Site Event/Activity record ECH6120 - Lea Hall Farm, Lea Lane, Aldford, Car Park: Report on Archaeological Watching Brief

Archaeological watching brief undertaken between 13/09/15 and 02/10/15 in advance of the extension of an existing car par at Lea Hall Farm on the southern side of a range of barns on south side of the farm complex. This work follows on from a phase of trial trenching in March 2015 reported separately (ECH 6119, SCH 7871). It was originally envisaged that re-development of the site would begin with removal of the extensive concrete and compacted stone surfaces which form the area of the central development, allowing an opportunity to examine underlying surfaces. However, the decision was made to retain these surfaces and prepare the new car parking above the existing hard-standing, resulting in far less surface disturbance, with only peripheral areas being stripped. Even where soil stripping did occur, it only affected surface layers leaving much of the soil profile intact. Service trenches were also examined. The new area of car parking lies on the southern edge of the medieval settlement nucleus at the core of the township and manor of Lea. The buildings related to the medieval settlement are likely to have been concentrated on the site occupied by the current farm buildings. The development of the car park therefore allowed investigation of the liminal area where settlement met the open field. Unsurprisingly much of the evidence pertained to settlement boundaries, in particular the red-sandstone wall (found in trenches A and E) which appears to have marked the limit of the farmyard and/or farm-buildings in the 18th/19th centuries. South of the wall field drains indicate the start of fields. South and east of the areas of hard-standing no archaeological features were observed. (1)