Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire An Archaeological Watching Brief For In Touch by Andrew Mundin Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code CFS 08/52 May 2008
Summary Site name: Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire Grid reference: SU 6367 6291 Site activity: Watching Brief Date and duration of project: 6th May 2008 Project manager: Steve Ford Site supervisor: Andrew Mundin Site code: CFS 08/52 Area of site: c. 25 sq m Summary of results: No archaeological features were uncovered, though one piece of Roman pottery was recovered from topsoil disturbance. Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Hampshire Museum Service in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford 14.05.08 Steve Preston 14.05.08 i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 47 49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR Tel. (0118) 926 0552; Fax (0118) 926 0553; email tvas@tvas.co.uk; website : www.tvas.co.uk
Introduction Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire An Archaeological Watching Brief by Andrew Mundin Report 08/52 This report documents the results of an archaeological watching brief carried out at Chitty Farm, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire (SU 6367 6291) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr Neil Canning, of In Touch, North and East Hampshire Home Improvement Agency, Unit 40/41, Hart Centre, Fleet Road, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 3LA, on behalf of the landowner, Mr Charles Kolosowski, of Chitty Farm, Wall Lane, Silchester. The farm is bounded in the Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM 24336) of the Roman remains of Calleva Atrebatum. A watching brief was required by the client on a request from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on the advice of Mr Richard Massey, Inspector of Ancient Momuments for English Heritage, as a condition of the granting of Scheduled Monument consent (HSD9/2/9590 Amendment) for the alteration to the existing farmhouse to occur. Planning permission (BDB/66520) has granted by Basingstoke and Dean Borough Council, with a condition (3) pertaining to the approval of a programme of archaeological works. This is in accordance with the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act (1979), the Department of the Environment s Planning Policy Guidance, Archaeology and Planning (PPG16 1990), and the Borough Council s policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Richard Massey, Inspector of Ancient Monuments for English Heritage, advising the Secretary of State. The fieldwork was undertaken by Andrew Mundin on the 6th May 2008 and the site code is CFS 08/52. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Hampshire Museum Service in due course. Location, topography and geology The site is located on level ground at a approximate height of 96m above Ordnance Datum (OD) and is currently formal garden and domestic use to the west of the farmhouse of Chitty Farm (Fig. 2). The farm itself lies towards the northern edge of the plateau on which the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum stood, and within the northern earthworks of its predecessor Late Iron Age enclosure. The underlying geology is Plateau Gravel (BGS 1946) which was observed throughout the exposed bases of the foundation trenches. 1
Archaeological background The farm lies in the area between the stone walled north gate of the Roman town and the outer earthwork of the late Iron Age site. The projected line of the Roman road to Dorchester on Thames passes close by to the east and the farm may lie in the area of a cemetery, which tend to be located alongside roads just beyond the walls of towns (Boon 1974). Previous works on the eastern side of the farm (Fig. 2), before (S. Ford 1997) and during (A. Ford 1997) the erection of lambing shed, found a quantity of Roman pottery and tile, but the only features were disturbed, or could not be characterized in the limited confines of the pad footings. Other works, associated with the construction a new barn in the central part of the site(fig. 2) found no archaeological features of note (Hammond 2006). Objectives and methodology The purpose of the watching brief was to excavate and record any archaeological deposits affected by the excavation of the footings and any recover any archaeologically relevant material pertaining to the Roman or Iron Age periods from associated topsoil disturbance. The work was to be carried out in such a way that all features identified would be investigated appropriately or identified to preserve their structure, where possible, were preservation in situ was warranted. The specific aims of this project were: To determine if archaeologically relevant material survived within this part of the Scheduled Monument. To determine if archaeology of any period (pre-1750) survived on the site. To establish whether evidence/potential for Iron Age or Roman features or activity survives in this part of the farm. Results All the foundation trenching, and an area stripped of topsoil for a ramp, were observed during one site visit. The footing trenches were 0.6m wide. The general stratigraphy comprised topsoil above subsoila bove gravel. The topsoil, to a depth of 0.29m, was a dark grey brown humic clayey silt with occasional flint inclusions and very occasional 19th-century building material, probably deposited during the construction of the existing farmhouse. The proximity of the farmhouse also explained the presence of many areas of subsurface disturbance in this area from drainage and services. In total 3 main truncations were noted with the footing trenches, which uncovered waste water drainage on the southern footing and metal water pipes in the northern footing. The remaining straigraphy showed some truncation from the services, but where it had not showed a sterile grey clayey silt 2
subsoil above natural gravel at a depth of 0.62m, and then to the base of the footing at a depth of 1m (Fig. 4). At 0.7m the ingress of water obscured the base of the trench, but as natural geology has been encountered at the higher level there was no issue of water obscuring the archaeologically relevant level. No archaeological deposits were revealed. Finds Pottery In total, two sherds of pottery were recovered from the topsoil removal of the footings. One is a fairly abraded body sherd of East Gaulish samian pottery, probably dated to the late 2nd or early 3rd century. The other (tiny) sherd (<2g) is an undiagnostic red ware which could be of Roman or Post-Medieval date. Conclusion Apart from the pottery from the topsoil, no archaeological features or other relevant material was encountered during these groundworks. References BGS, 1946, British Geological Survey, 1:63 360, Sheet 268, Drift Edition, Keyworth Boon, G, 1974, Sichester: The Roman town of Calleva, Newton Abbott Ford, A, 1997, Chitty Farm, Silchester; an archaeological watching brief, Thames Valley Archaeological Services report 97/07b, Reading Ford, S, 1997, Chitty Farm, Silchester, an archaeological evaluation, Thames Valley Archaeological Services report 97/07a, Reading Hammond, S, 2006, Chitty Farm, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire, an archaeological watching brief, Thames Valley Archaeological Services report 06/136, Reading PPG 16, 1990, Archaeology and Planning, Dept of the Environment Planning Policy Guidance 16, HMSO 3
SITE SITE 63000 62000 SU63000 64000 65000 Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire, 2008 An archaeological watching brief Figure 1. Location of site within Silchester and Hampshire. CFS 08/52 Reproduced from Ordnance Survey Pathfinder 1188 SU66/76 at 1:12500 Ordnance Survey Licence 100025880
Previous watching brief 97/07 63000 Previous watching brief 06/136 62900 SITE SU63700 63800 Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire, 2008 Archaeological watching brief Figure 2. Location of site within Chitty Farm, and previous areas of monitoring. CFS 08/52 Reproduced from Ordnance Survey digital mapping under licence. Crown copyright reserved. Scale: 1:1250
Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire, 2008 N 62950 Outer Earthworks observed footings Chitty Farmhouse 62900 water pipes waste water drain ramp topsoil strip only pond Wall Lane Drake Cottage SU63650 63700 0 25m Figure 3. Loaction of areas observed. CFS 08/52
Chitty Farmhouse Extension, Wall Lane, Silchester, Hampshire, 2008 SW NE 95.95mAOD Dk grey brown humic clayey silt (topsoil) Grey clayey silt (subsoil) water table Natural gravel base of trench 0 1m Figure 4. Representative section of footing trench. CFS 08/52