Land at Springfield Farm Ambrosden

An archaeological evaluation was carried out at Springfield Farm, Ambrosden
between 16th and 28th January 2013. The area of proposed development currently
consists of open grassland, and is currently being considered for development for
housing. Following a desk-based assessment of archaeological potential, and
geophysical survey, an archaeological evaluation was carried out prior to the
submission of a planning application. The scope of the evaluation was agreed with
Richard Oram, planning archaeologist for Oxfordshire County Council, and
consisted of 12 trenches varying between 50m and 100m in length, and totalling a
2% sample of the proposed development area. Trenches were laid out to target
anomalies identified by the geophysical survey, and to provide an even coverage of
the development area. The work was carried out over 9 working days in adverse
conditions with a team of 2-7 archaeologists and a 360º mechanical excavator.
The evaluation revealed several ditches in the north-east corner of the site, two of
which included single sherds of Roman pottery. One other Roman sherd was found
in a post-medieval ditch. The paucity of Roman sherds, and the absence of any
other material of this date, indicates that these features were probably field
boundaries remote from settlement.
These ditches were cut by the furrows of medieval or post-medieval ridge-andfurrow
cultivation, which covered the whole of the area evaluated. No finds of
medieval or early post-medieval date were recovered in association to refine this
dating.
Several later post-medieval field boundaries were also uncovered. The bulk of the
geophysical anomalies proved to be either spreads of recent material associated
with the levelling of the site after removal of these field boundaries, or in the case of
the more amorphous anomalies, to have derived from animal activity associated
with a series of pig sties that formerly ran along the edges of the field west of
Springfield Farm.