Digital Archive from an Archaeological Excavation at Aldi, Crudwell Road, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, January-April 2022

This collection comprises images, spreadsheets, databases, and GIS data from an archaeological excavation at the site of a new Aldi food store on Crudwell Road (A429), Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This work was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology between January and April 2021. Late Prehistoric remains indicative of the edge of a rural settlement comprised two poorly preserved roundhouses, one located within a possibly trapezoidal enclosure which extended west beyond the excavated area. There was subsequently a probable hiatus of activity until the Roman period when three successive phases of Early Roman ditched enclosures were created during the mid 1st-2nd centuries AD. The latest Early Roman phase seems to represent the most widespread reorganisation of the farmstead with a post-built structure constructed within one enclosure and an east/west droveway between. In the late 2nd to 4th centuries AD, a large sub-rectangular enclosure was dug to the east of the north/south boundary. Significantly, it is considered that this boundary probably represented the western boundary of the Late Roman villa estate.