1091662. Cite this using datacite

Title:

Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment on Land Adjacent to Blacklands Road, Benson, Oxfordshire

Series:

John Moore Heritage Services unpublished report series

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Licence Type:

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.5284/1091662

Publication Type:

Report (in Series)

Abstract:

This document represents an investigation of the potential for archaeological remains on land adjacent to Blacklands Road in Benson, Oxfordshire (NGR SU 6222 9208). This reveals that the settlement at Benson or Bensington as it was alternatively known as until recently is a settlement with a high potential for archaeology. Sporadic archaeological material has been recognised throughout the area of the settlement for prehistoric activity up until post-medieval period The settlement of Benson or Bensington, as it was alternatively known as until recently, is a settlement with a high potential for archaeology. Sporadic archaeological material has been recognised throughout the area of the settlement from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age. That such material should be found is not surprising as a major Neolithic cursus has been recognised to the south of the proposal site at Benson Airfield. Ditmas described banks either side of the brook in the vicinity of the church and around Cuckoo Pen to the south of the brook. Ditmas states that these banks were recently flattened. Both areas have been indicated from other sources as areas of intensive settlement though not fully understood. These sites lie some 500m to the west, but their nature may mean that they were significant. The nature of the hinterland of these monuments and even the very nature of the monuments are not known. The settlement of Benson also contains evidence of significant Roman activity, and it has been suggested in academic papers by Blair (see above), that the area of the proposal site lies in a probable area of extensive Roman settlement. Much of the information here is imprecise but it is likely that this means that some archaeology probably exists on the site, though again the information of the settlement and its hinterland are obscure. The name Blacklands is a significant place-name that identifies areas of intensive settlement or other activity, which results in an organically richer and, therefore, a significantly darker soil. The site lies adjacent to the proposal site, further adjacent to development in 1967, and which is an area that has produced indications of a Roman cemetery and on aerial photographs appears to show the remains of an enclosure of a sub-square shape measuring between 50-70m across and a further possible enclosure. Benson is recorded at an early date as an early medieval town or estate centre; it is not known exactly what this information means, but it is likely that Benson was a royal centre with significant residence and probably a high status church, both considered to be located near the west end of the settlement. It was only later that this church became attached to the abbey at Dorchester. What the early medieval hinterland of Benson looked like is not known, but it is evident that the proposal site lies within the hinterland and that early medieval artefacts have been recovered from the line of Brook Street to the south. Later medieval and earlier post-medieval settlement probably crystallised around the line of the major roads in Benson, of which Brook Street to the south would have been one of them. The parish of Benson was enclosed at a late date and the maps indicate that some of the field system was narrow and presumably are derived from earlier ridge and furrow. If this is the case then in the medieval and earlier post-medieval and Imperial and Regency periods the site was probably dominated by ridge and furrow.

Author:

S. Yeates

Publisher:

John Moore Heritage Services

Year of Publication:

2013

Locations:

District:	South Oxfordshire
Country:	England
County:	Oxfordshire
Parish:	Benson

Grid Reference: 462219, 192079 (Easting, Northing)

Subjects / Periods:

DESK BASED ASSESSMENT (Event)

FIELD OBSERVATION (VISUAL ASSESSMENT) (Event)

DESK BASED ASSESSMENT (Event)

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH INTERPRETATION (Event)

DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH (Event)

DESK BASED ASSESSMENT (Event)

Identifiers:

OASIS Id:	johnmoor1-219555
OBIB:	Report No. 2795

Note:

This report was uploaded to the OASIS system by the named Publisher. The report has been transferred into the ADS Library for public access and to facilitate future research.

Source:

OASIS (OASIS)

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Created Date:

21 Apr 2022