The evaluation fieldwork comprised the excavation of 148 trenches, each measuring 30m in length by 1.8m in width, in the locations shown on the attached plan. The trenches were located to test anomalies identified by the preceding geophysical survey (MS 2020) and to provide a representative sample of the remainder of the area of the site, avoiding service constraints, woodland and hedgerows. During the course of the evaluation, adverse weather conditions caused the flooding of a number of the excavated trenches. Following consultation between EDP and Mr Havard, it was agreed that a limited sample of the archaeological features and deposits exposed within Trenches 120-134 would be excavated during this phase of works so as to avoid unnecessarily harming the archaeological resource. In November and December 2024, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of land at North of Swindon Road, Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. A total of 148 trenches were excavated. Two flint blades of broad Mesolithic or Early Neolithic date were recovered from the topsoil in a trench excavated in the north-eastern part of the site, however no features or deposits of a prehistoric date were identified during the course of the evaluation. Small quantities of pottery of Roman (2nd to 4th-century AD) date were recovered from a number of ditches and pits identified in trenches excavated in the central-western part of the site. A number of further, albeit undated, pits and ditches were also identified in these trenches and are considered to be at least broadly contemporary. The relatively limited quantities of artefactual material recovered from these features suggests that they may be related to agrarian activities. A concentration of features, some of which contained pottery of Roman (2nd to 3rd-century AD) date, were identified in trenches excavated in the south-eastern part of the site. These features appear to confirm the presence of a double-ditched track or boundary and associated plot boundaries, along with other activity of an indeterminate nature, identified by the preceding geophysical survey. Two ditches and a pit identified in two trenches excavated in the north-eastern part of the site, contained pottery of a medieval (12th to 15th-century) date and a number of undated features in these trenches may be at least broadly contemporary. The precise nature of these features remains unclear; however, whilst it remains possible that they are indicative of settlement, the limited quantity of the artefactual material recovered from the fills of these features suggests that they are perhaps most likely to be associated with localised agricultural activity. The ploughed out remains of medieval/post-medieval furrows were identified in a number of trenches excavated in the northern and western parts of the site. A ditch identified in a trench excavated in the central north-western part of the site contained a single fragment of CBM of a probable post-medieval date and it, alongside other albeit undated ditches in this part of the site, are considered most likely to be associated with land management, drainage or division.
L Parfitt (Wed,) studied this question.