Hallsteads, Dove Holes, Buxton, Archaeological Test Pit Evaluation

Oxford Archaeology North were commissioned by CgMs Ltd, acting on behalf of Mr Robert Critchlow, to undertake a test pit evaluation of approximately 3.2ha of land to the north-east of Dove Holes, Buxton. The work was requested by Steve Baker (Development Control Archaeologist for High Peak Borough Council), in response to an outline planning application (HPK/2012/0542) to develop the site for new housing. It is intended that the results of this exercise will inform the scope of further investigation and mitigation works, to be secured by an appropriately worded planning condition.
The principal objective of the test pit survey was to determine the presence or absence of features or lithic artefacts at the site, given the close proximity of the Bull Ring Henge Scheduled Monument (SM 305997), which lies several hundred metres to the south. The fieldwork was completed between the 15th and the 19th of July 2013 and comprised the excavation of 277 hand-excavated shovel test pits, which were sieved on site for the retrieval of lithic artefacts. Naturally-occurring, angular, shattered chert was almost ubiquitous. Struck lithic artefacts (usually made from local chert or an agate-type material) were recovered, in low frequencies, from 118 of the 277 test pits, distributed widely over the development area. Some of the test pits, predominantly those located in the west and south-west of the area, contained slightly higher-frequencies of worked material than was generally present, which may suggest more intensive activity is focussed in this part of the site. Three pits, in close proximity to each other in the southern part of the site, each contained a struck piece of, what is possibly, Aran pitchstone. Occasional pieces of worked flint, a material that is not native to the local geology, were also recovered from several of the test pits.