SDO14630 - Woodsford Farm, Woodsford, Dorset. Field 3 (Quarry Operations Phase A and Balancing Pond). An Interim Report.

‘This report documents the interim results of an excavation carried out of c.3ha of land at Woodsford Farm Quarry (SY 757 896) (Fig 1). The Woodsford Farm quarry is eventually to cover c.160ha and the extraction is to take place over several years. This current phase of fieldwork was undertaken on arable farmland. The underlying geology is Quaternary fourth gravel terrace, with areas of head, clay-with-flints and Eocene sand (BGS 2000). The site is lies approximately at 47m above Ordnance Datum (AOD) . Planning permission (1/E/2005/0742) has been gained from Dorset County Council to extract minerals from this area. The consent has been gained subject to a condition which required a programme of archaeological works to excavate and record archaeological deposits prior to extraction or other damage. The archaeological potential of the whole site has been demonstrated by archaeological evaluation comprising fieldwalking (CA 2005), machine dug trenches (CA 2006) and the western quarter (approximately 40ha) of the site by geophysical surveys (GSB 2007a; 2007b). All of this work has been summarized in a contribution to an Environmental Statement prepared as a part of the planning application. The evaluation revealed extensive areas of occupation and landscape features, some of which were visible in the geophysical survey results. The evaluation highlighted eleven, sometimes extensive, areas of higher archaeological potential representing deposits of early prehistoric through to Roman date. Recent archaeological excavations undertaken as part of the project (Phase 1) on land to the north-west and west (Weale 2010) in the Plant and Lagoon area revealed a complex of land use in later Roman times with an intensity of land management (by the digging of boundary ditches) which was also reorganized on several occasions. Evidence of earlier activity is slight, with a few poorly dated features. Durable struck flint and a few scraps of Bronze Age pottery shows some prehistoric activity, and it is possible that a ring ditch recorded during the fieldwork is a former Bronze Age burial mound, now denuded by later ploughing. This component of the project is to be combined with the results of earlier phases of excavation at the site and any subsequent phases.’