SWX8453 - New Water Treatment Works, Sutton Poyntz, Dorset. Archaeological Field Evaluation.

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Wessex Water to undertake a programme of archaeological evaluation prior to development of an area of land to the north of the village of Sutton Poyntz, Dorset. the Environment Department of Dorset County Council had requested the investigations in response to a proposed new Water Treatment Works. A broad range of archaeological deposits were recorded, indicating a general sequence of activity across the site. The landscape within the site, however, remains one largely formed by deposition and erosion of colluvial and fluvial material, and the attempts to exploit and divert the water course that springs to the north of the site. The earliest features found during the evaluation comprise inter-cutting stream channels that cut into the natural drift geology. Many of the channels were filled with naturally deposited calcareous gravels containing residual pottery of mid-late Iron Age date (400 BC to AD 43). The unexcavated grave of a large adult male in a crouched position was cut into the side of one of these channels. A rectangular platform to the north-west of the site was identified as being natural in origin having been formed by water erosion. Following a period of hydrological stabilisation, represented by a possible buried soil of mid-late Iron Age date, several drainage features, one of which survives as a low ditch and bank, were imposed upon the landscape. These features may be contemporary with the dam to the north of the site, possibly dating to the 13th - 14th centuries when the Poyntz family occupied the manorial settlement at Sutton Poyntz. A single sherd of 13th century pottery was recovered from a topsoil deposit. The human burial identified during the evaluation will require licensed excavation under Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 prior to development of the site.