Monument record 0629800000 - E OF LOWER BLACKGROVE FARM

Plan Form - LINEAR
EXTENSIVE RB OCCUPATION OVER C.100M FOUND DURING STRIPPING FOR GAS PIPE-LINE. FEATURES INCLUDE DITCHES & SOME PITS. POSSIBLE TRACE OF BUILDING? WITH ROBBED OUT FOUNDATION TRENCH ON THREE SIDES AND POST HOLE ON OTHER SIDE. ?BEAM SLOTS? SOME POST-MED OCCUPATION (B1).
15 ditches, 14 gullies, 11 pits and a single post-hole were recorded. The limited excavation means that chronology is very uncertain. However, it is thought that the system of linear features originated at the turn of the 1st century AD and were iniatially small gullies for draining small areas. They were generally no deeper than 20cm. The larger linear features are probably later, perhaps the end of the 2nd century or start of the 3rd and probably survived into the 4th century AD. A ditch system was reinstated in the medieval period, on a remarkably similar alignment, suggesting the Roman ditch system, though silted, was still visible. The medieval features were probably field drains and land boundaries, and there is an enclosure in the centre of the site that may be related to domestic settlement nearby. Near the southern side of the site was an interrupted linear feature with a number of short perpendicular branches and one contained several flat limestone blocks in the base, suggesting it was a foundation trench for a building. Pottery dated from the mid-3rd to 4th century AD (B2).