EDO7917 - Godlingston Hill, Ulwell, Swanage; observations and recording 2022

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Scottish and Southern Electricity Network to observe groundworks associated with the laying of buried electricity cables between NGR 401632, 080614 and 401261, 081562 as part of a landscape improvement programme. After consultation with the National Trust archaeologist, it was decided that a watching brief should be carried out in advance of the mole plough operation to monitor excavation of the launch and exit pits (6-14 September). The excavation of the footprint of a new substation was also monitored (26 September), and pits for an alteration to the route at Ulwell Road (23 November). No archaeological features or deposits were identified, with the exception of a small quantity of 19th-century and modern pottery and glass in the vicinity of the site of a post-medieval cottage at Forked Bottom Down. As a result of the limited scope of the groundworks and depth of excavation required the natural geology was only exposed in two of the excavated pits. However, aside from Trenches 6, 10, 11 and 14 where areas of made ground were revealed all the other trenches were able to establish that beneath the topsoil there was an intact subsoil which overlay a colluvial layer. Therefore, despite no archaeology being revealed within the monitored trenches there remains the potential for archaeology to be present within the wider landscape at a depth extending beyond the scope and depth of these works.