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Foxrush Farm : Further Information The excavations at Foxrush Farm have not yet been written up in full.
The excavations for 2002 and 2003 can be read below. For the 2005 excavation click the following link.
For more information on the Iron Age down load our booklet. 2002 Excavation. In October 2002 an archaeological excavation was undertaken by Tees Archaeology and Teesside Archaeological Society, which demonstrated that Iron Age features survive within the enclosure north of Foxrush Farm. Two trenches were opened in that year, trench A and trench B. Trench A was aimed at locating the enclosure ditch, and a section across the ditch was excavated. In addition this trench demonstrated that there are features located outside the enclosure, possibly related to agricultural activity. Trench B looked at features within the enclosure such as ditches, gullies, pits and postholes, which may represent structures and boundaries within the enclosure. There has been some disturbance by ploughing, as shown by clear furrows running across the site, but some shallow features such as stakeholes have survived. 2003 Excavation. In 2003 another two trenches were opened. One revisited the previous years trench B, which was not completed. And a new trench was opened on the other side of the farm buildings to look at some of the features identified by the geophysical survey. The Enclosure Ditch. The Iron Age enclosure at Foxrush Farm is a type of defended enclosure that was common in Yorkshire and Durham during the 500 years preceding the beginning of the first millennium. There are in excess of 1,000 of these sites known in Yorkshire and Durham although not all were farmsteads or settlements: some may have been enclosures for livestock. However, where excavations have taken place at these sites, the evidence for the cultural wealth of the community, industries, crafts, economy, agriculture and the date of the sites has shown that there are different trends across the region. An example of this is the date of enclosure construction. In Eastern Yorkshire the settlements are unenclosed around 400BC, with enclosure occurring prior to the Roman settlement in the north. In the North East, the evidence from the enclosure at Thorpe Thewles (Heslop, 1987) is for enclosures to be constructed around 400BC, with open settlements forming around the turn of the millennium. The enclosure at Foxrush Farm appears to be similar to Thorpe Thewles in some respects: the enclosure ditch was 6m wide and nearly 2m deep, and was later to serve as the rubbish dump for the community with animal bones and pottery sherds deposited in the ditch fills. Seemingly the community at Foxrush could command the support of a large number of people to enclose a substantial area: communal or community activities such as this are often seen as high status. The location of the enclosure at Foxrush Farm is a notable feature; it is at a low altitude, being 10m above sea level and is within two kilometres of the present coast and wetland environments of the River Tees. This is of interest because few sites in the area have been examined in this type of location and it is of note that many of the recently excavated Iron Age sites have revealed evidence for the exploitation of salt. Sherds of briquetage have been excavated from inland sites such as Kilton Thorpe suggesting the manufacture of salt from seawater; this activity was known to take place at Coatham Marsh in the medieval period. The site at Foxrush is ideally located to exploit this resource in earlier times. |
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