Scalford, Leicestershire

We would like to thank everyone who donated to our campaign for the geophysics survey and Allen Archaeology for helping us carry out this task, we can now share the results of our successful surveying!

After surveying selected fields of our Scalford project we have been able to make some exciting discoveries!

We have been able to uncover more of the Roman Villa located near Scalford, in Wycomb, in addition to a possible Romano-British settlement around 2 km to the south-west. This settlement spans a large area and even continues beyond the scope of our survey. This means that there is more geophysical surveying of this area required in the future, and you can get involved!

We have surveyed the areas where a vast array of stone and flint tools were recovered and have discovered some potential enclosures. These are however, obscured by later ridge and furrow action. However, we would love your input on interpreting an area of the survey (as seen below right).

If you have any ideas on what you think may be present, let us know by emailing projects@pasttopresent.org

Following on from our successful geophysics survey, we decided to target specific areas of interest from the possible new settlement site that we discovered. We did this by digging four test pits which gave us some surprising results!

After discovering a possible new Romano-British settlement site during our geophysical survey, it was decided that we would target this area with test pits to try and confirm our theory. We placed four test pits on areas of the geophysics that should the most potential. Two of our pits focused on an area that showed potential for structural remains, whilst the other two were placed over intriguing anomalies to the south west. This has allowed us to gain an understanding on both areas as to the potential and specifics of this newly found site!

Once the topsoil and subsoil were removed and the archaeological layers reached, two of the test pits in the south-west showed signs of a rectangular enclosure being present with potential for industrial working inside, with finds of slag and prehistoric pottery. Another test pit towards the north-east also showed signs of a potential occupation layer. And lastly the other north-eastern test pit revealed part of a wall. All of the pits included pottery sherds that indicate the settlement site to be Roman in age, possibly being occupied at the same time as the nearby villa, at Goadby Marwood, apart from the test pit that revealed earlier prehistoric finds.