Following evaluation in 1997, a series of watching briefs was carried out by N Marples of SCAU, for Pioneer Aggregates Ltd, on preliminary soil stripping of part of this mineral extraction site. Part of a rectilinear field system was recorded: three interconnected boundary features running east-west were identified together with a series of re-cut ditches running north-south, which delimited the eastern end of the grid. The date of the field system is unclear. Finds from the ditches were few, consisting of a small amount of Iron Age and Romano-British pottery, but it is possible that these could be residual from later manuring. The possibility that the field system is ‘Celtic’ is heightened by the presence of two pits, one definitely and the other likely to be Iron Age, recorded in the north-west of the site. A small quantity of flintwork of broadly Neolithic character was also recovered. An excavation the following year designed to uncover features on the fringes of the main occupation area, which will be excavated at a later date, revealed further Iron Age and Romano-British features. These included pits, post-holes, a substantial waterhole and two ring gullies indicating the position of roundhouses, and ditches of field systems and of settlement enclosures which link up with the rectilinear field system recorded during the watching brief.