Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist 147

Presents summary preliminary period-based plots of prehistoric pottery collected from test and shovel pits in the hinterland of Cadbury Castle, south-east Somerset, and summarises this aspect of the South Cadbury Environs Project's work up to December 2003.

Recording of a farmhouse which has as its core a medieval three-room hall-house with a cross-passage, as well as later alterations.

Excavation and monitoring between 1998 and 2001 revealed a third-century limekiln and occasional boundary ditches of Romano-British date, followed by a later sequence of intensive occupation relating to the castle and manor house of Castle Cary, possibly commencing in the eleventh century with the construction of a Norman ringwork. The castle was constructed in the twelfth century and its remains survive as the earthworks of an inner and outer bailey adjacent to the site. The castle was abandoned later in the twelfth century following sieges during the reign of Stephen, to be replaced by a later medieval manor house to its west. Portions of several stone-built structures and remains of occupation relating to this establishment, spanning a period from the later twelfth to the early-nineteenth century, were recovered, including evidence for the creation of a partly moated enclosure, probably in the thirteenth or early-fourteenth century. The finding of a lar in the backfill of the limekiln is taken to be an indication of a major Roman building in the vicinity, and the possibility that this building was a temple at the source of the River Cary is explored. Includes specialist reports on

An earthwork survey, supplemented by geophysics, north-east of the Manor House, Templecombe, has redefined the extent of the former Templar preceptory. The site, of which only fragments of the former chapel survive, is defined by a stone wall lying within the tithe-free land. Excavation has confirmed the survival of archaeological features and shown that medieval buildings with tiled floors once occupied the site. Subsequent small-scale rescue excavations in the north-east corner of the preceptory identified robbed stone wall footings from an additional building. They also reassessed the evidence for changes to the road layout in Templecombe following the Dissolution. Includes specialist reports on

The article seeks to examine the development of the cloth industry in late medieval Pensford and to place it in the wider context of the cloth industry in Somerset.

Description of a worked piece of timber discovered in an intertidal channel of Porlock Marsh and radiocarbon dated to a calibrated age range of 780--1020 AD.

Numerous short, separately authored reports of fieldwork and excavation in the county during the year, arranged by archaeological period and alphabetically by parish within periods, and including brief reports by the County Archaeological Officer and Exmoor National Park Archaeologist.