Iron Age settlement uncovered at castle (From Gazette Series)

Iron Age settlement uncovered at castle

A TEAM of university archaeologists has uncovered the remains of an Iron Age settlement in the grounds of the Norman castle at Berkeley.

The unexpected discovery was made in the kitchen gardens of Berkeley Castle during a training excavation by a group of first-year archaeology students from Bristol University.

Parts of a ring ditch that might have circled a house, prehistoric flint tools and a few fragments of human bone were found immediately below the Victorian flowerbeds and greenhouses. It is thought the discovery adds another 1,000 years of history to the site.

Berkeley Castle is one of the most historic places in Gloucestershire and is still inhabited and owned by the same family who were granted the castle in 1156.

Throughout the Middle Ages the castle played an important and colourful role in both local and national politics. Very little is known, however, of the early history of the site and it was this that was the target of the university's research.

Dr Mark Horton, head of the department of Archaeology and Anthropology who is leading the investigations, said: "We know that there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey close to the site of the castle but to find prehistoric remains is an exciting and unexpected discovery.

"Very few prehistoric burials are known in the Severn Vale and most are found on the Cotswolds Hills. It is possible this settlement was located on a small ridge of high ground, to be visible from the River Severn, and might even had been located to help prehistoric navigation up the Berkeley Pill."

The investigations will be continued in July by aspiring archaeologists who are still at school and would like to find out what it is like to work on a dig.

The excavations are due to be filled in but it is hoped the artefacts will be put on display for visitors to the castle.