Retreat Farm, Grimley, Worcestershire

A staged programme of archaeological work comprising desk-based assessment, geophysical survey and evaluation trenching was undertaken of land at Retreat Farm Quarry, Grimley, Worcestershire (NGR SO 8320 5970). The project was supported by English Heritage through the Aggregates Sustainability Levy (ALSF). The land lies within a permitted quarry of which only a small area remained for extraction.

The site is situated at the southern extent of a large complex of cropmark features representing multi-period activity, ranging from the Neolithic (4000-2200BC) to the medieval period (1066-1540AD). Much of the complex has been removed by quarrying but originally included cropmarks representative of former field systems and possibly occupation enclosures as well as funerary activity such as ploughed out Bronze Age burial mounds potentially dating from as long ago as 4500 years ago. Evidence of medieval settlement in the vicinity was focused around the village of Grimley with associated cultivation represented by ridge and furrow in fields to the east, west and south.

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Fieldwork focussed on the outstanding part of the permitted area, in which both cropmark and geophysical survey evidence indicated an area of high potential in the form of pits, possibly representative of unenclosed occupation or activity of prehistoric or Roman date. Unfortunately sample trenching only revealed features considered to represent disturbance by tree roots, probably relating to an orchard recorded on the 1840 Grimley tithe map, rather than any earlier activity.

Nevertheless the project has proved a great success enabling the mapping and analysis of a considerable multi-phase cropmark complex representative of a diverse range of human activities along the Western banks of the River Severn. Since much of this area has now been quarried away, this mapping provides the sole record for many sites within the wider cropmark complex, thus contributing to the wider understanding of human activity in the region, from the early prehistoric to the post-medieval period.