Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 85

An excavation and watching brief at Leicester Road, Melton Mowbray revealed two distinctly separate phases of archaeological activity dating from the Neolithic and Iron Age. This paper will present the results of the Neolithic evidence and suggest that it may represent a small mortuary enclosure. A group of three elongated pits and a post-hole aligned north-west to south-east contained Neolithic pottery and lithics, and provided radiocarbon dates between 3790 and 3460 cal BC. The arrangement can be paralleled with long barrow forms known from the south of England. The archive will be deposited with Leicestershire County Council, under the accession number X.A.32.2006, and the full report (Harvey 2010) is available on the Online Access to the Index of Archaeological Investigations (OASIS) held by the Archaeological Data Service at the University of York under ID:universi1-85072, available at http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/library/greylit/query. cfm or at the Leicestershire County Council, Historic Environment Record.

Fieldwork between 2006 and 2008 has located evidence of a double-ditched Iron Age boundary system, the Fosse Way Roman road and later Roman burials west of St Johns and south of Leicester Lane, Enderby. Dating evidence from the eastern ditch suggests the formalisation of a boundary and/or trackway in the Mid-Late Iron Age that probably directly or indirectly relates to the Iron Age enclosures that have been recorded at Grove Farm to the north. This boundary was then reused and remodelled shortly after the conquest to form part of a new settlement system extending to the east. The Roman burials may be of inhabitants of this as yet unconfirmed Roman settlement.

An early Anglo-Saxon gold bracteate was found in Scalford, Melton district in July 2010 (PAS no: LEIC-EDD980; treasure no: 2010T414; Axboe et al. 2011, 996–7; Behr 2011) (Fig. 1 a–b). It is only the second bracteate find recorded in the county of Leicestershire and Rutland, and it can be dated on stylistic grounds to the late fifth/early sixth century, a period when little is known about settlement structure, cultural identity or political organisation of this area (Stafford 1985, 65–79; Welch 2001; Knox 2004, 95). Bracteates were prestigious precious-metal objects with religious, magical and political connotations. That is why a discussion of the archaeological context of the find and its unusual iconography can contribute some new evidence to the understanding of early Anglo-Saxon developments in this part of the later kingdom of Mercia.

The ‘True Plan or Ground-Plot of the Ancient Corporation of Leicester…’, produced by Thomas Roberts and bearing the date 1741, is widely regarded as being the most accurate of the eighteenth-century maps of Leicester. There is much in its detail to interest archaeologists and historians; for example, it is the only map of Leicester to show a wall defining the west side of the Newarke precinct, the existence of which has now been demonstrated by excavation. There are, however, uncertainties over the provenance of the map and in particular the date of 1741 inscribed upon it. G. A. Chinnery pointed out an entry in the Chamberlain’s Accounts for 15 January 1711/12 recording a payment of £12 to Thomas Roberts ‘for his paines in making a Survey of the Corporation…’. This raised the possibility that the 1741 map was based on a survey made some 30 years earlier. Particular details of the map, including buildings known to have been demolished long before 1741, tend to support this interpretation. Two separate authors have submitted papers to the Editor presenting the results of new research into the life and work of Thomas Roberts. As they offer different interpretations of the date and intended purpose of the map, it has been decided to publish both papers. The second paper will appear in Transactions 2012. Editor.

This article examines the appointments, qualifications and incomes of clerical incumbents in agriculturally depressed Rutland between the two World Wars. Comparisons are made with the situation in Leicestershire during the same period.