Monument record BSD 037 - Roman features and Early Saxon Pit, Medieval and Post Medieval Ditches on Anglian Water Belstead Sewerage Scheme, Belstead

The ‘Pumping Station site’ constituted the main archaeological excavation area with a small archaeological excavation area in the ‘Drill Trench’ and three Test Pit (TP) ‘Drill Pits’ subject to archaeological monitoring. Archaeological features were only encountered at the Pumping Station and Drill Trench and they have been dated to the Roman, Early Anglo-Saxon, medieval, and post-medieval periods. The features were largely of a ‘rural’ nature, chiefly comprising field ditches. The Roman features were confined to one large, shallow pit or hollow, two smaller pits, a gully and a surface or midden deposit containing relatively large quantities of early Roman (1st to 2nd Century AD) pottery with some residual Late Iron Age pottery. This dumped material suggests nearby domestic occupation. The presence of a small quantity of early Anglo-Saxon pottery and a single pit are significant for the area. A series of medieval to post-medieval ditches cut across the Roman dumps and layers with large parts of the Roman finds assemblage being recovered as residual material (S1).