Land at Greetwell Hall Farm, Messingham Quarry, Manton, North Lincolnshire: Archaeological Monitoring of Phase 3

Between the 18th May and 13th June 2016, Oxford Archaeology East carried out archaeological monitoring at Land at Greetwell Hall Farm, Messingham Quarry, Manton, North Lincolnshire (centred on SE 9312 0429). The monitoring was carried out during the ground works associated with sand extraction. This phase of work follows the monitoring of sand extraction undertaken in March 2016 on a strip of land immediately to the west of the current area of investigation which did not reveal any archaeological features or artefacts. Previous archaeological work undertaken by OA East in 2014 for this phase of sand extraction included the excavation of significant iron smelting remains on the plot of land immediately to the west of the current area of investigation. These remains comprised an iron smelting furnace with a plume of discarded waste material and a second slag accumulation nearby solely within the topsoil. The topsoil of the current 420m x 80m sand extraction area was excavated and revealed modern land drains, part of a modern ditched enclosure and fourteen natural tree-boles cutting the natural geology. The fill of the enclosure contained modern pottery sherds. Seven of the natural tree-boles were excavated but did not yield any artefacts. The monitoring of sand extraction at Messingham Quarry has demonstrated that no further archaeological deposits or artefacts of significance are present on this part of the sand extraction site, south of Greetwell Hall Farm, despite the proximity of significant Iron Age smelting remains.