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Cotswold Archaeology
Building 11
Kemble Enterprise Park
Cirencester
GL7 6BQ
UK
Tel: 01285 771022
Fax: 01285 771033
This collection comprises images and GIS data from an archaeological evaluation carried out by Costwold Archaeology of Land at Park Road, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, in September and October 2020. The evaluation was undertaken to accompany a forthcoming planning application for residential and associated development of the site.
A total of 20 trenches were excavated. A single, broken, flint flake of broad prehistoric date was recovered from the subsoil within a trench excavated in the south-eastern part of the site. A single sherd of pottery of broad Roman date was recovered from a partially exposed pit, identified towards the centre of the site. The function of this pit remains unclear, although it may relate to quarrying or extraction activity. Seven further sherds of pottery of broad Romano-British date were recovered from the subsoil within a trench excavated in the north-western part of the site.
Evidence of medieval and/or post-medieval agricultural practice, comprising the ploughed-out remains of ridge and furrow cultivation, was identified in the north-western and south-eastern parts of the site. A small ditch/gully and two postholes, identified cutting the subsoil in trenches excavated in the south-eastern part of the site, may relate to post-medieval/modern agricultural activity. An undated pit and a partially exposed pit/ditch terminal were identified cutting the natural substrate in a trench excavated in the south-central part of the site. The function of these features remains unclear due to the sterile nature of their fills and their isolated nature within the trench. A probable palaeochannel, possibly associated with a former course of the River Avon, was identified in two trenches excavated in the north-western part of the site.