North of Pendell Farm, Bletchingley

Three phases of archaeological investigation were carried out by S Ford, J Pine and J Lewis of TVAS in advance of possible future extraction on this site. The first phase comprised the excavation of 249 trenches and revealed a range of deposits of Late Bronze Age, Roman, Early Saxon, Late Saxon and medieval dates, within an area coincident with a cropmark enclosure complex; a small number of gullies possibly dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age to the west, and in-situ Mesolithic artefacts and a Mesolithic pit. The second phase of investigation was a programme of fieldwalking undertaken in arable parts of this area. A moderate amount of struck flint and a small quantity of pottery were recovered. The struck flint included Mesolithic/earlier Neolithic finds as well as later Neolithic and Bronze Age material, and attests to use of the landscape at various times during prehistory. Only a very small amount of pottery of Roman, medieval and post-medieval dates was recovered, and a number of the sherds are coincident with deposits already recorded from the first phase of evaluation. The first phase of the evaluation had been undertaken on land underlain by Lower Greensand, but the third phase comprising 116 trenches was undertaken on land underlain by Gault clay and the vast majority of the trenches contained neither features nor artefacts. The single undated ditch and a posthole of Roman or later date revealed, and the sparse flint finds recovered (three flakes not closely datable but presumably prehistoric), were limited to that area of the site closest to the deposits identified in the first phase of evaluation. Single sherds of pottery of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age, medieval and late post-medieval date were also recovered from spoilheaps
Year: 
2008-9
ID: 
629
Site code text: 
PFB08/13
NGR: 
TQ318524
Report location: 
SyAS
Borough: 
NGR range: 
318 323, 524 525