Salisbury Gateway Southampton Road Salisbury Wiltshire

An evaluation consisting of 21 thirty metre trenches was carried out at the site
between the 15th and the 24th of July 2013. Nineteen of the trenches were targeted
on the area of proposed development, and two on the area south and south-west of
this, where additional ponds are to be dug within a Sustainable Wetlands Area.
The evaluation established that the north-eastern part of the evaluated area was
higher and drier, the natural gravel dropping off to the south and south-west.
Alluvium was found overlying the gravel along the north and south edges of the
area, that on the north perhaps indicating a former channel just beyond the limits of
the evaluated area. Most of the higher area had also been covered by recent
dumping, raising the ground level by over 1m in places.
The only evidence of prehistoric activity found was a single flint flake or blade,
probably of Mesolithic or early Neolithic date, suggesting only very occasional, lowlevel
background activity on the site. An inhumation burial of a child of 6-10 years
contained one iron nail, but no other dating evidence. The nail suggests a Romano-
British or early medieval date for the burial, which was cut by a ditch of postmedieval
date. The burial appeared to be isolated, although not all of the area
surrounding the grave was stripped. The lack of grave goods suggests an individual
of low status, and there were no other features or finds of either period found.
Ditches of post-medieval (17th century or later ) date and on a variety of alignments
were found in seven trenches, and undated ditches in a further four trenches. Some
of these ditches can be matched to those shown on the First Edition Ordnance
Survey map of 1881, many of which were still in existence in 1939. The remains of a
water channel constructed of chalk and timber, and with what appeared to be a
second channel running off to the south, was found in Trench 12 towards the south
edge of the evaluated area. This is interpreted as a head main or top channel of the
water meadows, with a side main and sluice. A sluice is marked in this location o the
1st Edition Ordnance Survey 25'' map of 1991. The timbers were relatively wellpreserved,
but the structure had been robbed out in the later 20th century.
The trenches in the proposed Sustainable Wetlands Area did not contain
archaeological features. A deeper sequence of two peat deposits was encountered
in Trench 20, perhaps indicating the location of a former pond, but no finds were
recovered from this peat sequence