Monument record 0805400000 - Land Adjacent the Vicarage, North Marston

Trench 1:
The earliest potential archaeological feature encountered in this trench comprised a large shallow and irregular feature [1/06], filled with a homogenous deposit of mixed brownish grey silty clay (1/05) containing occasional fragments of early medieval pottery. This deposit could not be satisfactorily differentiated from a substantial layer of colluvium that was seen to seal the entire trench (1/04) and contained a similar assemblage of medieval pottery. Given this, it is perhaps more likely that feature [1/06] comprises little more than a natural depression in the topography of the underlying clay 91/07).
Trenches 2 and 3:
The earliest potential archaeological deposit encountered in these two trenches comprised a layer of mid brownish grey silty clay with occasional pebbles and charcoal flecks (2/05) and (3/06). This constituted the colluvial layer identified in Trench 1, though the deposit was noticeably shallower here than in Trench 1 (up to 0.35m, as opposed to c. 0.65m in Trench 1) and was sealed by a horizontally truncated layer of mid brown silty clay subsoil (2/02) and (3/02), which may be equated with (1/02). Fragments of brick and tile recovered from this deposit indicate an 18th-19th century date for its formation.
This layer was truncated by two large postholes, the southernmost of the two comprised a sub-circular cut [3/05] containing a packing of large limestone cobbles and sub-angular blocks (3/04) withim which a post pipe filled with mid brownish grey silty clay (3/03) could be discerned. Fragments of brick and tile retrieved from (3/03) indicate an 18th-19th century date for this feature, though the presence of a single fragment of Roman tegula provides some interesting, if somewhat indirect evidence of Roman activity in the area. The northern posthole comprised a sub-circular cut of similar size and shape to [3/05], though here no post-pipe was evident. Rather the fill of this feature was composed of large limestone blocks 92/03) more reminiscent of a post pad than packing. [B1]