Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, Tonge, Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire

ARCUS were commissioned by Severn Trent Water to undertake a desk-based archaeological assessment of land in the village of Tonge, Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, as part of proposed improvements to sewage arrangements in the area. The assessment included a site visit together with documentary and cartographic research. This was followed up by a watching brief on 5 geotechnical trial holes excavated on the route of an existing pipeline that crossed the site. The desk-based assessment indicates that the proposal area is located within a village that was an estate centre at the time of the compilation of the Domesday survey in 1086 but which appears to have been subject to significant depopulation and loss of status in the later medieval period. This process is reflected in both the documentary and archaeological record, while the southern part of the proposal area contains prominent earthwork remains of the former medieval settlement core. These archaeological remains are of regional/national significance. A programme of geotechnical trial holes did not encounter significant archaeological material, suggesting that the former village boundary did not extend as far north as the route of the proposed pipeline. The geotechnical works also indicated that construction of the Breedon Sewage Works is likely to have destroyed any archaeological deposits and features that may have been present within the works boundary. There is thus only a low potential for the survival of sub-surface archaeological deposits along the proposed pipeline route.