In 2012, Aggregate Industries dug eight test pits at Straitgate Farm, extracting some 400 tonnes of sand and gravel for testing. An 'archaeologist' was in attendance to check for finds when each pit was first opened. He found nothing. He must have been asleep on the job.
No one will ever know how much archaeology AI's test pits destroyed, but in 2014, in the same area, extensive evidence of Iron Age and Roman settlements were found:
Including the Long Range site and Areas 2 and 6 at Straitgate it is apparent that this Iron Age open settlement extends over an area of potentially c. 10 hectares... based on the geophysics and trench results, around 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.
Further information can be found by clicking on the archaeology label.
Based on the test pits debacle, you can understand why local people might be concerned about whether future archaeological investigations would be done properly, if Straitgate Farm were to be quarried.
Based on the finds in 2014, a proposed archaeological mitigation map has been put forward by AI:
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.
A DCC spokesperson has since confirmed that the area to the east of Straitgate Farm would also need "a staged programme of investigation, commencing with the excavation of a series of evaluative trenches", whilst the open area excavation on the west of the site could be implemented in phases, or:
Alternatively the entire site could be stripped, topsoil removed off site and the archaeology dealt with across the whole area.
DCC confirmed that:
The County Historic Environment Team will monitor all these works, and post-excavation tasks, to ensure that they are undertaken in accordance with the agreed programme of work.
DCC also confirmed:
With regard to public engagement, we would wish to see as part of the agreed programme of works that there is provision in the programme of archaeological works for dissemination of the information obtained from the archaeological investigations on the site. This can take the form of a public open day, display boards explaining the progress and the discoveries made, and public talks and exhibitions of the results.
In any event, based on the six weeks or so it took to investigate 55 trenches in 2014 – a tiny fraction of the total site – AI and its archaeological contractors would face a considerable workload before the site can be plundered for its sand and gravel.
