Ltd on land known as Plot A, Bath Business Park, Peasedown St John, BaNES (centred on NGR: 71210 57215; Fig. 1). The evaluation was undertaken to assist in the design of a proposed car dealership that will form part of the ongoing development of Bath Business Park, on land now known as Plot A. The business park development has been the subject of numerous previous archaeological investigations, and is subject to a Section 106 Agreement with Bath and North East Somerset Council (BaNESC) which requires the preservation in situ of sensitive archaeological remains over a large part of Plot A. The evaluation was designed to provide further information with which to define the extent, depth and nature of the sensitive archaeological remains, and to enable the design of a development within Plot A which will preserve the most important archaeological remains in situ. The evaluation ran concurrently with a geotechnical trial pit investigation, which was monitored archaeologically to ensure test pit locations were adjusted so as not impinge upon sensitive archaeological deposits, and ultimately to ensure their preservation in situ. 1.2 The evaluation was carried out in accordance with a detailed Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by CA (2012) and approved by Mr Richard Sermon, Archaeological Officer BaNES Council. The fieldwork also followed the Standard and Guidance for Archaeological Field Evaluation (IfA 2009), the Management of Archaeological Projects 2 (English Heritage 1991) and the Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment (MORPHE): Project Manager’s Guide (English Heritage 2006). The site 1.3 The proposed development area encloses an area of approximately 0.5ha, and comprises a single field of ungrazed rough pasture bounded to the north by the A367, to the south and west by Bath Business Park and to the east by arable fields. The site lies on a gentle south-easterly facing slope and lies at approximately 142m AOD. 1.4 The underlying bedrock geology of the area is mapped as Ooidal Limestone from the Inferior Oolite Group of the Jurassic era (BGS 2012). The overlying soils are from the Sherborne association consisting of a Brown Redzina (Soil Survey of 3 © Cotswold Archaeology Plot A, Bath Business Park, Peasedown St John, BaNES: Archaeological Evaluation England and Wales, 1983). The natural substrate, comprising light yellow grey clay with occasional limestone outcrops, was identified in Trenches 27 and 28 and across the north-western half of Trench 29. Limestone bedrock was identified across the south-eastern half of Trench 29. Archaeological background 1.5 An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeological Trust between April and June 2000 at the Bath Business Park site (CAT 2000a). Twenty- six trenches were excavated, of which four (Trenches 1, 6, 7 and 11) were within the current proposed area of development. The evaluation revealed a number of undated pits of likely prehistoric date, a possible colluvial deposit measuring up to 0.29m thick present across the whole of the current area of investigation, a cemetery of possible Roman or later date containing a minimum of sixteen graves and a ditch conceivably forming part of the cemetery boundary. However, the nature of the relationship between the colluvial deposit and the grave cuts remained unclear. 1.6 Subsequent excavations were undertaken over the rest of the Bath Business Park site (excluding Plot A) by Cotswold Archaeology between 2004-5, revealing Middle Bronze Age burials, a possible Middle Iron Age ditch, a late Roman enclosure and a Middle Saxon D-shaped enclosure, as well as 11th to 13th-century activity. Further burials to the south of Plot A were undated, but thought likely to represent a continuation of the cemetery revealed in the 2000 evaluation, and likely to relate to Late Saxon and early medieval settlement to the north at Eckweek (Rowe and Alexander 2010). 1.7 A geophysical and metal detecting survey of the Plot A site undertaken in 2012 (AS 2012) as part of the current phase of evaluation revealed two parallel linear anomalies that may relate to former ditches and several discrete anomalies that may indicate pit–like features, a number of which appear to correlate with unexcavated grave cuts revealed during the previous evaluation. Archaeological objectives 1.8 The objectives of the evaluation are to provide

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