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During the early 19th century, Cheltenham’s housing stock increased dramatically, from 710 in 1801 to an estimated 4,027, with 774 more in the course of building, by June 1826. Large numbers of individuals were involved in the town’s building industry, as developers, speculators and builders. One of the most unusual, in terms of age, gender and social background, was the Honourable Katherine Monson (1754-1843), the daughter of the 2nd Baron Monson of Burton (Lincs.), who built at least 20 houses on the north side of the town between 1804 and the late 1820s, before going bankrupt in 1828. This article considers what is known of her life and work, thereby highlighting a hitherto little-known aspect of the town’s building history, namely the role of women.

Excavation in 2015 revealed a small middle Bronze Age settlement. The settlement was apparently unenclosed in contrast to the middle Bronze Age settlement at Blenheim Farm, 375 m to the west. The excavations also recorded Roman field systems and a single early medieval radiocarbon date provided rare evidence for activity of this date at Moreton-in-Marsh, albeit of an unidentified nature.

Excavation in 2016 revealed evidence of prehistoric occupation as well as a possible Romano- British field system. Structural remains of two middle Iron Age roundhouses with associated pits and ancillary features, a penannular ditched enclosure, field boundaries and a possible enclosure ditch suggested the presence of a small farming settlement.

Archaeological investigations were undertaken by AC archaeology during groundworks for a buried 33kv electricity cable route that ran c.13 km from a substation to the south-west of Cirencester to a substation to the west of Fairford. It was aligned approximately east to west crossing a number of small roads, two larger roads, the A417 and the A419, two small rivers, the Ampney Brook and the River Coln, and largely through agricultural fields. The significant results all related to funerary archaeology with two Bronze Age cremation burials in pits, at least two (possibly three) Roman cremation burials (two associated with pots), a small cluster of late Roman graves (one with rich grave goods) probably associated with the Harnhill villa, and a small middle Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Meysey Hampton. The skeletal remains and finds are described. The burial of a decapitated man in the Meysey Hampton cemetery is of particular interest.

An archaeological excavation was undertaken in May to June 2014 to either side of the M5 Motorway prior to the construction of Gloucestershire Gateway Motorway Service Area (Gloucester Services). In the southern excavation area, two enclosures and a gully dating to the Roman period were identified alongside later medieval/early post-medieval features. Residual finds included an early to middle Bronze Age barbed-and-tanged arrowhead.

Headland Archaeology undertook an open area excavation on a site to the west of Fairford between June and September 2015 in advance of the construction of a new housing estate. Two pits dating to the Neolithic period was excavated along with evidence of activity dating to the Iron Age. Three Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured buildings, a large pit and a post-alignment dating to the 6th century were also identified. Among the artefacts recovered were a group of loom weights found lying together at the base of one of the sunken-featured buildings.

Investigations at Badgers Field, Chipping Campden, in advance of development have revealed evidence for prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon activity. The latter is significant as this provides the first archaeological evidence for Anglo-Saxon settlement in the town. Prehistoric activity is indicated by residual finds in later features (some Mesolithic flint, a little early Bronze Age and Iron pottery). A small assemblage of Anglo-Saxon pottery (46 sherds) was recovered from a number of features, mainly ditches, but most of it came from a single pit. It is suggested that these features are associated with low-level agricultural activity.

In 2007, extensive archaeological excavation was undertaken on an important post-medieval site at Glass Wharf, Bristol. An assemblage of pottery waste was recovered during this investigation, which largely comprises a regionally-significant assemblage of red earthenware kiln waste, dating to the late 18th century.

Excavation at Dove Lane, St Paul’s, discovered the remains of 19th-century housing within Cottage Place (later Dove Lane), Cross Lane (Cross’s Gardens) and Windsor Terrace. Several phases of construction and alterations between the early 19th and early 20th centuries were identified, many corresponding to the locations of buildings shown on contemporary maps. The social and economic status of the area is revealed through documentary sources to have been among the poorest of that era; although the properties on Windsor Terrace, constructed 40 years after those in Cottage Place and Cross Lane, were of a higher quality and inhabited by occupants of a higher social standing. The excavations, combined with documentary research, have revealed more about the internal arrangements, material culture and social status of this area of Bristol and its occupants than has hitherto been the case.

Excavations at the site of St Oswald’s Priory in Gloucester by Carolyn Heighway established the plan and surviving north wall elevation of the church, built c.900 AD. Subsequently, a wall (Wall 75) was constructed across the nave. Fragments of plain and painted Anglo-Saxon wall plaster were recovered that derived from a scheme on this wall. The painting is in bold red line on a creamy-white background, and enough survived to show that the original included draped figures and feathers from wings. The present paper gives some recent detailed observations of the painted fragments; it also explores more fully a suggestion that the painting on Wall 75 was a depiction of a Rood or, more probably, a Christ in Majesty.

The ‘Norman Hall’ at Horton Court near Chipping Sodbury is an early and unusually complete stone building, distinguished (in particular) by a pair of fine entrance doorways. It has previously been identified as a rare example of a 12th-century aisleless domestic hall. Drawing on recent research work for the National Trust, a new study has been undertaken, examining both the building fabric and historical evidence. It is concluded that it was originally built not as a hall, but as a freestanding private chapel, to serve the adjoining prebendal manor house. The implications of this new identification are considered for the interpretation of contemporary houses and chapels.

This study of Pinbury in Duntisbourne Rouse is based on archaeological, historical and place-name evidence. It shows, not just that the medieval village and its fields were based on the achievements of prehistoric and Roman predecessors, but that the inhabitants in the Middle Ages were aware of that legacy, and linked their principal prehistoric monument with a Mercian hero, Penda. The medieval settlement and landscape are reconstructed from surviving fragments, and the economy of the village is shown to have depended on a combination of a large arable area and extensive woods and pastures. The settlement flourished in the 12th century, faltered c.1270-1310, persisted up to c.1380, and died in the 15th century. Tentative explanations are offered for these changes in fortune.

The 1610 map of the royal chase of Kingswood, now the site of Bristol’s eastern suburbs, was known to 19th-century antiquarian circles through a reproduction in Ellacombe’s Bitton. A largerscale, coloured copy, made by the same lithographer, John Lavars, is less well known, but probably provides a more accurate facsimile of the original parchment map. It is suggested that the coloured facsimile was produced in connection with the sale of the manorial rights of Barton Regis to the mine-owner and philanthropist Handel Cossham MP in 1875, and that the original map was drafted in 1610 by Humphrey Fitzherbert, a Bristol merchant, as a ‘dispute map’ during litigation about Kingswood’s coal, slate and stone works. Place-names used in the map are identified.

The evidence for the life and cult of St Arild is presented and reviewed, and some problems regarding the names of the protagonists and the places in her story are addressed. The entire small corpus of material relating to her life is presented in an appendix.

The name of Thornbury in South Gloucestershire is etymologically uncontroversial, from Old English þorn ‘thorn’ + byrig (dative case form of burg) ‘earthwork or fortress’, although some probably unnecessary doubt has been introduced about the application of the second element, which (it is argued) probably refers to Abbey Camp, an Iron Age hillfort c.1 km south-east of the town.