Prehistoric Landscape at Stowe Farm, West Deeping, Lincolnshire, Phase 3C

Archaeological excavations at Stowe Farm, West Deeping, Lincolnshire in May 2000 were undertaken by the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council (AFU) on behalf of Lafarge Redland Aggregates Ltd. The site is located at TF 100 111 and consists of a 17.5 ha extraction area where the gravel is systematically excavated and the land restored to agricultural use. This document reports on the excavations undertaken in advance of Phase 3C gravel extraction and completes archaeological field investigations which began in 1994. Phase 3C (TF 1000 1094) was located immediately to the south east of 3B and consists of an area of 1.2 ha.
The AFU was commissioned to undertake an enhanced recording brief within the area of Phase 3C. Archaeological work consisted of a pre-excavation site survey on the basis of which groups of archaeological features were prioritised for excavation.
The 2000 excavations showed a pattern if activity similar to that seen since 1994. Five groups of features were identified which included a late Bronze Age or early Iron Age enclosure with associated trackway linking into the late Iron Age settlement located to the north, plus evidence of smithying.
Excavations undertaken within the extraction area since 1994 seem to suggest a model of a generally open Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age landscape with a major north-south landscape division and a scatter of buildings and farmsteads related to agricultural activity. The major north-south boundary may have divided the landscape for agricultural purposes and possibly controlled livestock access through to 'community stockyards' of the type identified within Fengate, Peterborough. The spatial and environmental evidence indicative of dispersed activity areas in which the small amounts of charred grain and animal bone suggest very low intensity agricultural practises. A number of ritual sites including ring ditches have also been identified. This shows that several of the major components of a typical Bronze Age landscape have been identified within the extraction area.
During the later Iron Age the landscape shows greater structure and organisation with pit- and post-defined enclosures delineating enclosed fields with associated buildings. By the Later Iron Age and early Roman period thee prehistoric ditch systems appear to have become obsolete and during Roman times trackways and boundary ditches were cut across the earlier fields. Following the Roman period narrow ditches were excavated on an alignment which was to be continued within the medieval field system by which time arable cultivation had come to dominate pastoralism. Although field patterns changed at enclosure, arable cultivation continued as the prime land use until quarrying began.