Excavations at Thatcham Northern Distributor Road, Berkshire

In the summer of 1997 the Oxford Archaeological Unit excavated an area of approximately 285 by 18 metres (5130 m2),
within the corridor of the proposed Thatcham Northern Distributor road, located to the west of the town of Thatcham.
This work was carried out on behalf of Berkshire County Council. The Babtie Group Ltd
had undertaken a desk-based assessment and field evaluation of the archaeological potential of the route in the
winter of 1996–7 and the Bartlett-Clark Consultancy had carried out an archaeogeophysical survey.
The excavation largely confirmed the results of the previous fieldwork. The bulk of the features identified were
east-west oriented ditches, containing very few artefacts. Those that contained pottery appeared to have been
filled in during, or after, the 2nd century AD. Three large pits were excavated and the depth of two suggested that
they might have been wells, also of Roman date. Although it has been suggested that the Roman road from Silchester
to Caerleon lay to the north of the modern A4 (Bath Road), no evidence was recovered to support this assertion.