ENN109416 - DIRFT III, 2017 (Trial trench)

{1} Five hand-dug test pits and twenty-one machine-excavated trenches of varying dimensions were excavated across the northern half of the site. The trenches were targeted on remnant ridge and furrow and other earthwork features shown on a LiDAR survey of the site, with the aim of investigating the development of the medieval agricultural landscape from its inception to its eventual conversion to pasture in the later medieval and post-medieval periods. A buried soil was identified which possibly dates to the first millennium AD. Investigation of the medieval ridge and furrow earthworks identified some changes to its organisation during its period of active use, but dating these changes was constrained by the lack of dateable artefactual material and the homogeneity of the subsoil that formed the earthwork features.