Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Severn Trent Water to undertake an archaeological watching brief during the topsoil strip of a working easement to enable installation of a water transfer main and a section of haul road. The pipeline is approximately 878 m in length and intended to carry all flows from the treatment works to a proposed outfall at the River Trent. A haul road with temporary bridge over the River Trent was constructed to enable the works. The monitored works comprised a 20 m wide topsoil strip ahead of the excavation of a trench up to 3 m in depth and 1.2 m wide for a 450 mm ductile iron pipe. Archaeological features were not encountered in the majority of monitored areas, although given the limited nature of the required intrusion, the geological substrate was only reached in Areas 4, 11, 14, 17-21 and 23. A small amount of remains were encountered spread across Area 8, 17-19 and 21, with a concentration in Area 18. In total, 17 archaeological features were identified during the watching brief, all of which were post medieval or modern in date and mainly related to drainage or agricultural practices. The remains comprised furrows, a drainage channel, drainage ditches and gullies and two refuse/levelling deposits. No deposits suitable for environmental sampling were encountered during the course of the watching brief. The only recovered finds were a horseshoe and a brick sample taken from a drain. Whilst neither could be tightly dated, both are likely to be post-medieval or early modern in date. Neither object is considered to require long term curation.
Kate Fitzpatrick (Mon,) studied this question.