A proposal has been put forward for the development of a business park on land near Mill Lane, Heath, Derbyshire by H J Banks Co. Ltd. Wardell Armstrong Consultants acting on behalf of the developers undertook a desktop study of the site. Following this a program of field evaluation work was agreed with the County Archaeological Officer. As part of this field evaluation ARCUS were commissioned to undertake a fieldwalking survey of appropriate areas of the site. This report presents the results of that work. There was one significant discovery made in the fieldwalking survey. This is the concentration of slag found in Field C. Considering the discrete nature and density of this concentration this would appear to be a smelting site, from the 17th century or earlier, possibly as early as Roman. Circumstantial evidence suggests a date from the medieval period or earlier. The other artefacts found in the fieldwalking are all of a post medieval date other than the one flint and there are no concentrations that indicate activity areas. In the area that has been fieldwalked there is one location where the possibility of further work should be considered. This is the concentration of slag in field C. At present it is not known whether there are buried structures and deposits associated with these finds. The date of the slag is also unknown. This could be clarified with some evaluation trenching. Considering the spread of slag is found over an area of approximately 80m by 50m, it may be advisable to first undertake a geophysical survey. This could give more information as to the most promising location for the trial trenching.
G. A. O. Davies (Mon,) studied this question.