A.P.A.C. Ltd.

Archaeological Perspectives Analysis Consultancy

Watching Brief
LAND ADJOINING CHURCH FARM, ST ILLTYDS WB2/STI/12

Prepared for: Mr I. R. Davies

By: Dr. N Phillips (A.P.A.C. Ltd) 12th February 2013

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Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds.

WB2/STI/12

Contents

Contents..............................................................................................................................................................1 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................................2 List of Plates.......................................................................................................................................................2 1 NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................3 2 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................3 3 LOCATION AND SCOPE OF WORK .................................................................................................3 4 GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................3 5 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ...........................................................4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVE ......................................................................................................................4 6 7 WATCHING BRIEF METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................4 8 WATCHING BRIEF RESULTS ...........................................................................................................4 9 FINDS ....................................................................................................................................................5 10 DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION ...........................................................................................5 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................................5 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES .............................................................................................6 12

Appendix 1 Digital record

Cover Photograph: DSC03306 Levelling the site.

Copyright Notice: A.P.A.C. Ltd. retains copyright of this report under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. The Ordnance Survey has granted A.P.A.C. Ltd a Copyright Licence (No. 100046577) to reproduce map information; Copyright remains otherwise with the Ordnance Survey.

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Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds.

WB2/STI/12

List of Figures
Figure 01 Figure 02 Location Map Trench Plan

List of Plates
Plate 01 Plate 02 Plate 03 Plate 04 Plate 05 Plate 06 Plate 07 Plate 08 Plate 09 Plate 10 Overview of site at the start of excavation Levelling operation Levelling at completion Ground sequence [001], [002] [003] Overview prior to foundations being dug South section of North foundation trench View along north trench [104] towards far end View along western trench Internal trenches and central fire place foundation View along east trench showing patch of [104] in the foreground

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Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds.

WB2/STI/12

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

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 on land 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 which required that: The developer shall ensure that a suitably qualified archaeologist is present during the undertaking 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 mitigate against, any impact on archaeological resources present.

LOCATION AND SCOPE OF WORK

The site can be reached; travelling south from Abertillery to Newport, on the A467, the first turn off the roundabout at Aberbeeg is the 4471 which leads through the village. At the T junction, turn right onto Church Road and then a hard left and up the steep gradient which leads to St Illtyds, (signposted). The proposed site is opposite the church of St Illtyds, fig 02.

GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY

The solid geology of the site falls within the Upper Carboniferous period, Westphalian D, giving a stratigraphy of coal, sandstone, mudstone, ironstone: Pennant series, (BGS 232).

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Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds.

WB2/STI/12

This 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 the land is mostly pasture.

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

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

The aim of the watching brief was to preserve by record, within the resources available, any archaeological deposits uncovered during groundwork. The watching brief also ensured that: in the event of archaeological resources of significance, being discovered and requiring 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.

WATCHING BRIEF METHODOLOGY

Groundwork at the site entailed a two periods of excavation on the 13th 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.

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 the hedgerow along the north west boundary shown to the right in Plate 01.

Description
Day 1, 13th December 2012 The initial excavation was undertaken to reduce the NW/SE slope of the field to a level area ready for setting out of the building plot. With the exception of a small thin spread of soil near the gate, barely visible in the foreground of Plate 02 the ground was entirely natural in formation. Plate 03 shows the deepest section along the northern edge of the work with a 1m ranging rod in place. Plate 04 shows a detail view of the section: grass and sandy dark brown top soil, context [001] which overlaid a 0.35m layer of red sandy clay, context [002] with few roots and occasional small angular stones. Beneath [002] was a further /25m of lighter sandy clay with a greater percentage of larger angular stones, context [003].

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Day 2, 9th February 2013

Land Adjoining Church Farm, St Illtyds.

WB2/STI/12

The second period of work to be covered by the watching brief centred on the excavation of the footings which can be seen 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 the sequence 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 the excavation. Plate 07 shows a view along the trench towards the east where a small area of bedding plane, context [005], was revealed, (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].

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.

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Acknowledgements

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

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Bibliography and references

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.

A.P.A.C. Ltd 2012.

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 of Contractual Arrangements in Field Archaeology. 2008. Standard and Guidance for the collection, documentation, conservation and research of 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, 1:625 000 Series.

Geological survey of Great Britain UK South Sheet. Solid Geology 4th Edition.

Internet sources www.promap.co.uk www.bgs.ac.uk

A.P.A.C. Ltd, Registered Address: 36 Hatherleigh Rd, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. NP7 7RG . 07734962919. Email: apac.philips@btinernet.com. Company Registration No 5041541. VAT Reg No 826 3628 19. www.apac.ltd.uk Director: Dr N. Phillips. D.Phil. BA (Hons). Cert Ed/FE. AIFA. AAI&S

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Appendix 1 Digital Photographic Record

A.P.A.C. Ltd

Photo No
DSC03300 DSC03301 DSC03302 DSC03303 DSC03304 DSC03305 DSC03306 DSC03443 DSC03444 DSC03445 DSC03446 DSC03447 DSC03448

Date

Camera

Size
3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 3264x2448 2448x3264 2448x3264 3264x2448 2448x3264

Area
House site House site House site House site House site House site House site House site

View Description
W W S N N E E E Overview of site at the start of excavation Levelling operation Ground sequence Ground sequence [001], [002] [003] Levelling at completion Levelling at completion Levelling at completion Overview prior to foundations being dug South section of North foundation trench View along north trench [104] towards far end View along western trench Internal trenches and central fire place foundation View along east trench showing patch of [104] in the foreground 5 6 7 8 9 10 4 3 1 2

13/12/2012 DSC-F828 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 13/12/2012 DSC-F828 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 09/02/2013 DSC-F828 09/02/2013 DSC-F828

North trench S North trench E West trench N Internal East trench S S