Find Spot MPM1184 - Paulsgrove Primary School

Modern features, prehistoric worked flint, sheep metapodials and 18th-20th century finds, revealed during a watching brief at the site of Paulsgrove Primary School in 2009.

Several modern features, prehistoric worked flints, sheep metapodials and 18th-20th century finds, revealed during a watching brief in 2009. The features were probably all 20th century in date and comprised an undated field drain, a pit, and a probable modern field drain. A spread of rubble and other 19th-20th century finds across the whole of the site may have been deposited when Paulsgrove was developed for housing in the 1950s.

Features:

V-shaped linear feature, possibly a field drain, observed in trench 15 towards the centre of the north of the site. It measured at least 2m long by 600mm wide, and its northern extent continued beyond the trench. The southern end stopped mid-way across the trench. The feature did not contain any finds.

A pit (13) measuring 1.2m long by 1m wide was revealed in trench 14, also in the north of the site. It's fill contained flecks of charcoal, a fragment of post-medieval pottery (probably from a long crock), 11 fragments of 19th-20th century brick and one fragment of 20th century glass bottle.

A linear spread of rubble (8) measuring 33m long by 300mm wide, ran north-west to south-east across trench 14 and containued into the north-west corner of the site. It's fill contained fragments of 19th-20th century brick and 20th century mortar. This feature was possibly a field drain.

Finds:

A layer of topsoil (1) 100-250mm thick covered the entire site. This contained several fragments of 19th-20th century glass, nails, brick and tile, and 7 complete metapodials from adult and juvenile sheep.

Several unstratified finds were recovered from the surface of the site, including a 19th-20th century pottery dolls arm and fragments of 19th-20th century brick, tile and pottery. A number of further finds from unstratified contexts in trench 10 and trenches 13-20 comprised: 3 fragments of 18th-19th century pottery and a nail; 19th-20th century - brick, tile, roof tile, pottery, glass (including bottles), iron, a horse shoe, a buckle for a horse harness, two clay pipe stems, fragment of drainage pipe, 20th century degraded bone-handled pen knife and a 1971 two pence coin; 26 sheep metapodials; 7 prehistoric worked flints.

The worked flints were recovered from unstratified contexts on the west side of the site, with a slight concentration in the north-west part. They comprised six flakes, including a tool, and a possible core fragment. The flints are all consistant with a Bronze Age date, the only patinated piece being a tertiary flake which may indicate greater antiquity. The presence of the flints suggest activity in the area during the late prehistoric period.

A total of 33 complete sheep metapodials were found mostly in the south and west of the site in the layer of topsoil (1) and unstratified contexts.

Accession number: 2009/89

McDonald, E L & Russel, J I, 2009, Archaeological Watching Brief at Paulsgrove Primary School, Allaway Road, Paulsgrove, Portsmouth (Unpublished document). SPM156.