HER 4616 DESCRIPTION:- Aerial Photographic evidence - Incomplete oval earthwork visible on RAF aerial photograps. West side is ill-defined with possible entrance on the south. Possible slight bank or scarp. Tree ring? {Source Work 863 & S. Brown pers. comm.} R. Newman suggests may be moated medieval lodge although no well defined ditch is visible - needs field visit. {Source Work 172.} Vallets Enclosure (SO59951354) a small earthwork probably of prehistoric date was surveyed and written up. {Source Work 2166.} An undated earthwork consisting of a bank and ditch forming an irregular ovoid with two breaks in the bank, one of which may be an entrance. An earthwork of irregular ovoid shape, with ditch and banks, situated on a small elongated plateau, surrounded on three sides by a stream. The maximum height difference between the bank top and ditch bottom is c.1m. The long axis of the earthwork is 65m long and width is c.50m at maximum. The earthwork was surveyed in 1981 and found to have two breaks in the structre, one on the western end and a smaller one on the southern side. (This latter break may be a later feature). It is suggested (by C. Hart?) that the earthwork may be a small settlement or an ancient stockade. A prehistoric date is thought likely but a medieval origin is also possible. The earthwork is situated within a crop of oak trees, although whether these surmount the structure itself is unclear. {Source Work 785.} Photos and text of the survey of the enclosure have been deposited at the dean Hreitage Museum under accession number 1989.78.1=5. Metal-detecting survey of the topsoil of the interior and ditch of this earthwork was undertaken prior to possible investigatory excavation. The raised platform at the south-east end of the enclosure registered several apparently large pockets of bloomery slag at a depth of 10 cm. {Source Work 3874.} Grid reference refers to an approximate location of this enclosure. Exact location is unknown at present (G. Tait pers. comm. 17/12/2002) 2003 - This area was mapped at 1:10,000 scale as part of the English Heritage: Gloucestershire NMP project. The enclosure is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs. It is centred at SO 5995 1353 and is defined by a single ditch which measures 6m wide and which encloses an area measuring 54m by 38m. Banks flank the exterior of the ditch to the north and south. The enclosure is orientated east / west and has two breaks or possible entrances on the western and south-western sides. The enclosure is of a similar size and shape to an earthwork enclosure in Lords Wood in Herefordshire (south-west of Symonds Yat) which has been dated by excavation to the Roman period, and the two enclosures could be contemporary settlements. {Source Works 4249, 7549 and 6880.} |