“Very great concerns” over impact of Rampion 2 cable route

The Sussex Archaeological Society has formally raised concerns to those behind the Rampion 2 wind farm over the proposed route of a new onshore cable, which will pass very close to archaeologically significant sites in the South Downs.

The plans to create an additional 90 turbines off the Sussex coast includes the rerouting of the onshore cable to pass between Patching and Sullington Hill.

Following input from members and other partners, Professor Martin Bell, the Society’s President, submitted our response to the formal consultation before it closed on Monday.

Our submission raises “very great concerns” over the planned 50 metre wide corridor due to its close proximity to the internationally-significant Neolithic flint mines at Blackpatch and Harrow Hill. A number of Bronze Age settlements are also within a few hundred metres of the suggested cable route.

We suggest that the settlement and field system archaeology of the planned route and immediate surroundings is so dense and significant that “further, presently undetected, archaeological sites are bound to be present within the corridor”.

We add: “The Sussex Archaeological Society is supportive of plans for green energy generation, especially in an offshore context and where it does not impact on heritage or wildlife. The dryland cable routes do involve significant ground disturbance over a 50m wide corridor. It is to be regretted that the alternative route proposed through this consultation passes through such an archaeologically significant landscape and we hope that serious consideration will be given to a more westerly route originally proposed, if that can avoid areas of such significant archaeology.

“If the proposed alternative route is to be adopted then the very highest priority should be given to the thorough assessment of heritage assets within the corridor. In our view extensive excavations would be required and investigations should include sediment accumulations in dry valley fills and all evidence of early field systems within the affected area.”

To read the full submission continue reading.

You can find out more information on the new proposed route and the consultation here.

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Rampion 2 Windfarm Land route alternative route LACR-1d

Response by the Sussex Archaeological Society

The alternative LACR-1d Rampion dryland cable route between Patching and Sullington Hill is of very great concern from an archaeological perspective. It passes through the middle of the most dense concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology on the South Downs. In this area are many sites of national and international significance.

Of particular archaeological sensitivity are both alternative routes on the west side of Blackpatch Hill and between here and Harrow Hill.  750m west of the route is the major complex of well-preserved Neolithic flint mines on Harrow Hill, where there is also a hillfort enclosure of the first millennium BC. Immediately to the east of the route are another major group of early Neolithic flint mines at Blackpatch, where at least 93 flint mine shafts are known. Eight  of these were excavated by the pioneering archaeologist John Pull whose work is reflected in a special exhibition in Worthing Museum.  The Blackpatch mines are some of the earliest monuments of the first farmers in Britain; a recent project has dated them to 3991-3797 cal BC. The flint mines were levelled by bulldozer in the 1950s and the only plan is drawn from a transcription of earlier air photographs. Lidar images indicate that the mines extend to within 150-200m of the eastern proposed cable corridor. Pull also excavated some burials in the area and reported possible traces of settlement. In 2005 Time Team did an excavation as part of a Channel 4 programme. They did not confirm evidence of a Neolithic settlement but did find ancient tree throw features, suggesting some of those excavated by Pull may have association with ritual deposition.  Pull also identified burial mounds in the area and excavation of one of these by Time Team showed that it was Beaker / early Bronze Age; this site lies c 150m east of the proposed cable line. The close proximity of these sites to the cable line highlights the density of archaeological evidence in the area.

Of equal significance is a major complex of middle and later Bronze Age settlements. Three have been partly excavated;  New Barn Down (Curwen, SAC 63, 75) and Cock Hill (Ratcliffe-Densham  SAC 91) are Scheduled Ancient Monuments and lie west of the proposed corridor.  The partly excavated Cock Hill settlement lies on the west edge of the proposed cable route. However, the field associated with this settlement are bound to be within the cable corridor and traces of lynchet field boundaries are visible on Lidar, as are marl pits within the corridor which are thought to be associated with the settlement.

Of greatest concern is Blackpatch Bronze Age settlement which lies in the middle of the eastern of the two possible cable routes (at TQ09200515). It was partly excavated in the 1950s (Ratcliffe-Densham SAC 91). Since then the site has been heavily ploughed but the earthworks are still clearly visible on Lidar images as are some of the pits and hollows which were thought to be contemporary with the settlement, perhaps ponds. Much of this settlement and field system evidence has been impacted by subsequent agriculture but important evidence is bound to remain below ground. The excavation of these three settlement sites took place between the 1930s and 1950s; they were pioneering, but small scale, and focused on the core of the settlement area. There is bound to be much more archaeology in the surrounding unexcavated areas, particularly as regards associated Bronze Age fields.

