SDO14574 - Proposed development on land South of Le Neubourg Way, Gillingham, Dorset. Results of archaeological trial trenching.

‘An archaeological trench evaluation was carried out by AC archaeology Ltd. on land proposed for residential housing south of Le Neubourg Way, Gillingham, Dorset, (Centred on ST 8050 2610) in July 2015. The application area (now under appeal) covers approximately 15 hectares and is located on the southern side of Gillingham, directly northeast of the Brickfields Industrial Estate, off Le Neubourg Way, in Chantry Fields. The evaluation comprised the machine excavation of 10 trenches, each trench being 1.6m wide and 25m in length, totalling 280m of trenching. A geophysical gradiometer survey (Dean, 2015) identified a series of linear anomalies, and the majority of the trenches were positioned to target these. Three of the trenches contained archaeological features worthy of note; the first of these was a probable post-medieval former hedgerow boundary within trench 8, with features suggestive of Late Bronze Age settlement present in trenches 1 and 5. Various postholes were encountered within trench 5, arranged in an arc with a diameter of less than 7m, and were shown to be of Late Bronze Age date, with several outlying pits and postholes of similar date. Other post hole features of Bronze Age date were identified in trench 1, along with a single medieval probable post hole. Various additional trenches were positioned in these areas to ascertain the extent of the archaeological activity.’