Peterstone

Peterstone Palaeochannels

South-west of the village of Peterstone in the intertidal zone there are a series of former stream channels marked on the foreshore as sinuous ridges of peat. These channels have been subject to survey and small-scale excavation in 1996-7 and 2005-7. Within the channels are wood structures which date from the beginning of the Bronze Age to the middle Bronze Age (around 2500-1000 cal BC). Along the edges of the channels are alignments of split oak timbers with carefully worked points. These may be tying up places for boats, or be associated with fishing. In the midst of the channels are some large posts, one of which has the remains of a hurdle-like structure nearby; these are probably parts of fish traps. In one channel was found the wood handle in which a bronze palstave axe would originally have been mounted and nearby a wood oar or digging stick. The channels contain much debris from woodworking, some Beaker and Bronze Age pottery, many animal bones and heat-fractured stones. The footprints of cattle are also found. The finds probably derive from a settlement area between the channels and it is possible that the settlement itself has been eroded away leaving artefacts which had been swept into, or deposited in, the channels which also preserve evidence of the fishing and other activities which took place around the settlement.

There is a pleasant walk along the seawall from Peterstone to Rumney. The site lies beyond the saltmarsh and for reasons of bird conservation in the Severn Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, and because of the fragility of the archaeology, visitors should not venture into the intertidal zone.