An Archaeological Evaluation at Ford, Shropshire by H R Hannaford Archaeology Service Community and Economic Services AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION AT FORD, SHROPSHIRE by H R HANNAFORD A Report for LLOYDS ANIMAL FEEDS LTD. Archaeology Service Community and Economic Services Report Number 150 © Shropshire County Council November 1998 Winston Churchill Building, Radbrook Centre, Radbrook Road, Shrewsbury , Shropshire SY3 9BJ Tel. (01743) 254018 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ford, Shropshire CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 3 2.1 Aims and Objectives of the Evaluation 3 2.2 Methodology of the Evaluation 3 3 THE EVALUATION 4 3.1 THE HISTORY OF THE SITE 4 3.2 THE FIELD EVALUATION 9 3.3 DISCUSSION 12 4 RECOMMENDATIONS 15 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 16 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 16 ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: The study area (1:2500 scale) Fig. 2: The study area, showing cropmark features (1:2500 scale) Fig. 3: The study area, showing mid 19th century fields (1:10,000 scale) (extract from Foxall, 1965) Fig. 4: Extract from the OS 1st edition 1:2500, showing the study area Fig. 5: Trench location plan and cropmark features (1:1000 scale) Fig. 6: Trench plans - a) trench A; b) trench B; c) trench D; 1:200 scale) Fig. 7: Fig. 7: a) trench A, ditch 5, south-facing section; b) trench A, ditch 4, south- facing section; c) trench D, ditch 64, north-facing section. (l 1:50 scale) Fig. 8: The proposed development site, showing plot numbers and the ring ditch (1:2500 scale) 1 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ford, Shropshire 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The village of Ford is situated 7km west of the centre of Shrewsbury in Shropshire. The village lies on a gravel terrace overlooking the River Severn to the north, and the main A458 Shrewsbury to Welshpool Trunk Road runs just to south of the village. The village is the centre of a modern civil parish and ancient ecclesiastical parish of the same name. 1.2 There is currently a proposal to develop a plot of land at Ford for employment use and the formation of new vehicular accesses (Planning Application No. SY98/0012). The proposed development area lies 400m to the west of the village of Ford, and is centred on NGR SJ 407 135. The land is currently in agricultural use as pasture, and there are a number of agricultural buildings at the northern end of the plot (Fig. 1). 1.3 The proposed development area lies within an area of significant archaeological potential. There are the cropmark remains of a ring ditch (probably a burial site of the late Neolithic or Bronze Age periods) and field system (County SMR No. SA4028). Part of a World War II ammunition depot is also affected by the proposed development. 1.4 In view of the potential archaeological significance of the proposed development site it was deemed necessary to undertake an archaeological evaluation of it in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the DoE Planning Policy Guideline No. 16 (Nov 1990). 1.5 A brief for the evaluation was prepared by the Head of Archaeology, Community and Economic Services, Shropshire County Council. The evaluation was carried out by the Archaeology Service, Shropshire County Council, in October 1998, and this report details the findings of this work. 2 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ford, Shropshire 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2.1 Aims and Objectives of the Evaluation The aim of this evaluation is to provide information that will enable an informed and reasonable planning decision to be taken regarding the archaeological provision for the area affected by the proposed development. The objectives of this evaluation exercise were to locate any archaeological features and deposits likely to be affected by the proposed development, and to assess their survival, quality, condition and significance. On this basis, options for the management of the archaeological resource would be recommended, including any further archaeological provision where necessary (see below, section 4). 2.2 Methodology of the Evaluation 2.2.1 In order to achieve these objectives, the evaluation was required to comprise a desk- based assessment and a field evaluation of the study area. 2.2.2 The Desk-Based Assessment. The desk-based assessment was to examine all appropriate sources, to include archaeological databases, historical documents, cartographic and pictorial documents, aerial photographs, available geotechnical information, and any relevant secondary or statutory sources. This would be used to produce an outline history of the development and land use of the study area. An accurate plot of archaeological features visible on aerial photographs of the study area would be produced at a scale of not less than 1:1000. 