Certain fields in south east Leicestershire have produced a huge amount of Anglo Saxon finds over the years. Jewellery and pottery fragments had been recorded by metal detectorists and as part of extensive field-walking carried out by the West Langton Survey group, but no digging had ever taken place. Finds from this survey suggested both Anglo Saxon settlement and burial taking place in the area, but where exactly remained a mystery. Leicestershire Community archaeologist Peter Liddle invited Time Team to help him find some answers.
Before the team could begin any work a substantial amount of crop needed to be cleared. With the agreement and assistance of a bemused farmer over 100,000 square metres of oil seed rape were removed allowing us to investigate areas field-walked by Peter and his team. Mick, Helen and Jackie combined their talents at this challenging site in order to decide how best to investigate a potential cemetery and settlement. Having examined the field-walking finds Jackie was certain that these had come from both cremation burials - burnt human remains in pots, and inhumations - burials containing bodies.
Much of the pottery recovered seemed to be domestic in origin indicating a settlement somewhere in the area. In order to locate the burials and any Anglo Saxon houses on the site it was important to get a geophysical survey underway. But, there was a problem; Anglo Saxon houses, being made of wood, are hard for geophysical techniques to detect&; another challenge for John and his intrepid team.
Whilst the survey got started Mick decided on an initial trench - to be based on the fieldwalking results. The sheer scale of the site meant that a huge trench would be needed if we were to get a clear idea of the nature of the archaeology. With Phil in charge Trench 1, measuring 40mx40m, went in over the highest concentration of brooches and other grave goods previously discovered. As the digger scraped back soil the team kept a close eye out for burial cuts and any fragments of bone remaining in the acidic soil.
John's survey results turned out to be pretty inconclusive and, by the afternoon of day 1, trench 1 still hadn't delivered any finds so Mick decided to open up a second trench over further concentrations of finds. Luckily trench 2 immediately began to show evidence of occupation, in particular a large ditch. John's team traced this, showing that the ditch appeared to encircle the site. Could this be the boundary of an Anglo Saxon cemetery or perhaps an enclosure around a settlement? Helen wasn't convinced - in fact the team felt the ditch may well be Iron Age. Back at trench 1 Phil had begun to discover evidence of buildings as well as some Anglo Saxon pottery. Could this be the settlement? If so then where were the burials indicated by all the fieldwalking finds? The site was proving full of contradictions. Throughout day 2 typical cemetery finds appeared in Phil's trench - a cemetery and a settlement on top of each other?
By the end of Day 3 the site finally began to give up its secrets. In Phil's trench burials began appearing one by one underneath the bare traces of the buildings first discovered. Helen and Jackie were confident the site was making sense. There had been a cemetery at the site - in the early Anglo Saxon period. This had fallen out of use and at some point, generations later, a settlement had replaced it.
We had a shaky start at Foxton but the site had ended up showing us evidence of occupation from as long ago as the Iron Age and had given us an insight into Anglo Saxon life and death.
