SDO15161 - Holworth Booster to Holworth Tank Water Main Replacement, Dorset

‘Context One Archaeological Services (COAS) carried out an Archaeological Watching Brief along a c. 70m length of a water main replacement scheme from Holworth Booster to Holworth Tank, Dorset (centred on NGR SY 76560 84000), on 29 September 2006. The project was commissioned by Wessex Water plc. The route of the pipeline ran adjacent to a prehistoric barrow which forms part of a group of barrows with Scheduled Monument status (SAM no. 278) Scheduled Ancient Monuments are considered nationally important and protected under the terms of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act, 1979 (as amended). The entry for this barrow in the county Historic Environment Record (HER) identifies the monument as a bowl barrow measuring c. 13.5m in diameter and c. 1.5m in height, located along the spine of a spur running in a north-east direction (HER no. 1 086 028). Given the recorded archaeological data for the environs, it was considered that further archaeological features/deposits could be present on the site and that these would be damaged or destroyed by the development. However, as the nature or presence of such features/deposits had not been proven on the basis of currently available information, it was determined that a reasonable archaeological response would be to carry out a watching brief during all ground disturbance associated with the development. … Despite the proximity of a prehistoric bowl barrow (part of SAM no. 278) immediately to the west of the pipeline route, with further significant prehistoric and medieval archaeological events in the general vicinity, monitoring of development excavations revealed no visible archaeological features/deposits and no finds were recovered. However, this should be balanced against the nature of the pipeline scheme which had a limited ground impact.’