EDO4924 - Knapp Mill Avenue, Christchurch; evaluation 1992

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Savills, acting for West Hampshire Water Company, to undertake a desk-top study and archaeological evaluation of land at Knapp Mill Avenue, Christchurch, Dorset, during March-April 1992. The evaluation area was located adjacent to the known site of a Bronze Age burial mound and extensive prehistoric flint assemblages of Mesolithic and Neolithic date at Latch Farm, on the gravels of the flood plain of the River Avon. A series of test pits and machine dug trenches produced only a handful of artefacts and no archaeological features. 40 test pits were dug by hand in order to study artefact distribution. Each pit measured 0.5m square and were located on a 20m grid. The contents of approximately half were seived through a 10mm mesh to check artefact retreival. No archaeological features were identified and only a handful of artefacts, of prehistoric-modern date, was recovered from the test pits. The results suggest that the Bronze Age urnfield was restricted to the immediate vicinity of the round barrow.(1) Site code: W498/35161. Acc. No. 1992.16 Funded by West Hampshire Water Company. Directed by J Gardiner and P Harding