Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Report – serie

Excavations at Stoke Road, Bishop's Cleeve in 1997 revealed Romano-British agricultural enclosures, evidence of small-scale ironworking, possible structures and a small burial plQt, dating from the 3rd century AD to the last quarter of the 4th century AD. A small post-built structure, probably a temporary shelter or windbreak, was dated by a single sherd of grass-tempere~ pottery to the Saxon period between the 7th and 9th centuries AD. Medieval remains, dating ftom the 12th to 15th century, comprised a possible stock enclosure, garden plots and the rea~ of toft boundaries running perpendicular to the Stoke Road frontage. A small building, with an ~ntemal cobbled surface and an external stone-lined drain, and several waterlogged pits were r~ealed within one toft. The absence ofbiological remains from other medieval rural sites in Gloucestershire to date makes those from the waterlogged pits of particular note. Evidence of small-scale ironworking from the medieval period was also recovered.

Excavations in advance of the construction of the Gloucester Business Park Link Road, Hucclecote, in 1998 revealed alluvium deposited by the Horsbere Brook, in places up to 2m deep. Radiocarbon dating demonstrates that the alluvium had been deposited by the 12th century BC. Three or four Middle Bronze Age cremation burials were probably part of a flat cemetery, the site subsequently occupied by a Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age settlement which contained in excess of four post-built roundhouses. In the 1st century AD a settlement that contained a number of probable mass-walled roundhouses was constructed. It was extensively reorganised in the early 2nd century when a series of ditched enclosures were linked to Ermin Street by a 320m-long trackway. A small cemetery of 12 inhumations is noteworthy as it demonstrates that the Late Iron Age tradition of burial by crouched inhumation persisted into the 2nd century AD. Several of the burials were accompanied by grave goods, and one of the males suffered from a very rare form of dwarfism to his forearms, a condition that would have been obvious to his contemporaries. The settlement continued in use until the late 3rd or early 4th century, although the trackway ditches continued to accumulate material into the later 4th century. The trackway and enclosures appear to have survived as visible earthworks into the medieval period as their orientation influenced the alignment of medieval field systems.