Trial Trench evaluation at Land North of Birstall Lodge Farm, Thurcaston Road, Ashton Green, Leicester

Evaluation trenches were set out on Ordnance Survey National Grid co-ordinates using a GPS, (Global Positioning Systems). A total of 27 trenches (each 30m long) were located to provide a coverage of approximately 1,620m across the 0.4 ha (4000m�) development area. Most were placed within the area of new development, with some within the line of the access roads and landscaped areas. The ground-works was undertaken using a 13 tonne tracked excavator with a two metre ditching bucket. Both top and sub-soil removal was undertaken under constant supervision by a professional archaeologist with the soils separated on either side of the trench. Twenty seven trenches were positioned across the proposed new factory building, associated car park, mostly confined to a concentrated area over the proposed factory buildings footprint. Four trenches revealed remains including a large pit with two potentially extensive buried soil deposits. Other features included two curvilinear gullies, a single post- hole, and a heavily truncated ditch. Over 150m to the south-west were two pits of similar shape and dimensions. These appeared to form the makings of a possible pit alignment which may tally with the results from excavations previously undertaken to the west of the site. However limited extension of the trench showed the pits as isolated. A number of the trenches showed the remains of medieval furrows orientated in two directions across the field. Finds comprised of Pre-historic pottery and bone from the gullies and large pit including a single sherd from one of the two excavated pits to the south-west. Modern features included a small pit which contained large amounts of pottery, house bricks and extensive amounts of broken glass.