Archaeological Evaluation at Land Adjacent to Branston Road, Branston, Staffordshire

Archaeological Research Services Ltd was commissioned by Entrust to undertake an archaeological evaluation on land off Branston Road, Burton-on-Trent, Branston, Staffordshire. Pre - application consultation with Staffordshire County Council identified requirements for the production of an initial Heritage statement (Brown 2015) followed by geophysical survey (Durkin, 2015) and additional evaluation in the form of trial trenching. The work was undertaken in fulfilment of a condition of planning consent (ES. 16/03) for the construction of a new Eight Form Entry Secondary School with sports pitches and car parking. The evaluation was undertaken over 10 working days between the 8th August and 26th August 2016 and comprised the excavation of 22 trenches Archaeological excavations undertaken in 2016-17 in advance of construction of the John Taylor Free School, Tatenhill revealed remains spanning the Mesolithic to post-medieval periods. The site, which lies on the western edge of the flood plain of the River Trent, comprised sand and gravel banks, islands or eyots possibly caused by a former meander in the course of the river to the south giving way to drier higher land to the north. Timber posts dating to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods were found at the edge of an eyot. A possible Early Bronze Age ring ditch was constructed on the same eyot with two structures being built on the higher ground just beyond the floodplain. An Iron Age pit was recorded. The Roman period witnessed the establishment of two enclosures in the late 1st to early 2nd century AD. An agricultural processing facility had been established by the mid-late 3rd century AD represented by the creation of two large enclosures together with a yard, ovens, pits, and a possible barn. The ovens had fallen out of use by the 3rd to 4th centuries AD and had been covered over by a metalled yard surface. Four larger ditches were constructed, with the space between two of them forming an entrance into the yard area. There was no evidence for any continued occupation of the site from the end of the 4th century into the medieval period. Medieval furrows were situated on the slightly higher and, presumably, still drier land. Post-medieval activity was represented by field ditches dividing the site into at least two fields. All internal boundaries within the site had been removed by the early 1970s, creating a single open field.