Watching brief by P Harp of Plateau during the installation of a new water main recovered a small number of Mesolithic or Neolithic flints. Part of the route passed close to Dene Farm (now the Rambler’s Rest public house), where a significant quantity of 13th century pottery was revealed during reinstatement works. Place-name evidence records habitation at Dene Farm as far back as 1301

Excavation and watching brief by D Swift of ASE. Extensive evidence for Middle to Late Iron Age settlement was revealed to the south of the Burstow Stream, including a rare double-ring gully and post-built structure of a possible ritual nature. An apparent hiatus in occupation occurred until re-settlement in the 1st century AD, although field systems elsewhere on the site showed evidence for continuity. A further hiatus in occupation was noted until activity resumed in the late 2nd–early 3rd centuries AD.

Watching brief by S Porteus of ASE during groundworks associated with the construction of a new extension to the north of the building. Four brick tombs of late 18th–19th century date were identified and recorded. A total of seventeen burials were excavated during the course of the work, and these were to be reburied elsewhere in the graveyard. A further nine were revealed but were preserved in situ as they were below the level affected by the extension groundworks. The burials all appear to be post-medieval in date.

A programme of investigation comprising historic building recording and excavation of inhumations by S Watson of PCA, was undertaken after partial demolition of the current vestry, and the subsequent ground reduction of the site prior to the construction of a new enlarged vestry and during associated drainage works. After the demolition of the vestry (presumed to have been constructed in 1823 with later alterations), the lower part of the northern exterior wall of the chancel was exposed.

Soil stripping, mapping and sampling by D King of FA of a site close to the river Mole proposed for a new games area. The work revealed three linear features and a possible pit cut into the top of an alluvial layer present across the site. The dominating linear feature was up to 9m wide and possibly represented a trackway of medieval or post-medieval date. A stony layer running along its edge pre-dated the feature, and the Saxon pottery sherd contained within this layer may be either residual or date it to that period.

A series of fieldwork projects by N Cowlard and members of the SyAS Roman Studies Group around Cocks Farm villa to investigate it within its rural context. A metal detector survey of the field to the north and east of the villa recovered one piece of curved and decorated copper alloy that may have been part of a Romano-British decorative furniture fitting, although none of a number of lead and iron finds recovered could be attributed to the Romano-British period. Romano-British pottery and worked flint was also recovered.

Geophysical survey by J English of SyAS, involving a magnetometry scan of the inner precinct area, did not provide any evidence for buried structures, although a number of anomalies that may represent kilns were recorded. An historic building recording survey of the gatehouse was also carried out, and a watching brief was undertaken during remedial works, with soil displaced by animal burrowing dry-sieved for material before the burrows were infilled. A small amount of predominantly Iron Age and medieval pottery was recovered. (419

Watching brief by J McNicoll-Norbury of TVAS during stripping for a soil storage area. The truncated remains of a Bronze Age pottery vessel – possibly a placed deposit – were revealed, together with a small ditch that contained medieval pottery. See TVAS monograph 11

Watching brief during 2007 and 2008 by D Brooks of Bourne Hall Museum during refurbishment of the presumed 16th century building. The building was recorded by the DBRG as it was stripped back and its 16th century origin confirmed. The excavation of a trench for new footings within the building revealed a layer of burnt timber containing pottery of late medieval date over a mortar/chalk floor or surface, suggestive of the presence of an earlier building on the site, which had been destroyed by fire.

Evaluation by N Randall of SCAU revealed evidence of past disturbance associated with the former buildings that occupied the site from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries and the construction of the present houses on the site. No features of archaeological interest were revealed, but three medieval pottery sherds were recovered from the backfill of a modern drain.