Planning Case Study 173
Cleevelands, Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire
Planning scenario(s)
Heritage assets affected
Undesignated heritage assets with archaeological and historic interest
Type of application & broad category
Local planning authority
Authority: Tewkesbury Borough Council
References: 10/01216/OUT
Development proposal
Outline application for up to 550 dwellings, including 30 units for retired people; a high street comprising 4 units with a gross retail floor space of 475sqm, plus ancillary accommodation of 475sqm (Class A1, A2, A3, A4 AND A5): 15 Units.
Archaeological information known about the site before the planning application was made, or before the development commenced, as appropriate
Cropmarks identified from aerial photographs, thought possibly to be ring ditches, had been recorded in the south-western part of the site and previous works along the south-eastern boundary had produced Roman material, suggesting that activity of this date was likely to extend onto the site of the proposed development. Other developments in the vicinity had produced significant archaeological evidence.
Archaeological/planning processes
A desk-based assessment was followed by geophysical survey over 56ha which produced evidence of enclosures and settlement remains concentrated in the south-western quadrant of the site but other less certain responses elsewhere.
Evaluation trenching in 2010 identified a single Bronze Age ditch and three areas where Iron Age and Roman activity was concentrated.
A pre-commencement planning condition requiring mitigation by archaeological excavation was recommended. Phased mitigation of the areas of interest was completed in 2017. Some of the archaeological features were preserved in the green space within the development area required because of flooding issues.
Outcomes: archaeological
The excavations recorded a long sequence of human activity from the Mesolithic to the Roman period.
The earliest evidence comprised an assemblage of residual Mesolithic to late Neolithic flints, including blades and tools.
A small group of middle Bronze Age cremations was unaccompanied but dated by radiocarbon analysis. Four large pits of similar date were also found and produced several highly significant and well-preserved wooden items, including a bark container, a paddle-shaped object that may have been used for beating plant fibres and a log ladder. The remnants of wattle and timber linings were present in all but one of the pits, and other finds included an early Bronze Age flint arrowhead, middle Bronze Age pottery, a fragment of a saddle quern and a gold strip.
A circular posthole building was of late Bronze Age date.
Later remains included middle Iron Age roundhouses and field boundaries, and the edge of a Roman rural settlement, including field boundaries, a crop-drying oven and a scatter of burials. Successive remodelling of the field boundaries took place subsequently until the 4th century AD when the evidence of occupation became sparser. No clear Roman structures were present but abundant pottery and other artefacts (especially of metal) indicated domestic occupation. Millstone fragments suggested the presence of a nearby mill. A small number of burials spanning the Roman phases included a cremation dated by radiocarbon to the 5th to early 6th centuries AD.
References and links/bibliography
- CgMs Consulting 2009, Land to the northwest of Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment. Unpublished report.
- Bartlett Clark Consultancy 2009, Cleevelands, Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire: Report on Archaeogeophysical Survey. Unpublished report.
- Cotswold Archaeology 2010, Cleevelands, Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire: Archaeological Evaluation. Unpublished report, CA report 10041.
- Cotswold Archaeology 2016-7, Cleevelands (Phase 1A and 2A), Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design. Unpublished report, CA Report 15671.
- Cotswold Archaeology 2018, Cleevelands (Swales), Bishop's Cleeve, Post- Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design. Unpublished report, CA report 9215.
