Brooksby Quarry: Investigations of the incised channel

In 2013/14, ERT Geophysics, Archaeological trenching and palaeoenvironmental sampling were undertaken above an incised channel of the Bytham River, in Phase 8 of Brooksby Quarry, Leicestershire. The work was undertaken under NHHCPD commissions for English Heritage. The data deposition relates to the ERT Geophysics which was carried out.

A series of linked investigations have been carried out to further the understanding of the character of a distinct deposit of sands and gravels identified near to Brooksby, Leicestershire, the Brooksby Sand and Gravel. These deposits infill a bedrock incised channel of the Bytham river, a major Pleistocene river system that drained the English Midlands prior to the Anglian Glaciation (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage [MIS] 12). The deposits which lie between 55m and 60m aOD, are thought to have accumulated during a period of temperate conditions within the Cromerian Complex, a period of the earliest hominin activity in Britain.

A multidisciplinary approach commissioned by English Heritage as part of the Development Area Pleistocene Projects (3A3.202) programme, included investigations by University of Leicester Archaeological Services, British Geological Survey, Royal Holloway University of London, the Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, University of Oxford, and independent specialists.

The investigations were carried out between April 2013 and November 2014 and included Electro Resistance Tomography (ERT) survey, borehole drilling (shell/auger and sonic), archaeological trenching, palaeoenvironmental sampling and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating sampling.

The results have created ERT model(s) displaying the results and the incised channel of the Bytham River. Palaeolithic artefacts, wood, organic and environmental materials, fossils, flint and thirteen quartzite artefacts were recovered/ sampled from the stratigraphic investigations. The finds and documentary archive will be deposited with Leicestershire Museums under the accession number XA57.2006