EDO5086 - Land adjacent to the former Fosters School, Tinneys Lane, Sherborne; evaluation trench 7

AC Archaeology conducted an archaeological desk based assessment and evaluation during 1995 of land adjacent to the former Foster’s School, Tinney’s Lane, Sherborne, in advance of proposed development. The work comprised the examination of existing archaeological, cartographic and documentary sources, geophysical survey and the excavation of 10 trenches with a total length of 568m and 1.6m wide. The trenches were located according to the results of the geophysical survey. Evidence for extensive ridge and furrow was revealed, representing part of the Newland medieval open fields. Evidence for former field boundaries, probably of post-medieval date, was also revealed. A number of other geophysical anomalies were shown by subsequent excavation to be features and layers dating from the Neolithic period with some containing Peterborough Ware. Several pits were shown to be Bronze Age in date and possibly funerary in nature as suggested by the presence of cremated bone. This evidence suggests the presence of a significant Neolithic settlement. Trench 7 measured 28m x 1.60m and was oriented approximately E-W. 0.25m of topsoil overlay 0.2m of dark brown silty clay subsoil. This overlay an orange brown silty clay which was also c. 0.2m thick and cut by a possible Romano-British pit towards the W end of the trench. This lay on top of peri-glacial clay or oolitic limestone bedrock. Trenches 5 and 7 intersected eachother and both contained evidence of an occupation layer [28]. These trenches also produced extensive evidence for both Neolithic and middle Bronze Age activity over a large part of the east central area of the site. Several pit-like features were examined and shown to be of middle Bronze Age date, with a possible funerary function revealed by the presence of cremated bone in several contexts. The majority of these features were located adjacent to and cutting into earlier, Neolithic deposits within Trenches 5 and 7. it is probable that they represent part of a dispersed cemetery or urnfield (1).