land adjoining church farm st illtyd's wb2

7/30/2019 Land adjoining Church Farm St Illtyd's WB2

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A.P.A.C. Ltd.

Archaeological Perspectives Analysis Consultancy

Watching Brief

LAND ADJOINING CHURCH FARM, ST ILLTYDS

WB2/STI/12


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A.P.A.C. Ltd Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds. WB2/STI/12

Contents

Contents..............................................................................................................................................................1List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................................2List of Plates .......................................................................................................................................................21 ..........................................................................................................3NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY2 .................................................................................................................................3INTRODUCTION3 .................................................................................................3LOCATION AND SCOPE OF WORK

4 .......................................................................................................3GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY5 ...........................................................4ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND6 ......................................................................................................................4AIMS AND OBJECTIVE7 ..............................................................................................4WATCHING BRIEF METHODOLOGY8 ...........................................................................................................4WATCHING BRIEF RESULTS9 ....................................................................................................................................................5FINDS10 ...........................................................................................5DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION11 ..................................................................................................................5ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

12 .............................................................................................6BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

Appendix 1 Digital record


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List of Figures

Figure 01 Location Map

Figure 02 Trench Plan

List of Plates

Plate 01 Overview of site at the start of excavation

Plate 02 Levelling operationPlate 03 Levelling at completion

Plate 04 Ground sequence [001], [002] [003]

Plate 05 Overview prior to foundations being dug

Plate 06 South section of North foundation trench

Plate 07 View along north trench [104] towards far end

Plate 08 View along western trench

Plate 09 Internal trenches and central fire place foundation

Plate 10 View along east trench showing patch of [104] in the foreground


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1 NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY

A planning application was submitted to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

(BGCBC) and as part of the planning process, Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological

Trust (GGAT) advised the planning department that the proposed work at the site

could likely impact on archaeological resources.

As the work would involve excavation and the site is thought to have archaeological

resources, the client was advised that he would need to appoint an archaeologist to

undertake a watching brief during excavation work.

Dr N Phillips from A.P.A.C. Ltd accepted the contract and this document comprises

the report resulting from the watching brief.

No archaeological resources of significance were found

2 INTRODUCTION

This report has been prepared by Dr Neil Phillips, A.P.A.C. Ltd, to record the results of an archaeological watching

brief undertaken during a program of works to construct a two storey, detached dwelling for an agricultural worker onland adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds. NGR 32169 20195, fig 01.

The client, Mr I. R. Davies, having submitted a planning application to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council,(BGCGC); pl.app.no C/2000/0009 was granted Approval of Planning Permission, with conditions; one of whichrequired that:

The developer shall ensure that a suitably qualified archaeologist is present during theundertaking of any excavations or ground disturbance works in the development area, in order

that an archaeological brief may be undertaken. The local Planning Authority shall be

informed in writing prior to the commencement of the development of the name of said

archaeologist and no work shall begin until the local planning Authority has confirmed in

writing the suitability of the archaeologist. A copy of the watching brief report shall be

submitted to the Local Planning Authority within two months of the work being completed by

the archaeologist

Approval of Detail Application

A design brief; DB:WB2/STI/12, for an archaeological watching brief was then submitted and approved as fit for

purpose, N. Maylan GGAT.

The watching brief was undertaken during ground disturbance for footings and services; in order to record or mitigateagainst, any impact on archaeological resources present.


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A.P.A.C. Ltd Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds. WB2/STI/12This is confirmed in the borehole reports at SO20SW34 & SO20SW29 http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/ whilst evidence of coal

also spurred the open cast interest in the area: 070073 & 070090 http://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/

The topography of the site location is a roughly east/west spur of land above and east of the Afon Ebwy Valley and theland is mostly pasture.

5 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The background to the site can be found in DB/STI/12 which was completed at an earlier stage of this developement.

Until the present, the site of the proposed construction has been used for farming

6 AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

The aim of the watching brief was to preserve by record, within the resources available, any archaeological depositsuncovered during groundwork.

The watching brief also ensured that: in the event of archaeological resources of significance, being discovered andrequiring treatment beyond the remit of the watching brief, that steps would be implemented to ensure that their

treatment would be undertaken within the standards recommended by the IFA.

7 WATCHING BRIEF METHODOLOGY

Groundwork at the site entailed a two periods of excavation on the 13 th December 2012 and the 9th of February 2013;the gap between being dictated by the wet and wintry weather over the Christmas and New Year period.

The excavation was undertaken with a tracked mechanical digger.

