SDO19856 - Land at Church Road, Bradford Abbas, Dorset: Results of an Archaeological Trench Excavation

An archaeological evaluation, consisting of three machine-excavated trenches, was undertaken by AC archaeology Ltd on land at Church Road, Bradford Abbas, Dorset (NGR: ST 58802 14246), during March 2017. The work was undertaken as part of a programme of archaeological works required in support of a planning application. Three trenches, their positions determined on site to avoid chicken pens and a vegetable plot, totalled 47m in length, each 1m wide. Two of the trenches were positioned within areas shown to contain buildings on the 1838 Tithe Map. Both of these trenches revealed evidence for probable truncation and levelling, after the above these buildings had gone out of use in the late 19th century. The majority of archaeological activity was encountered in Trench 2, where three phases of activity were revealed, including evidence indicating at least one post-built structure of post-medieval origin and one of possible medieval date. The earliest phase of activity in this trench was a linear feature of Late Bronze Age date (1000 – 700BC), possibly representing part of a former boundary ditch. Trench 3 also revealed deposits of 18th / 19th century origin, comprising two refuse pits, along with evidence for part of a possible post-built structure of uncertain date. No evidence for archaeological deposits was revealed in Trench 1, with only two modern pipe trenches encountered. No indication for any other structural evidence was revealed in the trenches. A quantity of artefacts, predominately of post-medieval date was recovered from the evaluation.