EDO5838 - Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme Evaluation Trench 75

Cotswold Archaeology undertook an archaeological evaluation of the route of the proposed Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme between July and December 2012. A total of 47 trenches were excavated in Dorset. Trench 75 was located on Keyneston Down to the south east of Buzbury Rings and intersected a rectangular enclosure known from air photos . It measured 30m by 1.8m, with an extension at the southern end. It was positioned to evaluate geophysical anomaly 235. A ditch (75002) which corresponded to geophysical anomaly 235 (and forms part of the northern side of the rectangular enclosure) was excavated at the southern end of the trench. It was oriented NW-SE and had a V-shaped profile measuring about 4m wide and 1.78m deep. The lower chalky fills have been suggested by the excavators to demonstrate the former existence of a bank on the southern side of the ditch. From the drawn section, there is a suggestion of a later fairly shallow flat bottomed recut of this ditch (which is not mentioned by the excavators, who recognised another small narrow ditch or gully (75006) as a recut of the original ditch). Five sherds of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery were recovered from the silting layer at the top of the ditch. At the northern end of the trench was a bell-shaped pit (75008) which produced thirty sherds of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery, charcoal, burnt clay and stone. To the south of pit 75008 two parallel ditches were identified but were not excavated as they were identified to be a pre-existing hedge boundary, the alignments of which were clearly visible as a positive cropmark running across the existing field. [1] [2] The record for this event has been created with support from Wessex Water.