Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by RPS Consulting Services Ltd, to undertake archaeological mitigation works comprising the excavation of four areas (Areas 1, 4 and 5, and Parcel 5 covering 5.7 hectares centred on 413761, 182652 (Area 1), 413656, 182714 (Parcel 5), 412942, 183163 (Area 4) and 413905, 182813 (Area 5) at Peglars Way, Swindon, SN1 7DA and at land off Foxham Way, Wichelstowe, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 7AB. The works follow previous phases of mitigation that comprised archaeological evaluation and excavations at The Deanery and Wichelstowe Southern Access Scheme. The work was carried out as a condition of planning permission, granted by Swindon Borough Council (S/13/1524/SAC) for a large development of 4500 houses and associated infrastructure, including employment, commercial, shopping, schools, open space, park and ride, roads, sewers and associated works at Wichelstowe, Wiltshire. The overall development area comprises 300 hectares, the majority of which is located to the north of the M4, east of the Toothill area of Swindon. The excavation areas are part of a wider development scheme known as the Southern Town Expansion which covers 300 ha and comprises the construction of up to 4500 houses and associated infrastructure including employment, commercial, shopping schools, open space, park and ride, roads sewers and associated works. The urban development area lies immediately north of the M4, east of the Toothill area of Swindon and encompasses several agricultural fields, areas of woodland and small rivers. To the north, the site is bounded by the Okus and Kingshill area of urban Swindon. The work was carried out as a condition of planning permission, granted by Swindon Borough Council (SBC) (PLANNING REF S/13/1524/SAC). Outline Planning Permission was granted by Swindon Borough Council (SBC) in 2005 and updated in 2014, subject to conditions. The entire development area has been subject to a desk-based assessment (or DBA, Armour Heritage 2013), management plan (Armour Heritage 2015), geophysical survey (Archaeological Surveys 2013), trial trench evaluation (Wessex Archaeology 2014a, 2014b and 2017) and a written scheme of investigation (or WSI, CgMs 2016) The overarching WSI identified four areas of archaeological potential to be investigated by strip, map and sample excavation. This included the strip map, and sample excavations at The Deanery (Wessex Archaeology 2018; Lichtenstein forthcoming) and Wichelstowe Southern Access Scheme (Wessex Archaeology 2021c). Please see the related OASIS records in the additional info section of OASIS record wessexar1-508333 of this project. The excavations were undertaken in accordance with site specific WSI's that detailed the aims, methodologies and standards to be employed, for both the fieldwork and the post-excavation work (CgMS 2016; Wessex Archaeology 2020a; 2021a; 2021b; RPS 2021). The archaeological advisor for SBC approved the WSI, on behalf of the Local Planning Authority (LPA), prior to fieldwork commencing. The excavations were undertaken between 28 September to 20 November 2020 (Parcel 5), 19 July to 13 August 2021 (Area 4), and 21 Aug to 22 October 2021 (Areas 1 and 5). A small collection of Early Neolithic flints, including part of an arrowhead, were recovered from Area 4 and Parcel 5, and represent the earliest activity identified across the excavated areas. The later prehistoric periods were represented by the remains of a ditched enclosure in Area 4 of possible Middle to Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age date. The enclosure comprised a large ditch and two gullies with a possible entranceway in the south-west corner. A further ditch to the north of the enclosure indicates these features were part of a wider complex of land divisions. Two undated curvilinear gullies to the north-west of the enclosure may represent the truncated remains of roundhouses.
Newton et al. (Sat,) studied this question.