[TR 2515 6055] Iron Age and Romano-British pottery was found near Shotfield Farm by Mr C. Thornby while digging deeply to make a potato clamp adjacent to the course of a water pipe trench from Stourmouth to Adisham, the laying of which was completed in 1960. Site 23. A large, but very mixed, collection of pottery, including (a) some hand-made sherds with some or much large flint grits; some sherds are from very large jars (see Illustration Card No. 2, 50, 51);(b) wheel-turned sherds, some in fabrics typical of the late Iron Age or early Romano-British period, some in more sandy Romano-British fabrics; (c) fragments of South Gaulish Samian; (d) mortarium in cream fabric with quartzite grits; Oxfordshire, mid 3rd to 4th century; (e) cordened, carinated bowl in sandy pinkish cream fabric with red colour-coat and rosette stamps; Oxfordshire, Fulford's Portchester Type 34.2; such Oxfordshire stamped wares are not found at Portchesterbefore 330/340. (See Illustration Card No. 2, No.s 50-57.) This assemblage is derived from at least three chronologically distinct phases of occupation. First there are the hand-made wares with flint gritting "No.s 50, 51"; these may belong to the very beginning of the Iron Age pottery tradition, possibly to the period ofthe 8th to 5th centuries B.C., though the bowl "No. 50" is such a simple and obvious type that it may have had a much longer life. Second came the South Gaulish Samian and the wheel-turned vessels suchas No. 52 in forms and fabrics typical of the final Iron Age and early Romano-British periods. Finally, a 4th century date must be assigned to the Oxfordshire products. It is clearly a mixed collection, apparently from distinct phases rather than continuous occupation, but the reasons for such an assemblage cannot be suggested without further investigation. (The following sites were also recorded along the course of the water pipeline:- TR 25 NW 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and 53; TR 26 SE 15, 16, 18 and 19.) (1)

<1> Arch Cant 93 1977 91-111 illus map (JD Ogilvie) (OS Card Reference). SKE36163.