Redwick

Redwick Bronze Age Settlement

An intertidal prehistoric site 1.2km south east of the medieval to modern village of Redwick in Gwent. Derek Upton discovered this Bronze Age settlement on a prominent peat shelf close to the seawall. It comprises four rectangular buildings fully excavated between 1999 and 2001. The worked wood posts of these buildings (c. 11 by 4m) were preserved in the peat and within two buildings were traces of subdivisions which may represent animal pens. The buildings date between 1500-1000 cal BC. Few finds were associated with the buildings: some middle Bronze Age pottery, animal bones, heat-fractured stones and debris from woodworking. The buildings were surrounded by the footprints of cattle. This is thought to be a seasonal settlement of cattle herders in the wetland. At the time of occupation saltmarsh was encroaching on the raised bog on which the buildings were constructed. Between Redwick and Cold Harbour Pill traces of many other wood structures have been recorded; some are short trackways, others in palaeochannels are thought to be fish traps. 150m west of the Bronze Age settlement is a later tidal channel in which Romano-British pottery has been found and also a wooden woven hurdle structure (425-655 cal AD), thought to be a fish trap.

To seaward of the Bronze Age settlement, at a low level in the bed of the estuary, low spring tides expose an extensive submerged forest of oaks which grew c. 6000 cal BC when sea level stood some 11m below present.

The peat shelf carrying the excavated site is close to the seawall and can be observed on a walk along the top of the seawall from Redwick to Magor. The boulder seawall is very slippery and dangerous and the intertidal zone has deep mud in places. Visitors are discouraged from going on the intertidal zone where the remaining archaeological evidence is easily damaged. See Intertidal Safety.