Claydon Solar Farm, Tewkesbury - Post-excavation Assessment

Wessex Archaeology

The archaeological mitigation works comprised the excavation of two areas covering a combined 0.88 hectares.

The earliest archaeological activity encountered was a Late Iron Age ring ditch. The majority of other features were loosely dated as either Late Iron Age or Romano-British and comprised penannular enclosures, ditches, pits and postholes. These two phases of activity were recorded across the site and relationships between intersecting features were well understood. Post-medieval/modern activity was represented by remains of ridge and furrow agriculture that truncated earlier features. Five pits scattered across both areas were undated. An environmental assemblage did not generate any significant findings because of the low numbers and poor preservation of environmental material.

Most of the recovered finds span the period from the mid-late prehistoric to earlier Romano-British period (c. 200/150 BC to AD 200) with a small amount of medieval to modern material. The assemblage is consistent with the expected range for the area, and there are no intrinsically interesting objects. The flint assemblage has some significance in representing the earliest activity at the site, however it is poorly stratified and small in size. Although the pottery has produced a basic chronology for the features, very few diagnostic sherds were recovered, meaning precise dating has proven difficult and further research potential is limited.