New Moreton Farm, Standish, Gloucestershire - Interim Report on an Archaeological Evaluation

Wessex Archaeology

The main evidence for Iron Age activity was recorded in Trench 4, in the form of a penannular gully, c. 15m across with an east facing entrance, probably bounding a roundhouse. As well as a possible entrance structure, a deposit of several Iron Age pots, animal bones, burnt and unburnt stone and other materials had been placed in one of the gully terminals. The gully was subsequently cut by a Romano-British ditch.

Two Iron Age postholes were recorded in one of the subrectangular enclosures (Trench 5), and the ditch bounding the eastern side of the settlement may also date to the Late Iron Age (Trench 3). While the most diagnostic Romano-British pottery was of 2nd to 4th century AD date, the presence of Late Iron Age/Early Romano-British pottery, such as the in situ base of a large grog-tempered storage jar in Trench 1, does not rule out the possibility of unbroken occupation through the immediate pre- and post-conquest periods. Part of a rectangular Romano-British building was recorded in Trench 4, and further building materials were recorded in Trench 5. The recovery of a single tessera may point to the presence of a building of some status in the vicinity, although there was no evidence that there was a villa on the site. The phasing and development of the ditches defining the sub-enclosures, and possibly bounding the settlement, remains unclear.

An inhumation burial of an adult woman aged over 45 years, possibly of Early Romano-British date, was recorded in Trench 2. Other finds included a number of coins (with a 1st-4th century AD date range), objects of copper alloy and iron, and worked and unworked bone. Environmental samples produced evidence for spelt and possibly emmer wheat, and oats, as well as weed species found on arable land.