Land north of Atherfield Road, Shirley, Southampton. Archaeological Evaluation (SOU1679)

The Archaeology Unit of Southampton City Council carried out an evaluation excavation of land north of Atherfield Road, Shirley, Southampton, in January 2015. Neighbourhoods Division, Southampton City Council have permission to construct a car parking area for 26 cars on open amenity land under Application 14/01301/R3CFL. The site lies in an area of scattered prehistoric occupation and activity and an archaeological evaluation was required as a condition of the planning permission. Four trenches were excavated to give a 14% sample of the area to be disturbed. The natural gravel was observed in all the trenches, and was situated some 0.4m-0.55m below the surface. The gravel was cut by seven features. Six possibly were of prehistoric date, comprising two irregular linear features, two irregular pits, one possible post-hole and one shallow circular pit. With the exception of the possible post-hole all the features contained burnt flint. The shallow circular pit produced abundant charcoal, burnt flint and 14 small possible waste flakes from flint-working. One modern feature was observed in the northern end of Trench 4, and a series of modern layers were observed above the natural.