Derbyshire County Council is set to retract approval to quarry 2.2 million tonnes of sand and gravel near Willington due to the discovery of a 5,000-year-old 'cursus', reports the Burton Mail.
Who knows what could be found at Straitgate Farm? Twelve months ago we wrote This is what’s at stake. In 2014, archaeological investigations found extensive evidence of open settlements on the site from the Iron Age and Roman period. The Results of the Archaeological Trench Evaluation point to:
12-15 further roundhouses in total might be anticipated... Three pieces of Romano-British period tile from overlying deposits and two holed slates from the large ditch in Trenches 22 and 56 may indicate a ‘Romanised’ building is present in the vicinity... new evidence for Romano-British settlement was identified, dated from the artefacts recovered to the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD, including a substantial linear ditch of 30m length, c. 5m width and over 2.2m depth.
No development shall take place until the applicant has secured the implementation of a programme of archaeological work in accordance with a written scheme of investigation which has been submitted by the applicant and approved by the Planning Authority... broadly complying with the scope of mitigation as set out on the plan titled “Proposed Archaeological Mitigation” and dated December 2014 but would include the area to the east of Straitgate Farm.
