EDO7794 - Longham Reservoir, Ferndown Town; excavation 1995

Archaeological investigation of three areas recognised from earlier magnetic susceptibility survey: 1. A possibly prehistoric ring feature requiring work to obtain more information about its extent, nature and date NGR: SZ 0611 9786 2. A surviving ploughing headland requiring work to establish the presence/absence of an underlying soil horizon. The significance of this horizon was to be assessed. NGR: SZ 0635 9805. 3. A pattern of magnetic susceptibility readings indicative of strip fields requiring work to investigate the physical evidence for the existence of ridge and furrows. NGR: SZ 064 977. Items 2 + 3 were completed in September and the subject of a first interim report. No feature discovered during test-pitting or trial-trenching could be dated and the function of most could not be established. The Prehistoric Ring feature no longer exists as a cut feature in the ground. Artefact sampling has not provided enough information to postulate a date for the Ring Feature or to establish a pattern which might suggest that the Ring Feature has been ploughed out. No coherent concentration of finds was detected to indicate the possible presence of other features which may have been associated with the Ring Feature. The paucity of finds from the test pits did not warrant statistical analysis as there were not enough pre Post Medieval items.