Wessex Archaeology has been commissioned by NMC Nomenca, on behalf of Severn Trent Water, to carry out a programme of archaeological strip, map and record along the line of the 5,243m length Stratford Rising Main being constructed between Long Marston and Milcote, Warwickshire. The strip, map and record was the final stage in a programme of archaeological works, which included a desk-based assessment (MOLA 2017) and archaeological evaluation trenching (Trent and Peak 2018). The earliest archaeological features exposed in the excavation included an area of hollows associated with possible prehistoric burnt mounds. Two parallel pit alignments and a cluster of pits provided evidence for Iron Age settlement activity. Several pits and ditches indicated Romano-British agricultural and settlement activity, with the main focus of occupation in the late 2nd century, but with hints of earlier Roman activity in the vicinity. Several eroded furrows represented components of a medieval agricultural landscape. A scattering of postholes is likely to have been associated with the disused 19th-century Midland Railway.
Catherine Douglas (Mon,) studied this question.