Archaeological Watching Brief at Ellerdine Grange Farm, Ellerdine, Telford, Shropshire

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken at Ellerdine Farm, Ellerdine, Telford, Shropshire (NGR SJ 60572 20942). It was commissioned by Oaklands Farm Eggs Ltd. This comprised monitoring groundworks associated with the construction of two large poultry units. Planning permission has been granted subject to a programme of archaeological works. A previous magnetometer survey had identified discrete and linear anomalies along with a possible pit alignment to the north-west, outside of the excavation area. An archaeological evaluation of the site identified an undated possible ditch, a small gully with Romano-British pottery, and several agricultural stone drainage channels. The watching brief has not identified any significant features or deposits that would be impacted upon by the proposed development and the results concur with those of the evaluation; that the majority of the geophysical anomalies relate to geological variation, and are not of archaeological origin. Although the ground reduction appears to have averaged c 0.50m, it is not possible to know for certain if archaeological deposits were removed during the initial strip of topsoil and subsoil, as this was done without archaeological monitoring, and in places appears to have extended into the upper horizons of the natural geology. There was no trace of the undated possible ditch recorded within evaluation Trench 7. The gully identified in evaluation Trench 13 was found to comprise two intercut gullies during the watching brief, one of which contained comparable Roman Severn Valley ware pottery as was recovered during the evaluation. Their extents were indeterminate within the constraints of the watching brief. They were in isolation with no other comparable features identified across the site. This may be a function of truncation during the unmonitored site strip, or that there was no intensive Roman activity within the immediate vicinity. The silted nature of the fills, the abraded condition and small size of the pottery sherds, and the lack of charcoal may indicate the latter. The gullies lie below the impact level of the reduced dig required for the development, which was to be built up from that point, so they were to be preserved in-situ. The possible pit alignment identified in the geophysical survey lay outside the excavation area, to the north-west corner of the site and was not impacted upon by the groundworks. The stone drainage and modern land drains observed in the evaluation reflect the site's post-medieval and modern agricultural use.