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Summary

Sites could originally be seen as cropmarks, with some features being investigated and excavated in the 1990s. Large Iron Age settlement site. Area now largely destroyed from gravel extraction.

Monument Type(s):

• ENCLOSURE (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• PIT ALIGNMENT (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• TRACKWAY (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• EDR1678 - Archaeological implication assessment, Swarkestone Gravel Pit, by TPAT, in 1992
• EDR4054 - Excavation, Fleak Close, Barrow Upon Trent, by TPAU, in 1998
• EDR4055 - Excavation, Captain's Pingle, Barrow Upon Trent, by TPAU, in 1999

Full Description

The following cropmarks are visible on air photographs: three sides of a double-ditched enclosure (SK 342278), a pit alignment 200m running north-south (SK 343278), linear features (SK 346279), part of an enclosure group, a pit alignment and a double-ditched droveway. (1-3)

Nothing is visible on Ordnance Survey air photographs. (4)

Cropmarks plotted on map overlay at a scale of 1:10,000. (5)

In an assessment of the existing information, it is stated that the enclosure is probably Iron Age due to the recovery of Iron Age pottery. A resistivity survey had previously been carried out which located a ditch where a clear cropmark was visible. An anomaly to the north of the enclosure, a series of parallel lines, was also recorded. Subsequent trial trenching revealed a small pit with charcoal at the base and the ditch. A narrow gulley was excavated immediately to the east of the ditch. The southern half of an outer, shallower ditch was found, this was possibly a continuation of the third ditch, visible as a cropmark, on the east side of the enclosure. Several sherds of Iron Age pottery came from the outer and inner ditches. To the east of the site, cropmarks consist of an enclosure group with a trackway. A pit alignment in the south-east part of the enclosure group is probably earlier. Two trenches were excavated and a ditch was revealed, a small pit was also found filled with fire-cracked pebbles. Pottery from the excavation was of late Iron Age date. (6)

Cropmarks were investigated prior to gravel extraction. Features belonging to an early, possibly unenclosed, settlement (round house and pit scatter) were identified as were three later roundhouses. These were dated from pottery to the Middle to Late Iron Age. Later pits and post-holes were also identified. At Captain's Pingle, enclosure cropmarks were also investigated prior to extraction. The base of a clay oven and well preserved hearth-bases were identified, as well as iron-working slag and a fired clay tuyere were also found. These features were dated to the Middle to Late Iron Age. A large collection of pottery and other artefacts were recovered from a Romano-British or Medieval plough soil. (7)

<1> Trent Valley Archaeological Research Committee (TVARC), 1980, Trent Valley Archaeological Research Committee Gazetteer: 8 (Index). SDR15795.

<2> National Monuments Record (English Heritage), 1972, National Monuments Record aerial photographs: SK 3427/1 2 4, Pickering slides 344-346 (Aerial Photograph). SDR1429.

<3> National Monuments Record (English Heritage), 1972, National Monuments Record aerial photographs: SK 3427/1 2, Pickering slides 343 324 (Aerial Photograph). SDR1430.

<4> Ordnance Survey (OS), 1967, Ordnance Survey aerial photographs: OS 67/014 027 to 028 1.4.67 (Aerial Photograph). SDR1458.

<5> Whiteley, S, 1989, Aerial Photographic Transcripton Project (Archive). SDR1127.

<6> Kinsley, G (TPAT), 1992, Swarkestone Gravel Pit Extension, Report on Archaeological Implications for Steetley Quarry Products Ltd, HER Doc. No. 41 (Unpublished document). SDR19001.

<7> Guilbert, G (TPAU), 2001, 'Some Fieldwork in Derbyshire by Trent & Peak Archaeological Unit in 1998-99', Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (Article in serial). SDR21258.

Sources and Further Reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.