Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 95 (2002), pp. 240-8 



Excavation of Saxon pits at Tidworth, 1999 



by David Godden, Sheila Hamilton-Dyer, Moira Laidlaw and 

 Lorraine Mepham 



Evaluation followed by excavation in advance of housing redevelopment at Tidworth in 1 999 revealed pits 

 of early and middle Saxon date containing pottery, animal bone, a dog skeleton, worked stone, bone and 

 other artefacts. Although no structure was discovered the pits contained material of domestic origin, and 

 provide evidence for a Saxon farmstead or other settlement nearby. 



INTRODUCTION 



A proposal to redevelop parts of the Matthew 

 Housing Estate at Tidworth led to an archaeological 

 evaluation (Wessex Archaeology 1999). This was 

 followed by targeted excavation of five housing 

 blocks and their gardens, undertaken by Wessex 

 Archaeology in autumn 1 999. Although no previous 

 finds had been made of archaeological material in 

 the 16.24 ha area of the existing estate, Tidworth 

 lies within the archaeologically-rich landscape of 

 Salisbury Plain and the possibility was recognised 

 of uncovering significant remains. 



The site (centred on SU 240 490) is situated in 

 the east ofTidworth (Figure 1) on a generally gentle 

 west-facing slope falling from approximately 1 50m 

 aOD down to the edge of the floodplain of the River 

 Bourne at approximately 110m aOD. The 

 underlying solid geology is Upper Chalk. The 

 evaluation trenches showed evidence of colluviation 

 into the valley bottom and many parts of the estate 

 have been heavily landscaped in the past, resulting 

 in some areas presenting the potential for buried 

 archaeological material and other areas where chalk 

 lies directly below the modern turf/topsoil. 



The evaluation comprised 20 machine trenches 

 and 31 hand-dug test-pits and identified a small 

 number of features including two pits, one 

 containing an articulated dog tail and the other 

 sealed below colluvium, and a few undated, but 



possibly modern, stakeholes. Small quantities of 

 Middle and Late Bronze Age, Roman and post- 

 Roman pottery, ceramic building material, animal 

 bone and worked flint were recovered. A buried soil 

 was identified. It produced three sherds of organic- 

 tempered early/middle Saxon pottery and sealed 

 the pit containing the dog remains. 



Two areas of archaeological potential were 

 recognised and targeted for excavation. Area 1 

 comprised three housing blocks (Figure 1, Blocks 

 1-3) in the area containing the Saxon pottery and 

 pit; and Area 2 comprised two housing blocks 

 (Figure 1, Blocks 4 and 5) in the area where the 

 second pit occurred and six sherds of a Middle 

 Bronze Age Globular Urn had been recovered. The 

 housing blocks were demolished to ground level 

 before the start of the excavation leaving the 

 concrete ground slabs and drains in situ. These were 

 removed by machine as was the modern topsoil in 

 the gardens down to the level where archaeological 

 features showed. The area was then cleaned by 

 hand, discrete features were half-sectioned and 

 representative sections were excavated through 

 linear features such as ditches. 



AREA 1 



An irregular linear feature (212) aligned roughly 

 north to south at the eastern end of Block 2 in Area 



Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury, SP4 6EB 



