Site Event/Activity record ESF23240 - Evaluation, Barrow Heath Shooting Ground, Barrow

Trial trench evaluation was conducted ahead of landscaping works to improve the acoustic screening in the southwest corner along the access read to the existing shooting ground. Preliminary geophysical survey identified linear anomalies, possible ridge and furrow and a possible ditch cutting the slope of the hill. Forty 20m trenches were positioned to investigate the results of the geophysics. Trenches avoided known services and existing structures and were targeted in those areas to be impacted by the landscaping proposals. The results of the evaluation proved mainly negative with only trenches 1, 3 and 36 revealing three undated ditches and a gully. The negative trenches contained a similar sequence of material; basal layer of red-brown sandy silt forming deposits within the underlying chalky flint natural. Above this layer was 0.15-0.38m thick subsoil deposit of mid orange brown silty sand with occasional flint inclusions. This layer was sealed by 0.26-0.36m of thick deposit of mid grey brown topsoil (S1).