Stoke Road, Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire: Archaeological Excavation

The fieldwork followed the methodology set out within the WSI (RPS 2020), with the location of the two excavation areas agreed in consultation with Charles Parry, archaeological advisor to TBC, informed by the preceding DBA (CgMs 2015), geophysical survey (Stratascan 2015) and trial-trench evaluation (WA 2015): " Area 1 (1.4ha): located to investigate the Roman settlement identified during the geophysical survey and trial-trench evaluation; and " Area 2 (0.4ha): centred on the possible prehistoric cremation grave identified during the trial-trench evaluation. 4.2. An additional area located between Areas 1 and 2 was examined in advance of construction of a pumping station as part of a watching brief. This did not contain significant remains and is not discussed further. A programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology between July and November 2021 at the request of Spitfire Bespoke Homes Ltd at Stoke Road, Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire. The development area was 13.6ha in extent, of which two areas together amounting to 1.8ha were excavated. The earliest discoveries were a few worked flints, including examples datable to the Mesolithic or Early Neolithic periods. The latest flint is a Beaker period/Early Bronze Age thumbnail scraper, whilst a single Beaker period fineware pottery sherd was recovered from a ditch which lacked other dating evidence. A fragmentary Early or Middle Bronze Age copper alloy dagger/knife blade was recovered as a residual find, as was a Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age razor fragment. Two adjacent cremation deposits were identified, one with a Middle Bronze Age radiocarbon determination. The majority of the remains related to a ditched farmstead which originated in the Mid to Late Iron Age and remained in use into the later Roman period. The Iron Age farmstead included enclosures probably used for livestock, as well as working areas and the locations of possible dwellings. There was little evidence of arable production during its Iron Age phase. There was broad continuity into the Roman period, and whilst the layout of the site saw minor changes, its basic ground plan remained essentially the same. There was greater evidence for cereal production during the Roman occupation, including several crop-processing ovens, as well as an expansion of the presumed livestock enclosures. Evidence for ritual activity included the deposition of animal skulls and human remains in ditches, perhaps referencing Iron Age traditions, as well as a piece of possible mammoth ivory, also found in a ditch, and metalwork items found in a pond, these including a rare copper alloy probable neck ring. The Iron Age and Roman farmstead was also the setting for several inhumation burials, although these represent a very small proportion of the entire population which would have occupied the farm across its long duration. The latest Roman finds from the site comprise late 4th-century pottery, Valentinianic coins issued AD 364-378, and a copper-alloy belt fitting datable to the late 4th/early 5th centuries. There was no evidence that the site was occupied beyond the Roman period, and the prehistoric and Roman features were sealed by a buried soil or dark earth, perhaps indicating that the site was cultivated in the post-Roman period, although specific dating for this deposit, beyond being later than the 4th century AD, was not established. The earliest post-Roman feature was a single Early Anglo-Saxon inhumation burial. This adult male was accompanied by an iron penannular brooch and an iron belt buckle. The relationship of this grave to the dark earth was unclear. Later remains comprised furrows which, based on their straight shape in plan, are likely to have been post-medieval or modern, rather than medieval.