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Another brick in the wall at Mickleover

Base of timber showing axe cuts

Were the Swarkestone timber posts an Iron Age boundary?

The timber post alignment found in the River Trent at Swarkestone has interesting parallels, reports KRIS KRAWIEC KRIS KRAWIEC describes the finding and saving of a prehistoric burial mound at Willington

During the monitoring of soil removal in May 2021 at the Tarmac sand and gravel quarry at Swarkestone, York Archaeology recorded the remains of an 80m long timber post alignment. The work was prompted by Derbyshire County Council’s archaeological team.

An excavation was carried out and a total of 105 upright oak posts were recorded in a broadly north-west to south-east alignment. The posts traversed a sand bar and palaeochannel that form part of the wider Trent floodplain and continue beyond the current limit of extraction.

A single sample was submitted for rangefinder radiocarbon dating which returned an Iron Age date (c.789 to 544 BC). A subset of 35 of the timbers were also submitted for dendrochronological dating which unfortunately did not cross-match with the regional dating curve. However, three groups of timbers did cross-match within the timber group assessed which indicates possibly three phases of felling for the construction of the alignment. In addition it seems clear that some of the timbers were cut in half and used in different parts of the alignment.

A curious feature of the Swarkestone timbers is each post had been trimmed to a flat base and inserted into a posthole cut into the sand bar. Such alignments dating to the Iron Age have been excavated in other regions with the largest being that excavated at Fiskerton in the Witham Valley in Lincolnshire, with other examples excavated in the Waveney Valley in Suffolk, at Beccles, Geldeston and Barsham. The Suffolk examples are considered as monuments, with no superstructure to speak of and no indication of a practical revetment function. The timbers in these instances were too large to suggest a trackway, and the surrounding environment was shown to be seasonally dry, therefore making an elaborate, elevated causeway unnecessary. In the case of Fiskerton, the structure contained both mundane and ceremonial elements, with ground-level pegged walkways as well as votive metalwork deposition.

A recent discovery at Tucklesholme Quarry, Staffordshire recorded a similar alignment of posts, although the preservation of the timbers was more variable due to the context of the site. Here there were two alignments, comprising 49 and 37 posts respectively, which were trimmed to a flat base and inserted into postholes. Only six timbers survived in the first alignment and 17 in the second, with the Iron Age date provided by radiocarbon date determination. This site provides the closest parallel to the Swarkestone timbers.

The Swarkestone alignment represents the remains of a linear monument traversing the complex and dynamic floodplain of the River Trent. It has echoes of the long lines of pits recorded elsewhere in the valley which are considered to represent the boundaries between territories and can extend for hundreds of metres. These features often extend to the floodplain edge and are located in close association with significant landscape features such as river confluence zones.

The structure at Swarkestone represents a rare survival for the region and the upcoming further study should provide valuable insights into the later prehistoric period in the valley. As part of a planning application for a proposed extension at Willington Quarry, York Archaeology were commissioned by JBA Consulting, on behalf of Cemex UK Operations, to undertake a trial trench evaluation. This was done in order to provide further detail to understand the significance of known heritage assets and the potential archaeological resource at the request of Derbyshire County Council’s archaeological team.

A geophysical survey was also carried out which identified a rectangular enclosure, and a previous study carried out by Guilbert and Garton in 2007 identified a possible prehistoric burial mound within the higher gravel terrace area. The mound, known as “Hull Bank”, had not been subject to intrusive investigation and therefore its age and character were not precisely known.

A series of trenches were excavated in order to characterise both the mound and the enclosure. Two trenches were excavated across the mound which provided an open section through the upstanding material and revealed a curvilinear ditch, which was also excavated to determine its age and character. A series of bulk samples and material for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating, which records the last time the sediment was exposed to sunlight, were recovered from the terrace gravels, mound and ditch.

The underlying terrace surface returned dates within the Mesolithic period, indicating the mound material directly overlies a post-Mesolithic land surface; a situation recorded at several other sites recorded in the Trent valley. An OSL sample from within the mound material returned a late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age date (c.4050-1920 cal BC).

This date range is broad but does fall within the period when round barrows were being constructed, typically covering a period from 3000 BC to 1500 BC, with the main period of construction being around 2000-1500 BC.

During the 1970-1972 excavations to the north-east of the site, sections were recorded through two barrow ditches, which discovered the remains of mound material.

In contrast to the Swarkestone Lowes barrows, no features were recorded beneath the mound material at Willington. The lack of human bone recovered from the burials is likely due to the acidity of the soil, and the same would probably apply for the mound at Willington. Indeed, no human remains were recovered during the evaluation.

The enclosure, which was located to the south-west of the mound, has subsequently been subject to open area excavation and is firmly 2nd to 3rd century Roman in date. Environmental samples from the Roman features show evidence for the processing of oat, barley, and wheat crops at the site. The enclosure may have respected the edge of the mound during its use, although subsequent erosion and deflation of the mound material has seen the soil ‘creep’ over a wide area.

This limited investigation into the Hull Bank mound has confirmed the monument is the remnant of a round barrow, one of the few upstanding and unexcavated barrows left within the Trent Valley. This work also represents the first time OSL dating has been carried out for this feature type within the valley, the success of which is of importance given the poor preservation of charred material and bone from such monuments. The work was critical to confirming the identification of the mound as a monument and provided a unique opportunity to investigate the feature using a combination of limited excavation and specialist dating in order to understand its significance. This further understanding has meant the monument and its immediate environs have been preserved in situ and will not be impacted by development.

Hull Bank reveals its secrets

Plan of site showing trench locations and geophysical anomalies

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