Examination of air photographs and Lidar images of the proposed cable corridor show that throughout the area there are extensive traces of Celtic field systems which are present at least as far north as TQ 092109. The traces of ancient fields in this area have been transcribed from air photographs and Lidar by Historic England as part of the Changing Chalk HLF project led by the National Trust in partnership with Historic England and the National Park. The results of that analysis are not yet publically available but should be consulted because they will provide significant additional evidence of the exact position of ancient field traces and other earthworks within the cable corridor.

The key point is that the ancient field traces are directly linked by banks to the three excavated middle Bronze Age settlements; they form a key part of that settlement landscape. Sites in this area formed case studies in pioneering research on prehistoric farming by the Curwens. The fields are likely to have originated by 1600 cal BC and a scatter of Iron Age and Roman pottery on the excavated sites suggests they remained in use until the fourth century AD.  ‘Half an hundred weight’ of Iron Age pottery is reported by Ratcliffe-Densham (SAC 99, p 94) at TQ0996 1015 at the constriction point where the proposed cable corridor is just 150m wide. That must surely indicate a significant, but little understood, Iron Age and Romano-British site at this point.  1km south of the proposed corridor the discovery of Bronze Age metalwork (including Sussex Loops) and Iron Age coins at Patching Pumping Station suggests a probable site of later prehistoric ritual deposition on the floor of the now dry valley which leads south of the cable route.

At the north end of the proposed cable route on Sullington Hill attention should be drawn to the prominent cross dyke on the north escarpment; this is probably of Bronze Age date and may relate to the regulation of pastoral activity.  There are barrows on the escarpment crest at Chantry Post but there may be other unrecorded barrows. The Lidar imagery shows at least two possible examples. It also shows feint traces of multiple pits on the east side of the crest of Sullington Hill. They might be for flint or marl digging but require further investigation.

Work on the cable trench will affect a corridor 50m wide within the wider corridor on which consultation is taking place. Whilst the flint mines and some of the Bronze Age settlement sites lie just outside the corridor on which consultation is taking place, the Bronze Age settlement and fields at Blackpatch will be significantly impacted as will the immediate surroundings of the Cock Hill settlement.

The key point is that the settlement and field system archaeology of this corridor area, and the immediately surrounding area, is so dense and significant that further, presently undetected, archaeological sites are bound to be present within the corridor. Any impact needs to be carefully assessed in advance of disturbance. The known settlement and field system evidence is particularly on the down spur crests and slopes, with less known evidence in the dry valley bottoms.

However, a key lesson from excavations in advance of the Brighton Bypass and other excavations on the South Downs by M. Bell and M.J. Allen is that sediment sequences which accumulate in dry valleys provide some of the best evidence for buried field system traces, valley bottom settlement and evidence of the ecological history of the chalk downland.  We do not, for instance, know where the people who excavated the internationally significant flint mines lived. A chance outcome of the New Barn Down Bronze Age settlement excavation was the discovery of a large and artefact-rich early Neolithic pit contemporary with the flint mines. This highlights the potential which this landscape has to reveal important and  unexpected discoveries which could be very costly to investigate adequately, especially, for instance, if traces of Neolithic flint mining were found to extend into the affected area.

The Sussex Archaeological Society’s 2022 conference on flint mines served to highlight the exceptional significance of these sites but also showed how limited is our knowledge of the Neolithic ecology of the surrounding areas.  This is relevant to active debate concerning the extent to which the chalk downland in early prehistory was forested or included more open grassland areas and that is relevant to current debates about nature conservation and rewilding.  The dry sediments in the assessment corridor will contain important evidence of the prehistoric environment and are likely to have some of the best preserved and buried evidence for field systems associated with the known concentration of Bronze Age settlement.

The Sussex Archaeological Society is supportive of plans for green energy generation, especially in an offshore context and where it does not impact on heritage or wildlife. The dryland cable routes do involve significant ground disturbance over a 50m wide corridor. It is to be regretted that the alternative route proposed through this consultation passes through such an archaeologically significant landscape and we hope that serious consideration will be given to a more westerly route originally proposed, if that can avoid areas of such significant archaeology. If the proposed alternative route is to be adopted then the very highest priority should be given to the thorough assessment of heritage assets within the corridor. In our view extensive excavations would be required and investigations should include sediment accumulations in dry valley fills and all evidence of early field systems within the affected area.

References to SAC are to the relevant number of Sussex Archaeological Collections

Response prepared by Professor Martin Bell BSc, PhD, FSA, FBA

President Sussex Archaeological Society