Broome Manor Lane Swindon

An evaluation consisting of five trenches totalling 130 sq. metres, later extended to 145 sq. m, was excavated in October and November 2012. This comprised around
4% of the site. Only a single posthole was found in the southernmost trenches, activity apparently being concentrated in Trenches 1-3 in the northern part of the
site.
The earliest find was a single sherd of late Roman pottery, but the earliest dated features were a pair of shallow ditches of medieval date, dating between the late
12th and early 14th centuries AD. Several other ditches, although not themselves dated, were probably associated. The layout of these features may indicate an
arrangement of enclosures, but the quantity and variety of artefactual material recovered was insufficient to characterise the occupation further.
The next activity on the site was represented by a few finds of 17th or 18th century date-bracket, one possibly dating an accumulation in a hollow.
In Trenches 1-3 a sequence of buildings was found, the latest incarnations of which were two garages still standing until just before the evaluation. The garages had
already been examined for a desk-based assessment, and further photographs were taken during demolition. Both these and the evaluation trenches showed that
the earliest phases were stone-built, the later ones being constructed either of stone with brick facing or entirely of brick. Closely dated finds associated with these
buildings were very few, most of the material being either late 18th-19th century, or 19th-20th century. The overall range of activity can therefore be characterised as
late 19th or early 19th century in origin, continuing through the late 19th and the 20th centuries until the present.
On the basis of this evaluation, an archaeological Watching Brief was requested on the reduction of the access road alongside Trenches 1-3. This was carried out on 6th-7th June 2013. This revealed further brick-faced stone-walled buildings and a single undated ditch. The bricks suggest an early-mid 19th century date for these buildings.
Using the limited artefactual dating evidence in association with the 1st Edition OS map of AD1866, and the First Series Ordnance Surveyor's Sketch of AD1828, it has
been possible to suggest a tentative chronology for the development of the buildings.
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