Site record MDR5609 - Cropmarks north of Shardlow

Number of features including a pit alignment and a series of small enclosures have been identified on aerial photographs. (1-4) Cropmarks plotted on map overlay, 1:10,000. (5) Numerous cropmarks were identified in this area during an aerial photographic mapping survey carried out as part of an Aggregates Resource Project. These cropmarks are late prehistoric/Roman in date and include square, rectangular and curvilinear enclosures, field boundaries, and a pit alignment. Medieval ridge and furrow earthworks and cropmarks were also identified. The NMR reference for the aerial photograph used is: RAF/106G/UK/581 4114 02-AUG-1945. (6) SK 431 313 Shardlow. Cropmarks appearing on an AP include a complex of ditches, possibly incorporating some form of enclosure at the west end. These features may extend further east, on the other side of Ambaston Lane, as well as further west. (4,7) In 1989 a trench was excavated in this area close to the west side of Ambaston Lane where the projected lines of the cropmarks of two ditches converged at SK 43223128. A layer of alluvium was found to lie directly below the modern ploughsoil except along the east side of the trench where they were separated by the fill of a broad furrow. This was one of a series of furrows running north-south, as much as 14m apart (at the upper end of the range for medieval cultivation strips). The soil in the excavated furrow produced 22 sherds of medieval and post-medieval pottery. The alluvium sealed sand and gravel deposits, within which an apparently artificial feature was cut. It lay only partly within the trench and could equally well have been part of an elongated pit or the rounded terminal of a ditch. No finds were recorded from this feature. (9) Excavated linear cropmarks revealed a ditch or elongated pit sealed by alluvium. No dating evidence or finds were recovered, but a pre-medieval date may be given as the alluvium was cut by ridge and furrow. (10)