Shellingford Quarry Faringdon Oxfordshire Archaeological Watching Brief for Grontmij on behalf of Wales and West Utilities Limited CA Project: 4515 CA Report: 13563 24 September 2013 Shellingford Quarry Faringdon Oxfordshire Archaeological Watching Brief CA Project: 4515 CA Report: 13563 prepared by Peter Busby, Supervisor Designate date 24 September 2013 checked by Ian Barnes, Project Manager date 24 October 2013 approved by signed date 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 Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 3 The site .............................................................................................................. 3 Archaeological background ................................................................................ 3 Methodology....................................................................................................... 4 2. RESULTS (FIG 2) .............................................................................................. 5 3. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 5 4. CA PROJECT TEAM .......................................................................................... 6 5. REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 6 APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS .................................................................... 7 APPENDIX B: OASIS REPORT FORM........................................................................... 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 The site, showing location of groundworks (1:2,000). 1 © Cotswold Archaeology Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief SUMMARY Project Name: Shellingford Quarry Location: Faringdon, Oxfordshire NGR: SU 33149 95105 Type: Watching Brief Date: 28-29 August 2013 Location of Archive: To be deposited with Oxfordshire County Museum Store Site Code: SQF 13 An archaeological watching brief was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology during groundworks associated with the replacement of a gas main in land to the south of Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire. No features or deposits of archaeological interest were observed during groundworks and no artefactual material was retained. A sequence of natural peats, alluvial deposits and palaeochannels were observed. 2 © Cotswold Archaeology Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In August 2013 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological watching brief for the Grontmij on behalf of Wales and West Utilities Limited at Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire (centred at NGR: SU 33149 95105; Fig. 1). The watching brief was undertaken on the advice of Hugh Coddington, Principal Archaeologist, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) that archaeological supervision of groundworks should occur and all archaeological remains exposed during the works should be recorded. 1.2 The watching brief was carried out in accordance with Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by CA (CA 2013) and approved by Hugh Coddington. The fieldwork also followed the Standard and guidance for an archaeological watching brief (IfA 2009), the Management of Archaeological Projects 2 (English Heritage 1991), the Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment (MORPHE): Project Manager’s Guide (EH 2006). The site 1.3 The proposed gas main route runs through open arable farmland to the south of the existing Shellingford Quarry (Fig. 2). It lies at approximately 85m AOD and crosses the Frogmore Brook. 1.4 The underlying solid geology of the area is mapped as Kingston Formation - Ooidal Limestone of the Jurassic period with overlying Quaternary sands, clays and silts (BGS 2013). Archaeological background 1.5 The site is located on the Corallion Ridge, running between Swindon and Oxford. The area is known to have Iron Age and Roman settlement activity and cropmarks indicating Romano-British settlement have been identified. The Iron Age hillfort of Great Bradbury lies 6km to the west of the site. 3 © Cotswold Archaeology Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief Archaeological objectives 1.6 The objectives of the archaeological works are: to monitor groundworks, and to identify, investigate and record all significant buried archaeological deposits revealed on the site during the course of the development groundworks; at the conclusion of the project, to produce an integrated archive for the project work and a report setting out the results of the project and the archaeological conclusions that can be drawn from the recorded data. Methodology 1.7 The fieldwork followed the methodology set out within the WSI (CA 2013). An archaeologist was present during intrusive groundworks (Fig. 2). 1.8 Where archaeological deposits were encountered written, graphic and photographic records were compiled in accordance with CA Technical Manual 1: Fieldwork Recording Manual (2007). 1.9 The archive from the watching brief is currently held by CA at their offices in Kemble and will be deposited with Oxfordshire County Museum Store. A summary of information from this project, set out within Appendix B, will be entered onto the OASIS online database of archaeological projects in Britain. 4 © Cotswold Archaeology Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief 2. RESULTS (FIG 2) 2.1 The natural geological substrate (102, 206, 303, and 403) was revealed between 0.3m and 0.85m below the present ground level. It was sealed in trenches 1 and 2 by alluvial silts (103, 105, and 205) decayed peats (104, 106, and 203), sandy silts (202). Palaeochannels were observed in trenches 2 and 5. These deposits and features were in turn sealed by a 0.3m thick modern plough soil (101, 201, 301 and 501). 2.2 In trench 3, plough scaring below the modern plough soil was observed cutting directly in the natural limestone. Whilst in trench 4, a 0.75m thick, modern (contained large fragments of 20th century brick) dump of silty sand (402) was observed between natural (402) and the plough soil (401). It had a very sharp, flat boundary with natural suggesting that the natural sands at this point had been truncated prior to its deposition. As trench 4 is located some 25m south of an active quarry, it seems likely that quarry activity may have been responsible for the truncation of natural and deposition of 402. 2.3 No features or deposits of archaeological interest were observed during groundworks and, despite visual scanning of spoil, no artefactual material pre-dating the modern period was recovered. 3. DISCUSSION 3.1 While the archaeological potential of the application area was noted (see archaeological background above), the watching brief identified no archaeological remains within the area of the observed groundworks. 3.2 This is because the presence of peat deposits and palaeochannels in trenches 1, 2, and 3 suggest that the valley bottom was historically wet and probably unsuitable for occupation. Higher up the valley side in trench 3, plough scars cutting directly into the geological substrate suggests truncation of any deposits and features in this area. Whilst in trench 4 the truncated surface of the natural sands and the overlying modern dump of soil (402) suggest that the active quarry has removed deposits and features up to 25m beyond its current southern boundary. 5 © Cotswold Archaeology Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief 4. CA PROJECT TEAM Fieldwork was undertaken by Peter Busby. The report was written by Peter Busby. The illustrations were prepared by Lorna Gray. The archive has been compiled by Peter Busby, and prepared for deposition by Jenny Hughes. The project was managed for CA by Ian Barnes. 5. REFERENCES BGS (British Geological Survey) 2013 Geology of Britain Viewer. Online resource at http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html accessed 24 September 2013 CA (Cotswold Archaeology) 2013 Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Written Scheme of Investigation for an Archaeological Watching Brief 6 © Cotswold Archaeology Shellingford Quarry, Faringdon, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Watching Brief APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS Trench Context Type Context Description L (m) W (m) Dept Spot-date No. No. interpretation h/thic knes s (m) 1 101 Layer Plough soil Dark grey brown silty clay, with >5.50 >4.00 0.29 Modern plough scars visible in surface of underlying later 1 102 Layer Natural