Series: Bournemouth Archaeology unpublished report series

From the 30/08/2016 - 01/09/2016 BUARC, Bournemouth University’s archaeological field unit, BUARC, were commissioned by Crestland Homes Ltd. to undertake an archaeological evaluation at 488-496 Portsmouth Road, Sholing, Southampton, in response to planning proposals to demolish two late Victorian houses and mid-20th century dairy facility and construct 25 residential units with associated parking and ancillary buildings under planning application 15/01158/FUL. The proposed development intends two rows of houses facing inwards to a central access drive with gardens positioned around the perimeter of the site. Groundworks in the form of foundation and service trench excavation will be located mainly but not exclusively to and between the proposed building locations. In response to Southampton County Council’s recommendation that an archaeological field evaluation should be undertaken to determine the presence, importance and extent of any archaeological features, and in consultation with Southampton City Council’s Historic Environment Team, a Written Scheme of Investigation was prepared by BUARC proposing a total of five evaluation trenches positioned at strategic locations around the development area to target areas in which proposed development groundworks had potential to cut below modern overburden and potentially disturb previously unknown archaeological deposits and features. The project has demonstrated that late Victorian and mid-20th century deposits were present, including a wall, soak away, postholes, pits, possible ditches, service trenches and a pipe trench which were recorded in Trenches 1-5. Comparison of these trenches with historic mapping has identified that these features correlate directly to previous standing buildings which were recently demolished prior to the archaeological evaluation commencing. Four features of uncertain date were recorded cutting the natural, three of which were only partially expose within the trenches and potentially represent the earliest features recorded on-site. Two of the features were possible ditch termini recorded in Trench 4 and two pit features which were recorded in Trench 2. No cultural material was retrieved from these features. A layer above these features contained CBM material and has been interpreted as a Victorian garden soil providing a terminus ante quem for these features. This report comprises the final results of the archaeological evaluation project.

BUARC, Bournemouth University's archaeological consultancy, was commissioned by the Forestry Commission to undertake a small excavation project to investigate an unscheduled section of Roman road on the southern side of King's Copse Road in advance of verge restoration work. The project involved the excavation of a single trench where the Roman road intersected with the proposed location of a new roadside ditch along the south side of King's Copse Road. In this location the Roman road approaches Kings Copse Road across heathland from the south as a low linear earthwork. The area within the trench footprint had been heavily impacted by earlier verge work and service installation but despite this, within a pocket of relatively undisturbed ground a remnant of stone surface was found along with the eastern Roman roadside ditch. No artefacts were recovered during the excavation although some tiny undiagnostic fragments of pottery were recovered from the environmental sample taken from the basal fill of the Roman ditch. In addition, the environmental samples also yielded a small assemblage of charcoal which has been included in the project archive.

Geophysical survey, comprising magnetometer and resistance surveys, of two small areas (0.16ha each) to establish the presence of geophysical anomlaies that might represent archaeological features lacking surface expression. The two areas are the supposed location of prehistoric cairns that wil form part of further investigations and excavations during the Moor Than Meets the Eye landscape Partnership Scheme.

In July 2013 Bournemouth Archaeology, Bournemouth University's archaeological consultancy unit, was commissioned by New Forest National Park Authority to carry out an archaeological evaluation and excavation on land at Park Farm in Beaulieu to investigate and establish the survival of archaeological remains of a WWII Anti-Aircraft gun emplacement and evaluate a multi-ditch square shaped enclosure identified through nonintrusive survey and located to the immediate east of the of the gun emplacement. No previous intrusive archaeological investigations had been carried out on the site. The investigations were carried out as a community project, part of 'New Forest Remembers' a Heritage Lottery Funded project established in 2012 to record and collate information about the role of the New Forest and its inhabitants during the Second World War. A total of five evaluation trenches were opened and the features they contained excavated and recorded by volunteers under supervision. The outer ditch of the enclosure was identified and recorded in Trenches 1 and 2 while two inner ditches were identified and recorded in Trench 4. Gun pits and associated features were identified and recorded in Trenches 1 and 5 and a number of possible structural features associated with the enclosure were identified and recorded in Trench 3. Geophysical (magnetometer) and metal detector surveys were also undertaken by the volunteers. The geophysical survey succeeded in locating the six gun pits and central command bunker, which was not investigated by the project. The metal detector survey identified a large number of artefacts mainly relating to the WWII activity but also including post-medieval objects.

Observation and recording of groundworks associated with construction of new showroom and facilities. Late Bronze Age and undated features were found.

BUARC were commissioned by Anesco Ltd to undertake an archaeological watching brief and programme of field walking as a condition of planning consent in respect of a renewable energy project using photovoltaic collectors at Whitefield Farm, Hampshire. A Written Scheme of Investigation was prepared by Wardell Armstrong Ltd. Field conditions and the timetabling of ground works did not allow for a formal programme of field walking in accordance with the specification. As a result field walking was undertaken in areas of bare soil during the groundworks phase of the project. A total of 33 features were recorded during the groundworks. These comprised a number of linear cuts which have been interpreted as agricultural features, such as plough furrows and field boundary features. A small assemblage of pottery representing a 13th century cooking pot was recovered from a substantial linear ditch to the north western extent of the site, and was the only feature to contain securely contexted material culture. The majority of features identified were recorded cutting through agricultural plough soil and are therefore interpreted as being relatively modern in date. However a small number of features were sealed by this layer of plough soil and may therefore represent an earlier phase of activity.