Archaeological Watching Brief. Digging for history
An archaeological watching brief at Chymder Farm was prompted by the presence of cropmark features identified from aerial photographs in both fields associated with the development. The cropmarks indicated the presence of what appeared to be two prehistoric/Romano-British settlement enclosures and an associated field system.
A single Iron Age/Romano British pottery sherd was found on the site of a round in 1975 which lies only 0.5km to the north-east of Chymder.
We spent the whole day with a toothless bucket cafefully digging the top soil for all the service trenches with our friendly archaeologict Jo, who was on the lookout for any sherds of pottery or bones that would date the site. Although the colour and texture changes in the soil matched exactly with the settlement locations on the map, nothing of any significance was found. Mixed feelings all round, it would have been nice to have unearthed a valuable piece of history, but if we had it may have delayed our digging schedule!
