VOLUME 125 (2007)

David Smith, ‘The Berkeley Castle Muniments’ (pp. 11–28).
The Berkeley castle muniments reflect the history of the Berkeley family since it first acquired the castle and honour in 1154. From its own inception the Society has had a major role in making the muniments available for study by publishing documents kept at the castle and recently printing a catalogue of those of a date prior to 1492. In his presidential address the castle archivist chronicles what has so far been discovered about the accumulation, preservation and management of the archive from earliest times to the present day. Reasons are offered for some of the losses of documents in earlier periods. Suggestions are made about how and why some of the most puzzling items, including the earliest charters, were written and how others arrived at the castle. Some of the more important manuscripts are discussed. The effects of attempts to produce catalogues during the 19th century are charted. The nature and location of previous places of storage, known as ‘evidence houses’, are briefly mentioned.

Jo Vallender, ‘Excavations at Spratsgate Lane, Somerford Keynes, Gloucestershire, 1995 and 1996’ (pp. 29–93).
The excavations at Spratsgate Lane produced evidence of limited Bronze-Age and extensive Middle Iron-Age activity in two areas of settlement, one enclosed and the other, to the east, apparently unenclosed. A ditch defining the enclosed settlement to the west was interrupted by two gateways giving access to two distinct areas and directly in front of the northern gate were the remains of a well. Each area of activity centred on a circular enclosure approached by a ditched trackway. The enclosures have been interpreted as evidence for houses and structures associated with them as representing extensions and delineating possible livestock paddocks. The layout is suggestive of a small Middle Iron-Age village with field systems to the west, south and east. The environment appears to have comprised essentially open ground and scrub with stands of water probably within the ditches associated with the settlement. Fresh water was also likely to have been located nearby and occasional water shortages appeared to have necessitated the digging of wells.
The settlements may be part of a much wider community of Middle Iron-Age activity which extended into areas recently excavated at Cotswold Community and Shorncote Quarry to the north and east. Evidence from the excavations at all three sites indicates an economy depending on animal husbandry, predominantly cattle and sheep, and trading widely for other necessities such as salt from Droitwich, pottery from the Malvern area and perhaps grain.

Julie Lovell, Jane Timby, Gail Wakeham and Michael J. Allen, ‘Iron-Age to Saxon Farming Settlement at Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire: excavations south of Church Road, 1998 and 2004’ (pp. 95–129)
Excavations in advance of the construction of a store in 1998 discovered enclosure ditches, pits and roundhouses of a Middle to Late Iron-Age settlement together with a handful of ditches and pits representing the peripheries of a Romano-British settlement and a number of features dated to the Saxon period in the north-west of the site. Excavations carried out prior to extensions to the store and car park in 2004 provided evidence in the southern part of the site of a local landscape dominated by at least two river channels which had mainly silted up by the end of the Saxon period.
Saxon pottery found in the channels has potential local and regional significance and provides evidence for an undiscovered Saxon settlement in the vicinity of the site. The presence of remnant topsoil suggests that the final tertiary silting of the channels may have extended into the medieval period. No archaeological features of medieval date were discovered but the foundations of a post medieval building together with a probable associated ditch and pit were recorded.

Toby Catchpole, ‘Excavations at the Sewage Treatment Works, Dymock, Gloucestershire, 1995’ (pp. 137–219).
Excavations at Dymock Sewage Treatment Works uncovered a later 1st-century rectilinear ditched enclosure containing rectangular timber buildings which were removed and backfilled in the early 2nd century. The site was occupied by a community whose diet, mode of dress and funerary practices were typical of a rural Gloucestershire population of the period but the layout of the excavated enclosure and buildings was not typical and the occupants utilised unusually ‘Romanised’ material culture and construction methods from c.AD 70. A number of interpretations of this evidence are explored. While convincing evidence for the presence of a military garrison was lacking, it is possible that the enclosure served an official function. The manufacture of copper alloy objects was indicated by a small assemblage of brooch and tool moulds, amongst which were a Chester type trumpet brooch and its mould, the first such example from Roman Britain. The site also produced considerable amounts of iron-smelting slag, although direct evidence for furnaces was lacking. The local manufacture of greyware in non-indigenous forms was also indicated.
Activity on the site was much reduced from c.AD 150 onwards and apparently ceased during the 3rd century. Five adult inhumations of mid 2nd-century date were situated outside the earlier enclosure, while a number of infant inhumations were cut into the backfill of the enclosure ditch. A single probably later Roman building with stone foundations was also recorded.

