Webmaster: Peter chatterton
Throckmorton is a small village and community Three miles from Pershore in Worcestershire. A part of the village Tilesford, is split by the old Airfield built in 1940. The oldest part of the village Is its parish church, dating mainly from the 13th Century. A moated island is situated close by Where the annual village fete takes place, thanks to the present owners.
Directions
From junction 6 M5 travel south east towards Evesham. At Island A44 towards Evesham. Turn left at Pinvin N East B4082 in 1 mile turn right to Throckmorton.
From Evesham take the A44 towards Worcester, at Lower moor turn right to Throckmorton.
During the foot and mouth outbreak the old Throckmorton airfield was used as a burial site for animal carcases, during the excavation of the burial pits archeological finds were found.
Extracts from WCC archeological department.
The work of recording the archaeology of the site as work proceeded on the excavation of the burial pits. Their backfilling with animal carcasses could, at times, be very unpleasant. Nonetheless, the archaeological contribution did provide a positive aspect to a very unhappy situation. The sites of a previously unknown Bronze Age barrow cemetery and Roman farmstead were discovered, as well as part of the medieval open field system.
The strategy was to undertake a watching brief on the initial soil stripping and excavation of the burial pits themselves. Initial finds suggested the presence of a Roman farmstead, whose corner had been clipped by the excavation of the burial pits. A geophysical survey was then used to target potential areas of high potential (based on initial results). As a result, the rest of the plan of the Roman farmstead was recovered, suggesting that the bulk of this lies preserved beneath the runway and land to the north.
A completely unexpected find from the geophysical survey was a Bronze Age barrow cemetery, dating back c.4,000 years. This was in an area which was originally going to be used for the excavation of burial pits. Because of the significance of the discovery, however, MAFF immediately took this part of the site out of the scheme. The cemetery has, therefore, been preserved.
