Series: Carlisle Archaeological Unit unpublished report series

13 trial trenches were excavated on the route of the proposed diversion of a road giving access to Cocklakes Works. The evaluation clearly demonstrated that archaeological remains of various kinds were present within the study area. A large ditch was observed in Trench 1 with a complete absence of dating evidence; the necessarily limited nature of the investigation meant that it was really not possible to provide a meaning full interpretation of this feature. A pre-modern date was considered likely. It was possible that this feature could have represented that remains of an enclosure associated with an ancient settlement situated beneath the modern buildings. The size and shape of the small ditches recorded further south in Trenches 4, 5 and 7, and their possible association with ancient plough marks, was entirely consistent with their interpretation as field boundary ditches, whilst the ceramic evidence clearly pointed to a Roman-British date. It was therefore possible that the features were the remains of a system of small rectilinear fields of the kind known in pre-Roman and Romano-British contexts in many parts of Britain. Clearly the fields would have been located in reasonably close proximity to a farm, homestead or settlement. A possible contender was an enclosure, identified by aerial photography, situated on a low hill some 350m to the south-west. Another possibility was that the probable structural remains recorded in Trench 8 formed part of a contemporary settlement, but once again a complete lack of dating evidence and the constraints imposed by the scope of the evaluation made meaningful interpretation impossible It was stressed, however, that the remains in Trench 8 could have been of considerable importance, since the nature of the features recorded here were clearly suggestive of ancient occupation, including the probable remains of timber structures. Perhaps the most interesting and (potentially) most important archaeology recorded on the site was represented by the features situated in Trenches 11-13 at the south end of the proposed access track. Although the precise nature and significance of the remains could not be determined, there could be no doubt that they represented prehistoric activity, perhaps of Late Neolithic or Bronze Age date judging by the character of the features and the flint recovered from one of the pits. This activity appeared to have involved the construction of at least one timber structure. The purpose of the three shallow pits containing burnt material was far from clear, particularly as it seemed that the burning had not occurred in the pits themselves. [Au(adp)]