A Romano-British and Medieval Settlement Site, Stoke Road, Bishop’s Cleeve

Excavations at Stoke Road, Bishop’s Cleeve in 1997 revealed Romano-British agricultural enclosures, small-scale ironworking, possible structures and a small burial plot, dating from the 3rd century AD to the last quarter of the 4th century AD. A small post-built structure, probably a temporary shelter or windbreak, was dated by a single sherd of grass-tempered pottery to the Saxon period (7th to 9th centuries AD). medieval remains, dating from the 12th to 15th centuries, comprised a possible stock enclosure, garden plots and the rear of toft boundaries running perpendicular to the Stoke Road frontage. A small building, with an internal cobbled surface and an external stone-lined drain, and pits with waterlogged contents were found within one toft. The absence of biological remains from other medieval rural sites in Gloucestershire, to date, makes those from the pits of particular note. Evidence for small-scale ironworking from the medieval period was also recovered.

Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Report No. 1.