Archaeological monitoring of open cut trenches and burst pits associated with Wessex Water replacement works Between April and June 2025 RSK ADAS Limited conducted an archaeological watching brief between Hayeswood Tower (377286 160468) and Broadfield Farm, Hinton Charterhouse, Bath (376769 158909). The replacement works conducted on the existing watermain utility route had the potential to impact a Roman Road Scheduled Monument (1005421). This monument ran from Bath to Kingston Deverill and is situated along the ridge forming the watershed between the valleys of the River Frome and the Wellow Brook. Despite some reduction in the height of the earthwork through cultivation the monument survives comparatively well. The water utility works consisted of open cut trenches with the accompanying easement and burst pits. Only one archaeological feature was identified in Trench 10, within the central section of the Scheme, Ditch 10004, was located approximately 112 m south of the Roman Road. The ditch was 4.9m wide on an east-west alignment. It had steep straight sides and the base was not observed within the trench. It was filled by 10003, a mid brown compact silty clay with manganese and mudstone brash inclusions. These results indicate that the monitoring was used effectively to ensure that the impacts from the groundworks on buried archaeology were either avoided or appropriately mitigated. Therefore, Wessex Water have complied with their obligations to the treatment of the historic environment as outlined in the Water Act (1991) and the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act (1979).
Adam Howard (Wed,) studied this question.