Evaluations: A421 Improvements:M1 Junction 13 to Bedford & Berry Farm Borrow Area:Evaluation Report & Whitbred Borrow Area: Evaluation Report Monograph = The Iron Age and Roman landscape of Marston Vale, Bedfordshire Investigations along the A421 Improvements, M1 Junction 13 to Bedford Oxford Monograph 19

Evaluations
During November 2008 Oxford Archaeology carried out an archaeological field
evaluation on behalf of Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd along the proposed
route of the A421 Improvements: M1 Junction 13 to Bedford, between NGR SP 955
375 and TL 045 465.
The evaluation has identified ten areas of archaeological remains. Six of these
(Trench 48; Trench 54; Trenches 59-61; Trenches 91-2; Trenches 97-100; Trenches
114-120) are interpreted on the basis of the range of features and finds recorded as
being possible settlement sites of late Iron Age or Roman date. Two further areas,
where groups of ditches of uncertain date were recorded, may represent field
boundaries forming part of a contemporary rural landscape. This pattern is
consistent with the general picture established for rural areas of Bedfordshire during
the late Iron Age and Roman period, which consists of small settlements
interspersed with areas of fields.
Only one of these sites, that in Area 7 (Trenches 114-120), has been identified as
continuing in use into the later part of the Roman period. This subsequent decline in
the number of settlements in relation to the late Iron Age/early Roman period may
be attributed to the adoption of a less dispersed settlement pattern, with settlement
becoming focused on villa estates.
During the medieval period settlement became more nucleated, and this is
demonstrated in the case of the current project by the limitation of remains of this
period to a small area east of Lower End Farm, approximately defined by trenches
31, 34, 37 and 38. These remains form part of the deserted medieval village of
Lower End, which extends into the development corridor at this location. The
ubiquitous presence of furrows resulting from ridge and furrow cultivation indicates
that much of the area encompassed by the scheme was farmland during this period.
Berry Farm
In January 2009, Oxford Archaeology undertook an evaluation by trial trenching of
the proposed Berry Farm Borrow Area for Balfour Beatty. The site is centred on
NGR: 500632, 243638.
A total of ten trenches were excavated. The evaluation revealed two separate areas
of archaeology.
The first area was located in the NE corner of the site. It was comprised of pits and
ditches, including a number of very wide linear features, potentially forming the
boundary to a settlement.
The second area of activity was located along the southern perimeter of the site. In
this area the evaluation exposed a series of sub-rectangular enclosures.
The results of the evaluation correspond well with an earlier geophysical survey of
the site.
Finds recovered from both of these areas indicate that the archaeological deposits
date to the late Iron Age-early Romano-British period, suggesting settlement activity
during that period.
Whitbread Barrow
In January 2009, Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook an evaluation by trial
trenching of the proposed Whitbred Borrow Area on behalf of Balfour Beatty Civil
Engineering Ltd. The site is centred on NGR 503955 246210.
A total of nine trenches were excavated. The evaluation revealed the site to have
been truncated by modern activity, possibly related to previous work on the A421.
No archaeological features were observed during the course of the evaluation. The
trenches revealed natural geology overlain by a layer of made ground which was in
turn overlain by topsoil. The presence of a layer of made ground directly overlying
the natural clay indicates that the site has previously been stripped of topsoil which
is likely to have damaged or destroyed any archaeological features which may once
have existed at the site.
Monograph
Between November 2008 and July 2009 Oxford
Archaeology (OA) carried out a programme of
archaeological fieldwork in advance of improvements
to the A421 between Junction 13 of the M1 and
its junction with the A6 on the southern outskirts of
Bedford. Following a programme of field evaluation,
excavations were undertaken at nine locations,
comprising one area of open area excavation complemented
by strip, map and sample excavation and a
further eight areas of strip, map and sample excavation.
Watching briefs were maintained during stripping
of topsoil in advance of surfacing at two
con struction compounds and in advance of carriage -
way widening at Cowbridge Junction, as well as
during the stripping of topsoil and subsoil at a
borrow pit. Earthwork surveys were carried out at
three locations in order to create a record of historic
earthworks that would be unavoidably destroyed by
the Improvements. Geophysical survey and field
evaluation were also carried out at the site of a
proposed borrow pit that was ultimately not
required and so was not taken to full excavation.
The remains uncovered by this project were
almost exclusively Iron Age and Roman in date.
They shared similar geological and topographical
settings within Marston Vale, and so formed a particularly
coherent group, providing an opportunity to
study the exploitation and evolution of the local
landscape during this period. The area appears to
have been little used before the middle Iron Age,
earlier evidence comprising a sparse distribution of
worked flint, among which a small but distinct late
Mesolithic/early Neolithic element was identified,
and a single cremation burial dated by radiocarbon
to the early Iron Age. Colonisation during the middle
Iron Age was represented by two open settlements
and an enclosed settlement defined by multiple ditch
circuits. The subsequent history of settlement in the
Vale was punctuated by two major episodes of settlement
dislocation. The first of these occurred during
the later Iron Age, when the settlements that had
been established during the middle Iron Age were
abandoned and replaced at new locations by four
settlements composed of complexes of conjoined
enclosures. The late Iron Age settlements all
continued to be occupied into the Roman period,
apparently unaffected by the conquest, until they
were in turn abandoned during the late 1st-early 2nd
century and two new farm complexes were established.
The latter dislocation may have been associated
with a wider reorganisation of the landscape
during which ownership was consolidated in a
smaller number of hands. The level of activity at both
sites declined during the late Roman period and they
were abandoned during the early part of the 4th
century. Throughout the late Iron Age and Roman
period the settlements were all modest rural
farmsteads. No evidence for more nucleated or
higher status settlement forms was found. The only
evidence for activity during the Anglo-Saxon period
was a single spur dating from the 10th-11th century.
The medieval settlement pattern was consolidated
around the historic villages that are scattered around
the Vale, many of which are still inhabited, leaving
the route of the A421 Improvements as agricultural
land, as was demonstrated by the ubiquitous
evidence for ridge and furrow cultivation that was
recorded during the investigations