Watching Brief at Staplegrove Sewer Scheme Taunton

From January to February 2025 RSK ADAS Limited carried out archaeological monitoring for Wessex Water at the Staplegrove Sewer Scheme project in Staplegrove, Taunton. The Scheme comprised of the groundworks required for the construction of a 1.3 km sewer line in advance of a new housing development between NGR: ST 21920 26744 and ST 21188 26151. The groundworks consisted of topsoil strips and open cut trenching, with the exception of one area of auger drilling. An archaeologist was present to monitor the topsoil stripping and open cut trenching. Archaeological monitoring took place in advance of the installation of the sewer line. This was due to the construction methodology being inconducive to archaeological monitoring. Trenches 2 and 4 were therefore backfilled and will be re-excavated during the pipe installation. The archaeological monitoring consisted of the topsoil strips for Areas 1 and 3 as well as the open cut trench excavations for Trenches 2 and 4. During the topsoil strip of Areas 1 and 3, a small quantity of unstratified post-medieval pottery sherds were uncovered. These were deemed to be of negligible archaeological significance so were not retained. No other archaeological deposits or artefacts were uncovered during the archaeological monitoring.