SDO14919 - Land at Bere Down Farm, Bere Regis, Dorset. Heritage Desk-Based Assessment

‘In October 2012 Cotswold Archaeology was commissioned by Camborne Energy Ltd to carry out a Heritage Desk-Based Assessment of land at Bere Down Farm, Bere Regis, Dorset. The objective of the assessment was to identify the nature and extent of the known and potential heritage resource within and in proximity of the proposed development site provide and assess the likely harm of the proposed development on the significances of any affected heritage assets. Two Scheduled Monuments currently lie within, or partially within, the redline site boundary. It is recommended that these are taken outside of the proposed development site boundary, including a ‘buffer’ from proposed PV cells. There is high potential for below-ground archaeological remains within the site. Cropmark evidence suggests the presence of further Bronze Age round barrows within the site, which may be of high archaeological importance. Cropmark evidence also indicates a later prehistoric/Romano-British field system extending within the site. Solar farm developments entail a relatively low impact upon below-ground remains. The total footprint area of the supports for the PV arrays themselves is very small, even taking into account the recommended English Heritage guidance of assessing the impact area as four times that of the pile size, due to the potential effects of vibration (English Heritage 2007). Infrastructure works such as cable trenches and tracks are also required, but again represent a very small proportion of the overall site area. Thus development impacts may actually be limited. Discussions with the archaeological advisor to the local planning authority would enable the scope of any further survey works required prior to determination of the application to be resolved. A staged approach is commonly implemented, comprising an initial detailed magnetometer geophysical survey, the results of which would inform the requirement for, and scope of, trial trench evaluation.'