Farming in the Vales: Middle Bronze Age Farming and a Late Iron Age/Romano-British Settlement at Grove Airfield

Excavations on the former Grove Airfield in 2018 revealed evidence of multi-period land use and agriculture. A middle Bronze Age field system and possible stock enclosures were discovered alongside some artefacts and charred plant remains. A seemingly isolated inhumation burial provided limited evidence of activity during the late Bronze Age. In the late Iron Age/early Roman period, new land boundaries were established and signs of habitation included a possible roundhouse. The settlement was reorganised during the second century AD and was enlarged in the third century having a formal rectilinear layout with several enclosed areas and post-built structures. Two inhumation burials of possible early Roman date are indicative of rural burial practices in a non-cemetery context. By the fourth century the settlement appears to have become more open, with a shift towards more intensive arable production and crop processing signified by the construction of a large corndryer and greater quantities of charred plant remains. The settlement was abandoned by the end of the fourth century.