An archaeological evaluation was undertaken at Manor Farm, Twigworth, Gloucestershire (NGR SO 84911 22857). It was commissioned by Mac Mic Strategic Land Ltd (the Client) and managed by Environmental Dimension Partnership Ltd (the Consultant), in advance of a proposed housing development planning application being submitted to Tewkesbury Borough Council. The Site, comprising three fields, is located north of Twigworth village, Gloucestershire, approximately 4.4km northeast of the centre of Gloucester city. The Site is located close to several Romano-British sites, including a road, a settlement, a mixed-rite cemetery, field systems, and a potential villa, and it was expected that archaeological remains of a similar date would extend into the evaluation area. However, a geophysical survey across the Site identified only weak linear anomalies, furrows, and modern field boundaries. Twenty trenches were excavated across the three fields, and the most significant feature was a single circular pit of later Bronze Age or earlier Iron Age date. This contained a small assemblage of pottery, flint debitage, burnt animal bone, charred grass grains, and charcoal fragments, indicative of settlement waste. No other contemporary features or unstratified finds were found in any of the surrounding trenches, suggesting that the feature may be isolated or form part of a dispersed, unenclosed settlement. However, due to the lack of contemporary features or unstratified finds, it is possible that this activity is not focused within the Site but in the surrounding area. Several north to south aligned furrows were identified as predicted in the geophysical survey, and suggest that the Site formed part of the agricultural landscape of medieval Twigworth. The postmedieval field boundaries identified on historic mapping reflect the enclosure of the medieval open field system. Their subsequent removal facilitated the enlargement of fields in the modern, industrial agricultural age. Overall, the evaluation results demonstrate that the Site does not contain significant or extensive archaeological remains, and there is no evidence to suggest that the nearby Roman settlements or field systems extend into the proposed development area. Of the archaeology identified in the evaluation, the furrows and field boundary ditches are considered of negligible significance, all being products of medieval, post-medieval and modern agriculture. The small, later Bronze Age pit is of more interest, however, as it appears isolated, it is unlikely to be of any more than local significance. The methods adopted provide a high degree of confidence that the project's aims have been achieved. It is considered that the nature, density and distribution of archaeological features provide an accurate characterisation of the development site as a whole.
Wilkins et al. (Thu,) studied this question.