Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc 124

The report presents the results of the Cotswold Archaeological Trust evaluation and the Museum of London Archaeology Service excavation at RAF Fairford, prior to the upgrading of the site facilities. The investigations, between October 1999 and August 2001, included a test pit survey and full excavations. A scatter of prehistoric features was found across the site. The earliest was dated to the Bronze Age with the discovery of a barbed-and-tanged flint arrowhead. The remains of nine re-interred and partially articulated bodies of a possible Early Iron Age date were also uncovered. Associated with these were a number of pits, postholes and gullies. Features attributed to the Roman period included two inhumation burials. Medieval and post-medieval features comprised a series of plough furrows on different alignments. A series of inter-cutting ditches aligned northwest--southeast was interpreted as the remains of the county boundary between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. A large stone-lined drain fed into these ditches. Layers of compact crushed stone throughout the airfield were thought to represent the remains of temporary roads used during the airfield's construction.

For an explanation of the name of the river Boyd, near Bath, the author considers its Cornish namesake, the river Bude. He suggests that both names are from a Celtic form meaning `virtue, special quality', probably because their water was thought to have healing powers.

Short, separately authored summaries of archaeological research, fieldwork and building recording undertaken during the year 2005 in the Bristol and Gloucestershire area. Information is arranged alphabetically civil parish, except for Bristol and Gloucester for which entries are arranged by street or area.