Series: C. and N. Hollinrake Ltd unpublished report series

An evaluation was carried out at a proposed development site. Numerous findspots of Romano-British pottery had been recorded in fields immediately to the north and west. These finds were assumed to reflect salt-panning activities, an industry well attested along the line of the Huntspill River. Constructed during the Second World War, the river had cut through a number of mounds connected with either salt extraction or pottery production. Many more mounds had been recorded in the area. During the evaluation, a buried land surface and horizons were noted in all of the trenches. These could be dated by occasional pottery finds to the mid-Roman period. Fragments of briquetage and baked clay recovered from the Romano-British horizons probably represented debris connected with salt extraction. A flint flake, possibly of Neolithic or Bronze Age date, was also recovered [AIP]

The watching brief undertaken during ploughsoil stripping for a new quarry extension recorded a number of archaeological features cut into the natural clay or bedrock. Subsequent excavations investigated a number of archaeological features, mainly gullies and pits or post holes, ranging in date from the Romano-British period through to the medieval and post-medieval periods. [Au]

The earliest archaeological structure identified was the western edge of the Foss Way, although occasional sherds of prehistoric pottery were recovered from a suspected buried soil horizon beneath it. However, the alignment of the ditches at the western end of Zone 2 and the evidence of some 2nd Century AD re-cutting raised the possibility of a surviving pre-Roman field system. The construction of the Fosse Way presumably dated from the mid-40s AD by the Roman army, soon after the conquest of AD 43. [Au(adp)]