St Leonard's Hill

NT54NE 29 NT 55120 45710

NT 551 457 A trial trenching evaluation was conducted in December 2001 on the site of a proposed housing development. The aim was to investigate two aerial photograph sites: the E ditch of a Roman temporary camp (NT54NW 14) and what had been recorded as a possible Neolithic cursus (NT54NE 29). The alleged cursus is visible on the aerial photographs as a cropmark 100m long by 50m wide in a field to the N of a farm track. No trace of the feature is visible on the aerial photographs to the S of the track.

The evaluation located the alignment of the E side of the Roman temporary camp ditch in three trenches, as a band of grey clay and a stony mid-brown clay. This feature was not excavated.

Two ditches were detected in the field to the N of the farm access track on the alignment of the alleged cursus. The E ditch was found by excavation to be 1.4m wide by 0.45m deep, V-shaped in profile, steeper on the western face. The W ditch was a broad V-shape in profile, 1.4m wide by 0.45m deep, with a rounded base. The cut appeared less regular in this W section, perhaps as a result of greater erosion. No finds were recovered from either ditch. In the field to the S of the track no trace was found of the continuation of either ditch in either of the two trenches positioned to detect its alignment. The ditched enclosure clearly does not extend to the S of the farm access track and is therefore unlikely to be a Neolithic cursus.

Report deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Beebe Planning for Miller Homes Ltd.

G Mudie 2002