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Summary

Well-preserved organic material was recovered from a deposit of blue estuarine clay including red deer bone, pieces of wood, fruit, nuts, seeds, buds and even anthers containing pollen.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS42NE/139

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ORGANIC DEPOSIT (Mesolithic - 8000 BC to 4001 BC (Between))

Full description

Department of Transport. South West Region, 1984, River Torridge Bridge - Concrete Scheme. Boreholes (Plan - measured). SDV359675.

Creade, H., 1985, Finds (Illustration). SDV359672.

Drawings of finds made by Mr. Fowler in the River Torridge during excavation work for the bridge.

Griffith, F. M., 1985, Salvage Observations at Torridge Bridge (A39 Bideford Bypass). Interim Account (Report - non-specific). SDV338677.

During construction of new road bridge in 1985, a ground stone axe was recovered from spoil from the middle of River Torridge. Subsequently, organic material: bone, hazelnuts, wood and peat, was discovered sealed under clay in the river bed. Material sent to Ancient Monuments Laboratory for study. Quite possibly - apart from the axe - a Mesolithic deposit comparable with Westward Ho!.

Griffith, F. M., 1985, Untitled Source (Worksheet). SDV18869.

Unknown, 1985, Untitled Source (Photograph). SDV18871.

Jones, J., 1989, Bideford, Devon (Report - Scientific). SDV347954.

Organic material was salvaged during the excavation of the caissons for one of the piers for the new bridge over the River Torridge at Bideford. Beneath some 8 metres of sand and silt a deposit of blue estuarine clay was seen to contain large pieces of wood, leaves, bone, shell and hazelnuts. A sample of this organic material was retrieved for examination. In the upper layers of the clay an axe, possibly Neolithic or Early Bronze Age was recovered.
The organic material was very well preserved allowing the identification of fragments of wood, fruit, nuts and seends, buds and bud scales and even anthers containing pollen (detailed in attached list). The range pf species recovered suggests a marsh/fen environment where the soil was waterlogged for much of the year, giving way to deciduous woodland where the water table was lower. This would have comprised oak, elm, and birch with a shrub layer including hazel, hawthorn, sloe and apple/pear with a possible belt of willows, alder and bird cherry closer to the river.
The material can be compared with that recovered from the submerged forest and kitchen midden site at Westward Ho! where roots and trunks of oak trees were discovered in the blue clay overlain by a peat bed, probably dating from the Neolithic, from which seeds were recovered. The species list includes many of those found at Bideford.
Attached photos show a Bird Cherry bud and oak galls.

Pearson, T., 1989, Unknown (Correspondence). SDV2742.

Bone from bideford bridge identified by English Heritage as distal tibia of an adult red deer (cervus elaphus)

Turton, S. D. + Weddell, P. J., 1992, Preliminary Archaeological Assessment, Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements, 3 (Report - Assessment). SDV18873.

Turton, S. D. + Weddell, P. J., 1993, Archaeological Assessment of SWW Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements, 5 (Report - Assessment). SDV4711.

Turton, S. D. + Weddell, P. J., 1993, Archaeological Assessment of SWW Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements, Part 1: Southern Routes, 6 (Report - Assessment). SDV4712.

Turton, S. D., 1994, Archaeological Assessment of DCC Shaldon Bridge Reconstruction Scheme, 4 (Report - Assessment). SDV18872.

Turton, S. D. + Weddell, P. J., 1994, Archaeological Assessment of SWW Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements Part 3: Cornborough STW, 7 (Report - Assessment). SDV18876.

Exeter Archaeology, 2006, Archaeological Assessment of the Appledore Fish Dock, Appledore, Northam, 2 (Report - Assessment). SDV338648.

Torridge District Council, 2009, Bideford Conservation Area Appraisal (Report - non-specific). SDV351295.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV4335 - ANIMAL REMAINS (Unknown date)
• FDV6278 - PLANT MACRO REMAINS (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2201 BC?)

Associated Events

• EDV2143 - Preliminary Archaeological Assessment Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvement
• EDV2144 - Archaeological Assessment of DCC Shaldon Bridge Reconstruction Scheme
• EDV2146 - Archaeological Assessment of SWW Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements
• EDV2147 - Archaeological Assessment of SWW Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements Part 1: Southern Routes
• EDV2148 - Archaeological Assessment of SWW Taw-Torridge Tidal Waters Improvements Part 3: Cornborough STW
• EDV4241 - Appledore Fish Dock, Northam
• EDV5401 - Palaeoenvironmental Sampling at Torridge Bridge, Northam

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