From 19th August to 16th September 2024 Oxford Archaeology undertook an open area excavation on land to the west of High Street, Arlesey, Bedfordshire. The works were undertaken in advance of a proposed residential development. The excavation was undertaken over three small excavation areas (Areas A, B and C, 0.4ha in total) which targeted remains identified during an earlier programme of trial trenching. Significant archaeological remains were uncovered only in Area B, where excavation revealed a small number of features including ditches and pits which were predominantly dated to the Early and Middle Iron Age. Activity in Area B began during the Early Iron Age, with the installation of a boundary ditch which bisected the area on an east-northeast to west-southwest alignment. This boundary was recut/replaced in the Middle Iron Age by a more substantial ditch. Finds from the ditches included Early to Middle Iron Age pottery and a small quantity of animal bone. A small number of gullies, pits and postholes provide evidence for possible (low-level) domestic-type activity associated with this boundary. Probable Romano-British activity was represented by a metalled surface laid over a part of the Iron Age boundary ditch, presumably to facilitate movement across this largely infilled earlier feature. A single undated ditch, located at the eastern end of Area B, may also be of Romano-British date, but no evidence of settlement or other more intensive activity was recorded. Evidence for later, post-Roman activity was restricted to medieval furrows recorded across all three excavation areas.
Paddy Lambert (Wed,) studied this question.