PCA Warwick was commissioned to undertake an archaeological excavation ahead of a new development comprising the construction of 106 new dwellings on land at Wallingford Road, for which planning permission has been granted by South Oxfordshire District Council.

High archaeological potential of the site had been demonstrated by previous excavations in adjacent fields and by geophysical survey in advance of our work. The earlier excavations recorded Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age field systems and geophysical survey showed that these field systems extended across the two sites, as demonstrated when the topsoil and subsoil was stripped off.

PCA’s investigations revealed three phases of human activity, from prehistory through to the Romano-British period, of which the most extensive was a Bronze Age field system arranged off a central trackway or stock droveway. The earliest features were a small number of Neolithic gullies containing Early Neolithic pot sherds and a small but significant selection of Mesolithic flints. A near complete Early Bronze Age urn containing both cremated human remains and curated artefacts was encountered in a small pit centrally placed within the droveway. Several animal burials were also highlights of the Bronze Age phase and in the Later Bronze Age or Early Iron Age two crouched human inhumations were dug into the silted-up ditches Environmental analysis demonstrated a change in ecology from predominantly grassland, in the earlier phases, towards rougher, wet ground featuring scrub and sedge plants as activity later focussed on stock-raising and management. PCA Warwick engaged with the local population with an article in the village magazine and a visit from the local primary school. A post-excavation assessment has been produced for the site, in order to satisfy planning conditions. A publication report on this significant site is in preparation.