Archaeological Evaluation by Fieldwalking at Breck, Derbyshire. Interim Report

In September 1996 ARCUS was commissioned by Fitzwise Limited to undertake an archaeological field evaluation of land at Breck, Derbyshire. The area is subject to an application for planning permission to develop the site for open-cast coal extraction. This report describes the results of part of this evaluation, comprising a fieldwalking survey of all available land within the application area. This work is part of an extended programme of field evaluation, which also includes an aerial photographic survey, geophysical survey, trial trenching and auguring. The Survey indicated the general pattern of surface finds distribution within the area, as well as highlighting a number of areas of particular interest for possible trial excavation. The area of the survey can be broadly divided into three topographic zones. At the eastern edge is the level flood plain of the River Rother, which is now protected by flood banks and used mostly for arable crops. On the western side is the top of a hill, with an altitude of 110 metres compared to that of 50 metres for the flood plain. In between these is the base of the slope, along which Breck Lane runs and where current occupation is located, represented by Breck Farm, White Lodge and Red Lodge. Post-medieval and modern finds are concentrated in this latter zone. This is unsurprising, given the current pattern of occupation. Earlier finds were concentrated mainly in field 3 and in a linear band across fields 4 and 6. The presence of the finds within field 3, and particularly a group of eight sherds of Roman pottery coincides with the location of a sub-rectangular enclosure identified by the geophysical survey. It is relatively rare for sub-surface features of this type to be reflected in surface finds within the coal measures landscape, and this strongly suggests that excavation of the ditch forming this enclosure is likely to produce secure dating evidence for the feature. Also of great interest within this immediate area is the presence of a relatively large number of flints. These were recovered from fields 3, 18, 19 and 12. This coincides with the presence of enclosures as well as linear and non-linear features, identified by geophysical survey. In field 12 four flints were found in an area where geophysics had indicated the presence of possible pits and ditches. This suggests that trial excavation within this area may recover evidence of prehistoric as well as Romano-British occupation. Geophysical survey was not carried out within field 4 or 6, as the aerial photographs did not indicate the presence of archaeological features.