Archaeology in the Severn Estuary 13

This short note by the secretary of the SELRC details work and activities undertaken in 2002. This includes details about the discovery of the newport ship, details about the AGM and meetings held in 2002 and the contents of this volume

This note details the footprint tracks and trails in Goldcliff east that date from the Mesolithic. It details work that has been untertaken on the lowershore sites C and E

This short paper details the results of initial fieldwork at Llandevenny, southeast Wales, undertaken as part of the author's postgraduate research in the Archaeology Department, The University of Reading, supervised by Prof. Martin Bell and Dr. Petra Dark. The research is concerned with understanding the ways in which human communities were utilising the wetland and associated dryland environments of the Severn Estuary from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. The focus, in particular, is on the pollen, macrofossil, micro-charcoal and artefactual evidence for human activity and impact (eg fire events, clearances, agricultural activity) in close proximity to the wetland-dryland edge, and from selected intertidal sites. Prior to current research, Barland's Farm, Vurlong Reen (Walker et al 1998) and Caldicot (Nayling and Caseldine 1997) represented the only palaeoenvironmental studies undertaken along the northern margins of the Gwent Levels. However, despite such studies, there remains a general paucity of research concerning evidence for human activity and impact from wetland-dryland edge sites in comparison to both palaeoenvironmental and archaeological work undertaken from upland and coastal/intertidal contexts (eg Bell et al 2000;Caseldine 1990; Crampton and Webley 1966; Scaife 1994; Smith and Cloutman 1988; Smith and Morgan 1989). In intertidal contexts the associated archaeology is often well exposed and abundant. As a consequence, whilst we may have a reasonable understanding of the pattern of human activity within the former wetland, we have far less understanding of the relationship between these activities and those which occurred on the neighbouring dryland. As such, the present study will be significant, not just in advancing our understanding of the relationships between human activity on the wetlands and associated drylands, but also in providing additional information on potential patterns of human landuse, settlement and mobility within the wider landscape during prehistory.

The Old Passage, functioning until 1966, was an ancient and strategically significant but hazardous ferry that linked Aust with Beachley across narrows on the Severn Estuary. It provided a means of communication between England and Wales. The remains of four landing piers survive in the intertidal zone at the Aust end of the route. Dating in part from around the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the most recent of these is an elaborate, compound, timber and stone structure which served both vehicles and foot passengers. The other three are apparently earlier but their date is otherwise uncertain. Two of these piers are also timber and stone structures which accommodated vehicles as well as foot passengers. Documentary evidence from the eighteenth century shows that vehicles could at that time be carried on the sailing boats that formed the ferry. The piers represent one of a number of essentially rural sites at which there is archaeological evidence for the network of trade and communications in the Severn Estuary and inner Bristol Channel that existed up to the middle decades of the twentieth century

During archaeological investigations at Katherine Farm, Avonmouth, in 1998, two humic layers were revealed within the alluvial clays of the Wentlooge Formation, the post-glacial sediment sequence that underlies the Avon Levels. Both deposits were interpreted as 'soil ripening or stasis horizons', indicating breaks in the cycle of inundation and alluviation that enabled the formation of these soils under drier conditions. The upper layer contained pottery sherds, imported stone and bone indicating Late Bronze Age activity, and adds to the growing evidence of late prehistoric occupation and activity on the Avon Levels. Until recently, the inhospitable tidal mudflat and salt marsh environments were thought to have been largely avoided, in terms of any consistent occupation or economic exploitation, by late prehistoric communities. The lower organic layer contained no artefacts. It was initially considered to be a Neolithic soil ripening layer (the 'BaRAS' layer) recorded at other locations, radiocarbon dating showed, however, that here it formed during the Mesolithic period. A number of later ditches were also investigated and these may relate to the medieval and/or postmedieval Katherine Farm. Finds of pottery and fired clay with wattle impressions suggest that the site was occupied in the medieval period.

This paper describes a limited excavation and recording of a stone water cistern at the base of the limestone cliff below the Great Tower of Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire. The surviving stone structure is set into the estuarine silts below high water mark and was built to capture a vigorous fresh water spring, which emerges at the foot of the cliff. Originally the cistern must have risen well above the high water mark to allow uncontaminated fresh water to be raised to the castle above. This beautifully made stone structure probably dates to the early 13th century.

Large areas of the central Somerset Levels were owned by the Abbots of Glastonbury and the Bishops of Wells (or Bath and Wells from 1091) from the early medieval period. Relatively little has been written about land and estate management by the Bishops probably because of the dearth of documentary evidence. Goose/and lies below the Mendips on the moors in the upper Axe Valley 7 km west of Wells (see Figure 1: inset). It separates Westbury-subMendip from Wookey, both manors of the Bishops from before the Norman Conquest. Along its southern boundary flows the Wookey Axe, a tributary of the main River Axe, which still flows northwards through the Bleadney-Panborough gap. Research and fieldwork suggest that Goose/and was created out of the moor as a large hay meadow by Bishop John de Tours at the same time that he enclosed his adjacent deer park in Westbury in the early l2th century (Nott 1997). Its use by wild or semi-domesticated geese then, or later, probably gave it its name.

Lower Knole Farm is situated just north of Bristol on the Avon levels surrounded by the M4, M5 and M49 motorways. The site lies within the Avon Community Forest area and an application was made to establish a woodland on part of the farm. However, like much of the wider Avon and Severn Estuary Levels, the application area is regarded as land with archaeological potential. Concerns were therefore expressed over the depth of any buried archaeological evidence and the possibility of hydrological and physical rooting impacts following woodland establishment. This note outlines the work carried out at the site to enable a risk assessment to be made.

Extensive coastal lowlands known as Levels border the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel in southwest Britain. The Levels are the result of many years of salt marsh reclamation, apparently initiated during the Roman Period, through a programme of sea bank construction. The altitude of the Levels is typically between 5-6 m Ordnance Datum (OD), an altitude that is below the current Mean High Water Springs level in the Severn Estuary. Therefore, the Levels are vulnerable to flooding, not only from river sources, but also from the sea at times when sea banks are overtopped and/or breached. A number of significant historic coastal flooding events have affected the Levels, but the event attributed with causing the greatest devastation occurred on 20th January 1607, and is the subject of this study. This flood event is often cited as being caused by a storm, alternatively however, we consider that some evidence suggests that the flood may have been the result of a tsunami, and that a reassessment of the cause is required. In this note, our intention is to discuss the existing literature, whilst results from our recent fieldwork in the area will be prepared for future publication.