Monument record 0612300000 - 400M NW OF STOKE HOUSE FARM

Geophysical survey during Stoke Hammond bypass assessment revealed 2 linear features, possibly ditches lying at an angle to each other, and other faint anomalies, possibly pits (B1-2).
Subsequent evaluation trial trenching by BCMAS in September 1996 revealed an enclosed settlement of probable middle Iron Age date. The evaluation identified 21 archaeological features extending over a minimum area of 3600m square. A large ditch was visible for c.40m in trench 2 running ESE-WNW, before turning SW was possibly also visible in trench 3 running S defining an enclosed area of c.2700m sq. The ditch had a V-shaped profile and the upper fills contained sherds of Middle Iron Age pottery. Within the area defined by the enclosure ditch, 3 small pits containing burnt sediments were revealed, possibly the source of charcoal & fired clay found within the fills of the enclosure ditch? Close to W side of the enclosure ditch, 2 narrow, steep-sided, flat-bottomed curvilinear gullies define part of a single circular feature with a diameter of at least 8m - probably the construction trench of a roundhouse with entrance at NW. To the W and N similar small gullies may be an eavesdrip gully. 67% of the pottery recovered (338 sherds) was Iron Age with a further 29% (148 sherds) being prehistoric of uncertain age. 283 animal bones (1403g) were recovered and found to be well-preserved. Almost 95% came from Iron Age dated features and included cattle, sheep/goat, pig and deer. No butchery marks were observed on the horse bones. Other finds included a small piece of iron slag, fired clay and daub, and seven undiagnostic worked flints and one burnt flint. Two bulk samples were collected (one from an enclosure ditch and one from a pit). A crouched inhumation burial was found in Trench 3, but not removed (B3).
Excavation carried out by Albion Archaeology in August and September 2002 and subsequent watching brief confirmed the presence of an early to middle Iron Age farmstead and associated droveways within a late Bronze Age to early Iron Age field system. A pit aligment of late Bronze Age or early Iron Age date was also identified on a similar alignment to the field system. It is suggested that a mainly pastoral economy was being practiced and that the landscape became wooded after the farmstead was abandoned, the tree cover being cleared for cultivation when a ridge and furrow field system was laid out possibly from the middle to late Saxon period. See report for detail (B4-5).