Medieval ditches and quarry/pond at Park Farm, Bulls Lodge Quarry (EHER 80637)

Trial trenching in 2020 recorded a few ditches and a quarry or pond of medieval date in Area 3, in Trenches 157, 161 and 162; their significance here is uncertain. A 13th-century pit in the Southern part of the Topsoil Storage Area, in Trench 58, probably relates to medieval activity encountered within an excavation immediately to the South in the adjacent Beaulieu Park development site.

August 2020. Trial trenching. Medieval evidence was sparse across the evaluated areas, with features restricted to the South of the Topsoil Storage Area and to Phase 3. In the Topsoil Storage Area, small quantities of medieval pottery were recovered from ditches within Trenches 40, 43 and 58, some alongside other earlier material. Some or all of this may have been intrusive in earlier (Roman?) features and indicative of only a general medieval cultivation activity here. Further South, a pit in Trench 58 is the only feature in the area which can be confidently dated as medieval, containing 18 pottery sherds of probable early/mid 13th century date. In Phase 3, three ditches in Trenches 157 and 162 contained small quantities of medieval pottery. Of these, two N-S ditches are parallel and may have formed a boundary or part of a field system of 12th-13th century date. Nearby, a possible quarry pit or pond in Trench 161 was of a slightly later mid to late 13th-century date. <1>