Six trenches were excavated in order to provide foundations for the proposed extension.

8 WATCHING BRIEF RESULTS

Soils and ground conditions

The site and weather conditions during the excavation were reasonable although, there was some heavy frost on the first

day which made the ground very hard.

The area proposed for the building was under grass at the time of excavation; covering a gently rising slope to thehedgerow along the north west boundary shown to the right in Plate 01.
http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/http://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/http://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/http://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/geoindex/http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/


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A.P.A.C. Ltd Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds. WB2/STI/12Day 2, 9th February 2013

The second period of work to be covered by the watching brief centred on the excavation of the footings which can beseen marked out in Plate 05.

A plan of the foundations; outside dimensions 0.070m x 8.010m, is given in Fig 02. ( The trenches are annotated by thesequence in which they were excavated).

Plate 06 shows the northern section of trench 1 revealing a continuation of [003] for a further metre and the limit of theexcavation.

Plate 07 shows a view along the trench towards the east where a small area of bedding plane, context [005], wasrevealed, (located at the position of the ranging rod).

The western trench can be seen in plate 08, looking north and again the fill is natural, [003].

Plate 09 shows the two internal trenches 3 and 4 with trench 2 to the right and trench 1 in the foreground. The entire

section reveals context [003].

Plate 10 shows the view south along trench 5, again entirely context [003] although the grey patch in the foreground is

the top of the bedding plane context [005].

Trench 6 was the same with a fill consisting of context [003].

9 FINDS

A few pieces of clay pipe stem and five small fragments of 19th/20th ceramics were found in context [004], fig 02. These

were associated with a dark thin lens of material, almost certainly land fill derived from a domestic source. The finds

were not retained.

10 DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION

The site revealed no archaeological deposits or structures of any significance and appeared to be natural deposit.

11 Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Rhys and Paul for their careful and efficient handling of the work and Mr Davies senior for therefreshments.


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12 Bibliography and referencesA.P.A.C. Ltd 2012. Archaeological Desk Based Assessment. Land Adjoining Church Farm St Illtyds,

Aberbeeg, Abertillery.

DB/WB/STI/12. Design Brief for an Archaeological Watching Brief, Land

Adjoining Church Farm St Illtyds, Aberbeeg, Abertillery.

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

C/2011/0009, Land adjoining Church Farm St Illtyds, Aberbeeg, Abertillery.Approval of Detail Application.

Institute of Archaeologists, Standard and Guidance for an archaeological watching brief. 2008.

Code of Conduct and the Code of Approved Practice for the regulation ofContractual Arrangements in Field Archaeology. 2008.

Standard and Guidance for the collection, documentation, conservation and researchof archaeological materials. 2008.

Management of Archaeological Projects (English Heritage 1991).

H D Williams Ltd. Sept 2012. Proposed Ground Floor and First Floor Plans, elevations and Site Plan. Ph/RD.05

Cartographic sources

British Geological Survey. Geological survey of Great Britain (England and Wales). Abergavenny. Sheet 232.Solid and Drift Edition. 1:50 000 Series. Crown Copyright 1990.

British Geological Survey, Geological survey of Great Britain UKSouth Sheet. Solid Geology 4th Edition.1:625 000 Series.

Internet sources

www.promap.co.uk

www.bgs.ac.uk
http://www.promap.co.uk/http://www.promap.co.uk/http://www.bgs.ac.uk/http://www.bgs.ac.uk/http://www.bgs.ac.uk/http://www.promap.co.uk/


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Land Adjoining Church Farm,

St Illtyd's WB2/STI/12

Appendix 1

Digital Photographic Record

A.P.A.C. Ltd

Photo No Date Camera Size Area View Description

DSC03300 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site W Overview of site at the start of excavation 1

DSC03301 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site W Levelling operation 2

DSC03302 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site S Ground sequence

DSC03303 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site N Ground sequence [001], [002] [003] 4

DSC03304 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site N Levelling at completion 3

DSC03305 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site E Levelling at completion

DSC03306 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site E Levelling at completionDSC03443 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 3264x2448 House site E Overview prior to foundations being dug 5

DSC03444 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 3264x2448 North trench S South section of North foundation trench 6

DSC03445 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 2448x3264 North trench E View along north trench [104] towards far end 7

DSC03446 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 2448x3264 West trench N View along western trench 8

DSC03447 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 3264x2448 Internal S Internal trenches and central fire place foundation 9

DSC03448 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 2448x3264 East trench S View along east trench showing patch of [104] in the foreground 10

land adjoining church farm st illtyd's wb2

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