Trial pits at Icknield Infants School, May 2009 On 29 and 30 May, the group excavated three test pits on the playing field of Icknield Infants School. The site was chosen as it lies close to known Romano-British archaeology east of the school grounds at 43 Archers Way and at Haselfoot. A spectacular Late Iron Age burial urn on display at Letchworth Museum came from a sandpit on the playing field to the south. For this reason, the trenches were concentrated around the eastern corner of the site, at the foot of the slope representing the build-up to level the playing field when the school was built in the 1950s. Trenches I and II were located at the bottom of the slope, against the hedge line, while Trench III was close to the drive, beside the garden of the caretaker’s house. Photo Christl Squires It was apparent that some of the material used to level the site had been brought in from outside, even though most of the levelling seems to have been accomplished by cutting into the hillside to the south-west and spreading the soil to the north-east. This work created the dip down to the hedgerow on two sides of the school playing field, leaving a bank up to the hedge behind the school. Even though no material contemporary with the Romano-British settlement in the vicinity was found, working on the site gave a good appreciation of its setting. It lay below the top of the hill, on a slope facing south-east. The village at Wilbury to the west-south-west would not have been visible, but the farm at Wheathill would. The Spirella building is a prominent landmark from here and there was a nearby Romano-British settlement at the junction of Nevells Road and The Quadrant, which would probably also have been visible. The pattern of intervisibility among farmsteads just below the crests of hills is again confirmed
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