2.2.3 The Field Evaluation. The field evaluation was to comprise a sample excavation within the study area of up to a maximum of 300m2. It was required that all excavation should be limited to the top of significant archaeological deposits, with further excavation undertaken only where essential for achieving the objectives of the evaluation. 3 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ford, Shropshire 3 THE EVALUATION 3.1 THE HISTORY OF THE SITE 3.1.1 Prehistoric and Romano-British Activity Prehistoric activity within the study area is evidenced by cropmarks visible on aerial photographs (APs). Probably the earliest of these cropmarks is a group of ring ditches, which form an arc which runs across the southern part of the study area. Ring ditches usually represent the remains of ploughed down burial mounds of early Bronze Age date (c. 2300 - 1400 BC); the circular cropmarks are formed by the in-filled quarry ditch surrounding the ploughed-down burial mound, which produces marks in ripening crops that are visible from the air. Ring ditches can appear as single monuments, but tend to cluster in groups of two or more, perhaps representing cemeteries serving particular Bronze Age communities. The Ford group of ring ditches is one of several such groups known from the upper Severn Valley in Shropshire (Watson, 1991). One such group on the south side of Shrewsbury, which forms a linear cemetery c. 2.5km long extending northeastwards along a terrace overlooking the Rea Brook from the A49/A5 interchange south of Meole Brace towards Weeping Cross, has been the subject of a number of excavations in recent years (Barker et al, 1991; Hughes and Woodward, 1995; Hughes, 1997). These excavations, and others on a similar site at Bromfield in the south of the county (Hughes, Leach, and Stanford, 1995), have demonstrated that the ring ditches may represent just one phase of ritual and/or funerary activity on these sites spread over a considerable period of time, from the later Neolithic period through to the Iron Age. Three of the Ford group of ring ditches (County Sites and Monuments no. SA2125) lie to the southwest of the study area; a fourth (SA3718) lies c. 130m to the southeast of the study area at SJ 4108 1338. A fifth ring ditch (SA4028) lies within the eastern part of the study area. This ring ditch is recorded on oblique aerial photographs taken in 1984 and again in 1986. The ring ditch (Fig. 2; a) is approximately 35m in diameter and is centred on SJ 4085 1357. A plot of the ring ditch was made at 1:1000 scale from the aerial photographs and is reproduced here, corrected from the site investigations, as Fig. 2. On the 1984 APs a number of linear cropmarks are also shown, which might represent the boundary ditches of a prehistoric or Romano-British field system. However, although these cropmarks show as strong features, they are somewhat irregular; moreover, unlike the ring-ditch and a number of other features, not all of them show up on the 1986 APs, and there is a possibility that at least some of these cropmarks may represent natural features (e.g.. frost fractures in the fluvio-glacial subsoil). On the other hand, two (Fig. 2; b & c) also correspond to documented post-medieval field boundaries (see below). Later prehistoric activity in the vicinity of the study area is more certainly attested by a number of rectilinear cropmark enclosures, of a type which have been demonstrated by excavation to represent the remains of Iron Age or Romano-British farmsteads. One of these enclosures (SA4208) lies c. 300m to the northeast of the study area, another (SA3719) 100m to the east, and a third (SA2438) 300m to the southwest. This change of use for such a site from ritual and funerary activity to domestic and agricultural occupation is paralleled at both the two sites mentioned above. At Bromfield, an Iron 4 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ford, Shropshire Age farmstead enclosure (SA488) was built within the area of the barrow cemetery (Stanford, 1995), and at the south Shrewsbury group an Iron Age enclosure was built over the remains of two ring ditches at Sutton Farm (SA85) (Barker et al, 1991), and an enclosure (SA15) was built within 300m of one ring ditch (SA2208) and 500m of another (SA14) at Meole Brace. 3.1.2 The Medieval Manor In 1066 the manor of Ford lay within Rhiwset Hundred; later in the medieval period it replaced Alberbury as the caput of the hundred, which was renamed Ford Hundred. (Thorn, 1986, 4,1,16 notes.) Rhiwset is thought to mean "settlers by the hill", from the Old English sæte = people and the Welsh rhiw = hill or belt of high ground. The name is one of a line of -sæte names to be found along the line of Offa's Dyke between the River Wye in Herefordshire and Oswestry, which may reflect an administrative reorganisation of the English-Welsh border at the time of the building of the dyke (Gelling, 1995, p1).