Andrew Simmonds, ‘Excavations at land adjacent to the Rectory, Dymock, Gloucestershire, 2002’ (pp. 220–235).
During October 2002 excavation on land adjacent to the Rectory at Dymock uncovered evidence for occupation commencing during the late 1st or early 2nd century AD with the establishment of linear boundaries across the site in the form of a fence-line and gully. A small number of rubbish pits associated with the boundaries indicated that occupation lay nearby. The linear features were superseded by a rectangular building, again with associated pits, a row of which were dug along the building’s gable end.
The absence of evidence for earlier occupation suggests that the settlement was founded de novo in the Roman period. While no evidence for a road was uncovered on the site, a substantial quantity of metal-working debris was recovered, suggesting that exploitation of the iron sources of the nearby Forest of Dean formed a significant part of the settlement’s economy. The ceramic evidence indicated that occupation, as elsewhere in Dymock, did not extend long into the 3rd century.

Toby Catchpole, Tim Copeland and Andrew Simmonds, ‘Dymock: its origins and function’ (pp. 235–237); Toby Catchpole, ‘Regional Context’ (pp. 237–238).
The publication in this volume of two excavations within Roman Dymock provides an opportunity to update Gethyn-Jones’s discussion of the settlement in Transactions 109 (1991). It is proposed that Dymock may have been founded as a roadside settlement with a function in the official transport system. New evidence for metal working is placed in context and the absence of archaeological material for later Roman Dymock is explored. In the second article Dymock is contrasted with recently excavated sites in the Severn vale and it is suggested that it can be interpreted as an outlying element of the early Roman Forest of Dean iron industry. Evidence for control of that industry by local élites rather than the Roman military is also discussed.

David, Cemlyn, ‘Alfred Jowett Selley (1854–1945): the man and his ‘collection’ (pp. 247–257).
The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery houses several thousand artefacts, mostly stone cools, collected originally by A.J. Selley. In his research David Cemlyn describes the man and his manner of collecting and acquiring finds and assesses his contribution to the understanding of the archaeology and history of the Bristol area.

R. Lacock, ‘Quakers in Gloucester: the first fifty years, 1655–1705’ (pp. 259–293).
Quakers or ‘Friends of Truth’ were at the radical end of the spectrum of dissenting religious groups that emerged during the 17th century. This study investigates their early history in the city of Gloucester, in which they have had a continuous presence since 1655. Their refusal to conform to the social and religious norms of the time meant that in a turbulent period they were perceived as a real threat to both State and Church and were subject to occasional, often harsh, persecution. The timing and severity of the persecutions reflected the political situation in London and the prejudice or spite of local officials. Gloucester’s Quakers were always a small minority in the city and were drawn primarily from its artisan and trading classes. During the 17th century, despite the persecutions, their number grew and a hierarchy of meetings was created to provide help and comfort and instil unity.

George H. Nash, ‘Walled Gardens at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire’ (pp. 295–310).
This paper records the result of an archaeological field evaluation that took place within the 19th-century walled gardens of Berkeley castle in 2003. The castle and its grounds are located up against the medieval town form of Berkeley that includes High Street and Canonbury Street. Two trenches within the smaller of the two gardens revealed evidence of the foundations of medieval buildings that once fronted Canonbury Street. Associated with the foundations was a small assemblage of medieval pottery. Within the larger 19th-century garden the evaluation identified an earlier formal garden; restrictions on excavation left any older archaeological deposits, features or structures uncovered.

Alan Sparkes, ‘The Reform of Gloucester’s Municipal Corporation in 1835’ (pp. 311–329).
This article is derived from a study of the composition, structure and functions of Gloucester’s municipal corporation before and after the introduction of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.
Using the records of the corporation and other primary sources, it investigates local support for municipal reform in Gloucester; official assessments of the state of the city’s unreformed corporation; the detail of the 1835 Act as it related to Gloucester; and the immediate impact of reform on the city’s corporation.

Oliver Bradbury, ’13 Portland Street, Cheltenham: an example of the architecture of Masonic preferment’ (pp. 331–339).
For a few years in the 1820s the town of Cheltenham was home to the little-known architect G.A. Underwood (d. 1829), a pupil of Sir John Soane. In attributing the design of the house at 13 (later 25) Portland Street to Underwood’s practice the author explores Soane’s influence on the town’s architecture.