SWX8490 - An Archaeological Field Evaluation of a Proposed New Lagoon System Near West Creech Farm, Steeple Parish, Dorset.

Report on the evaluation on the site of a proposed new lagoon on a site located on a slight ridge sloping moderately to the north. A prominent curvilinear bank and shallow ditch crosses the field from the west and curving round to the south. It does not appear to extend into adjacent fields. The evaluation consisted of the excavation of six trenches (169m in length in total) one across the earthwork bank. Limited evidence of archaeological activity was revealed. A series of ditches was recorded in the centre of the site, interpreted as boundary ditches. These were sampled by hand excavation and the fillings of some contained pottery of Romano-British date. The trench across the earthwork showed it to be man made and to seal a buried soil horizon of probable Iron Age date, showing that the bank was constructed during or after the Iron Age. The archaeologists on site considered the most likely date for construction to be medieval, and that the bank was not a boundary to a former settlement, but built to provide a barrier between the low-lying, waterlogged land on one side and the more usable farmland to the south and west.