EDO4246 - Fordington Farm Evaluation Trench F

The Duchy of Cornwall commissioned Wessex Archaeology to conduct an archaeological evaluation of land to the south and west of Fordington Farm , prior to the sale of the land for development. The work took place between May and October 1986. The area of a proposed new sports field was subject to geophysical survey, earthwork survey, testpitting and evaluation excavation. The remains of a Bronze Age round barrow of three identified phases was identified together with a number of possible Roman features and medieval field earthworks. Trench F was located in the SE corner of the field west of Fordington Farm to investigate a linear magnetic anomaly. Later a 1m wide extension to the north end was cut by hand to look for a suspected second feature. The magnetic anomlay was demonstrated to have resulted from a ditch and the northern extension of the trench revealed a second parallel ditch. These two ditches have been taken to be contemporary and relate to the Romano-British droveway system described in the Alington Avenue excavations. Although no finds were recovered from the ditch fills in this trench a coin of Constantine was recovered from the continuation of the droveway seen in Trench G. The Droveway also continued into Trench W.