Old Sarum Trunk Main Replacement, Wiltshire: Archaeological excavation

In 2001 and 2002 Wessex Archaeology undertook an archaeological excavation in advance of the replacement of a water pipeline to the north of Salisbury. The work was commissioned and funded by Wessex Water. The pipeline runs for 4.5 km from the Camp Hill Reservoir, passing north of the scheduled monument of Old Sarum to the Castle Hill Reservoir, with a branch continuing east towards Ford village. The pipeline crosses a rich archaeological landscape with evidence for Neolithic pits and a long barrow, Bronze Age barrow cemeteries and field systems, as well as Iron Age, Romano-British, and medieval settlements. Archaeological features ranging in date from the Neolithic to Post-medieval periods were identified. These included: Two concentrations of Neolithic pits, one two the north of Old Sarum and one to the east of the A345. The later concentration of pits contained a remarkable assemblage of material indicating a level of sorting between pits. A group of Early Bronze Age pits on the west side of the Avon Valley and an enclosed Bronze Age Settlement on a chalk spur north of Old Sarum. Iron Age burial groups to the North of Old Sarum and to the east of the A345. The later possibly forming a boundary later reinforced in the Roman period. At the very eastern end of the pipeline there was evidence for an Iron Age settlement with associated crouched burial. Roman activity also included probable settlement enclosure ditches around Camp Hill, to the west of the River Avon, reinforcement of an earlier Iron Age boundary east of Old Sarum and evidence for two Roman Roads including the Portway. In addition the well preserved remains of what is thought to be the St. John's Chapel and Hospice site were located south of Ford Road. The chapel and associated burials were enclosed by a series of three semi-circular ditches. The site is certainly of regional and probably of national significance. After recording in plan the site was protected and re-instated and the pipeline route re-located. The digital archive consists of ..TBC The physical and paper archive has been deposited with Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum under the Accession ID: 2018.222. The report on the excavations was published in 2005 in The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 98, 25080.