SWX8629 - Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education and Field Studies Centre: Results of a Watching Brief on the Car Park

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned to undertake a watching brief on land at Hengistbury Head in advance of a proposed education centre development on behalf of Bournemouth Borough Council (NGR SZ 4163 0911). The work followed completion of a geophyiscal survey and an archaeological evaluation of the land occupied by the adjacent pitch and putt golf course. The work had demonstrated the survival of nationally important archaeological material and a new proposal was prepared for siting the Centre within the bounds of the existing carpark facilities. The results of the geophyiscal survey were inconclusive owing to the service trenches and disturbances and it seemed probable that construction of the carpark had involved the levelling of the ground service and removal of any archaeological features. The watching brief involved the observation of ten-machine excavated trenches through the existing tarmac and demonstrated the paucity of archaeological remains surviving within the limits of the car park. Trenches 1 to 5, in the western side of the site indicated that almost all deposits of archaeological potential had already been severely truncated or wholly removed, almost certainly as a consequence of the construction and landscaping of the present car park. Although the ground below the eastern side of the car park had also been significantly disturbed, variations in the local topography had allowed the accumulation of significant deposits of windblown sand and ploughsoil. These deposits protected the eastern side of the site form a degree of truncation observed in Trenches 1-5. In the particular, deposits of ploughsoil were observed overlying the natural gravel within Trenches 8 and 10. A single possible feature was recorded in Trench 7.