PCA Winchester was commissioned to undertake a programme of works in connection with the erection of a two-storey building to provide a club house, education room, shop, executive club, board room and police surveillance at the football club.

A watching brief (monitoring and recording) and subsequent report were requirements of conditions attached to the planning permission which was granted by Eastleigh Borough Council. The condition was based on the advice of the council’s archaeological advisor. This was to ensure that the archaeological interest of the historic building/site was properly safeguarded and recorded.

The aim of the watching brief was to monitor groundworks of the proposed development for the presence of archaeological resources and, if present, investigate and preserve by record the resources, determining, where possible, their character, including their date, nature and extent.

The site is located west of Stoneham Lane in an area of playing fields south of Eastleigh town centre. The site lies on flat, level ground that characterizes the lower River Itchen valley and lies west of the Monk’s Brook, a tributary of the River Itchen.

The site is situated in an area of known archaeological potential. Finds of Romano-British date have been recovered from the area while the historic medieval settlement of North Stoneham lies only 80m north-west of the site. There is a record of an undated pit, containing burnt material, found in 2004 during an archaeological watching brief on groundwork for the Silverlake Stadium’s west stand.

The monitored groundworks consisted of a general ground reduction of an area approximately 50m x 15m and the subsequent excavation of foundation pits and trenches.

No archaeological deposits, features, artefacts or environmental remains, significant or otherwise, were observed in any of the six foundation pits or the connecting trenches that were observed.

Several modern services were observed during the excavation of the foundation pits and trenches. This suggests extensive modern disturbance to the ground, possibly associated with the construction of nearby buildings related to the football club which disturbed any previously in-situ archaeological remains, if present.