The evaluation comprised excavation of 20 trenches, sixteen measuring 50m by 1.8m and four measuring 25m by 1.8m (amounting to a 3% sample of the development area). Most features identified within the trenches were of little significance comprising post-medieval agricultural field boundaries or drainage systems. A limited number of gulleys were identified in the southern field which had not been identified during the geophysical survey, but these are also likely to be post-medieval or modern agricultural features and are also of little significance. The discrete features in Trenches 6, 9 and, 11 comprising three irregular pits and a posthole, yielded no dating or functional evidence, and did not form any coherent pattern associated with potential structures or else postulated clay extraction and brick making activity on the site. As a result, they can also be viewed as of low archaeological significance. Moreover, the dearth of evidence and the overwhelming late origin of the few features identified across the site, together with the localised potential evidence for waterlogged deposits, would suggest that little effort had been expended to drain and utilise the area until the late post-medieval period.
Matthew Hargreaves (Wed,) studied this question.