SDO12305 - Archaeological Deskbased Assessment of Kings High School, Bournemouth

A site located at Kings High School, Hadow Road, Bournemouth is proposed for development. This report contains results of cartographic, archaeological and documentary research into the site undertaken by L-P: Archaeology on behalf of the Bournemouth and Poole Building Schools for the Future Programme. The site does not contain any Listed Buildings or Scheduled Monuments and does not lie within a Council designated Conservation Area. In the surrounding area there is extensive evidence for activity during the Palaeolithic period with further evidence of multiple barrow group sites in the Bronze Age and a nearby Iron Age settlement. A single findspot is recorded dating to the Roman period with no sites or findspots from the Early Medieval, Medieval and Post Medieval periods. 19th and 20th century Ordnance Survey maps show the site in use as agricultural fields which was also the likely use from the Roman period onwards. The study site remained undeveloped until the mid 20th century when a school was first built. The area of the school buildings is likely to have been heavily disturbed by building foundations, etc., whereas the sports field area will be only be [sic] minimally disturbed by some landscaping. Therefore, any new building which occurs away from the current school buildings will have a greater potential impact on the archaeology in these areas. As the archaeological potential for Paleolithic period has been assessed as high, a mitigation strategy has been suggested by the contractor to include archaelogical monitoring of groundworks to enable an assessment to be made of existing ground disturbance and the presence or not of significant remains. Further consultation with the relevant Local Authorities is needed to determine the full scope of the mitigation strategy.