Archaeology and the Landscape in the Lower Blackwater Valley

With contributions by R. Ball, O. Bedwin, N. Brown, B. Dickinson, J. Hillam, R. Holgate, K. Horsley, R. M. J. Isserlin, H. Major, Q. Mould, P. Murphy, J. Shepherd, S. Tyler, H. Walker, C. Wallace, P. Wiltshire and M. Winter. This report presents the results from three excavations in the lower Blackwater valley. The sites were identified as cropmarks on aerial photographs and were excavated in advance of large-scale gravel extraction. All three sites revealed evidence of changing landscape use. The cropmarks belong to an extensive series running along much of the north side of the Blackwater estuary, and results from other sites and recent excavations are included in the discussion which forms the final chapter of the report. The main discoveries at Slough House Farm were a Neolithic enclosure, Iron Age settlement, Saxon timber-lined wells and a Saxon pit containing metalworking debris. At Chigborough Farm, a putative Neolithic building, enclosures and field systems of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age date, and a probable Saxon 'boat-shaped' building were of particular significance. The much smaller site at Howell’s Farm revealed a Bronze Age structure and part of an Iron Age settlement.