Watching Brief at Honeywell Cottage, White Ladies Aston, Worcestershire

archaeological monitoring and recording Archaeological recording (watching brief) was carried out during August 2025 April at Honeywell Cottage, White Ladies Aston, Worcestershire during the construction of a detached dwelling. The HER has shown us that the site lies in an area of archaeological potential; artefactual evidence found to the east of Nightingale Cottage indicates a probable Roman and Saxon settlement lying adjacent to a postulated Roman routeway and aligned northwest to southeast across the north end of the parish. The conjectured extent of the medieval settlement is largely defined by the archaeological monuments, cartographic sources (OS 1884), extant timber framed buildings and the outlying ridge and furrow earthworks. The settlement pattern comprises a ribbon of dispersed properties along a main arterial north-south routeway with connecting roads at each end. Honeywell Cottage is situated about mid-way along this road, between Laburnum Cottage and Rose Cottage, both C17 timber framed buildings that may have replaced earlier structures. The OS 1884 suggests that the land originally belonged to Rose Cottage being subsequently partitioned and further subdivided with the construction of Honeywell Cottage. To the east of the parish is a moated site, the likely location of the earlier medieval manor house whilst Aston Hall, a C16 and C17 timber framed building lying just to the south of the moated monument is its likely replacement. The excavation was small in scope, consisting of a continuous strip foundation trench outlining the footprint of the new dwelling. No archaeological features or deposits were recorded within the excavated trench, instead the stratigraphic sequence of deposits comprised mostly gravel overlain by an undated relict subsoil and the modern topsoil. The evidence suggests that the site remained unoccupied and was likely agricultural land formerly connected with Rose Cottage. The lack of residual finds supports this hypothesis.