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Details:
A late Bronze Age timber trackway runs between the Polden Hills and Meare Island and has been traced over a distance of 2km by the Somerset Levels Project. It runs parallel to and E of Nine Acre Drove from ST43783938 to ST44604100. An area to the SE which is the projected line of this trackway and its possible junction with another trackway (PRN 10755) is scheduled as SM 27986 (seePRN 10733). {1} 

The track was first noted by Bulleid in c1890 in peat cuttings at cST44434076, and was extensively examined by him in June 1933 near the Eclipse Peat Works at cST44174014. {2}

In 1941-42 Godwin investigated in the same area and at cST44074003 and at cST43813945. {3}

From 1973 to 1987 fieldwork has revealed numerous finds of track timber on or near the course of the trackway including finds in the peat cuttings S of the South Drain, large exposures being noted at cST44093999, between cST44044002 and cST44023999, and at cST43923971. These are all within an area known as "Vestey's Ground". {7}

Peat cutting ceased in this area in 1941, but resumption in 1973 has led to further work by the Somerset Levels Project. Between 1974-78 excavations of varying scale were carried out along the track's length including ones at cST44254044, cST44274049, cST44354065, cST44424075, cST44524087 and at several points between cST44604105 and cST44654115. In October 1984 the track was found intact in the area of ST44184028, a 12m stretch being excavated the following year and salvage work carried out over the 80m to the N of this. From 1973 to 1987 fieldwork has revealed numerous finds of track timber on or near the course of the trackway, including an exposure of c45 pieces of the structure in the field centred on ST44324047 in February 1984. Tracing operations have also been carried out to define the route. {16}

The track consisted of a base of oak sleepers laid at irregular intervals at right angles to the line of the track which were held in place by pairs of long oak stakes driven through mortise holes and protruding above the beams. There was a discontinuous substructure of birch and alder brushwood. The walkway, c40-60cm wide, was formed of paired wide oak planks, or possibly single very wide planks, running longitudinally on the sleepers and held between the stake tops. The "stringers" for wheeled traffic , observed by Godwin, are more likely to be the surviving outer edges of decayed planking, and the rough cut third hole cut into the beams, often taken to indicate timber re- use, are more likely to be rope tie holes for dragging the wood from the hills. Tree ring analysis has shown the timber to have come from a single felling of c80 100-150 year old oaks. The dimensions of the timbers varied but from the 1977 sites the beams were on average 170cm by 10-20cm by 0.25- 0.8cm. The stakes were mostly 0.5cm and 0.45cm thick and up to 180cm long. The planks forming the walkway could be up to 100cm long. Many pieces exhibited the dished axe facets and other signs of Bronze Age workmanship. The track has yielded various radio-carbon dates including 890±110 bc from a stake, 1030± 70 bc. from brushwood, 1280±110 bc. from beneath the track and 1340±70 bc. from a plank. Artefact finds from the track include a possible oak 'truncheon', four small waste flint chips and a blue-grey flint blade which was probably a sickle flint {17}

Environmental work has shown that the track linked the Bronze Age arable, pasture and woodland of the Meare Island with similar areas on the Poldens. It was built on an increasingly wet raised bog surface and represents a response to the flooding of a traditional routeway. {18}

Further denodrchronological work undertaken in 2004 enabled the production of a composite tree-ring chronology dated to 1722-1532BC inclusive. Four of the 66 dated timbers included sapwood indicating a combined felling date of 1530-1503BC. {23}

References:

Data kindly supplied by the Somerset Historic Environment Record.
Record created on 06 December 2001
© Copyright Somerset County Council 2007