17 Trench evaluation on agricultural land on the Eastern edge of Devizes 17no. evaluation trenches were excavated across the c. 3ha site, revealing archaeological evidence from three distinct phases, the Roman, medieval and post-medieval periods. A series of shallow linear features were identified in Trenches 4, 5 and 13, producing Roman pottery, and maintaining a form comparable with features of a Roman date revealed within the adjacent site at Coates Hill, excavated by Cotswold Archaeology (CA 2014), to the immediate north-east. The very shallow form of the possible Roman features revealed at Windsor Drive, coupled with the sparse evidence for domestic occupation suggests that the Roman activity present on the Site is likely to be agricultural in function and very peripheral to any centralised settlement activity. A seemingly isolated medieval pit of 13 th century date was recorded in Trench 11, on the northern slope of the Site, together with localised evidence of agrarian land-use dating from the post-medieval period onwards, including a field boundary, visible on the 1 st Edition 1888 OS Map, visible in Trenches 14 and 16. The geophysical anomalies, revealed during the magnetometry survey, varied considerably from the archaeological evidence revealed in the trenches. This may be due to the survey identifying anomalies in the subsoil and plough horizon, geological variations or insufficient magnetic contrast between the archaeological fills and the natural substrate. The methods adopted allow a high degree of confidence that the aims of the project have been achieved. Conditions were suitable in all of the trenches to identify the presence or absence of archaeological features. It is considered that the nature, density and distribution of archaeological features provides an accurate characterisation of the development site as a whole.
G Arnold (Wed,) studied this question.