The project

Orion Heritage provides ongoing archaeological consultancy and project management services for Sherford New Town, a major strategic development to the east of Plymouth delivering 5,500 homes, schools, community facilities, employment space and extensive green infrastructure on behalf of the Sherford Consortium — a partnership between Vistry Group and Taylor Wimpey.

Located within an archaeologically rich landscape, Sherford has required one of the most extensive and long-running programmes of archaeological mitigation in the region. Orion Heritage was appointed during the later stages of Phase One to develop a new strategic approach to the management of archaeological works across the remaining phases of the new town.

Our role has included agreeing a fresh, pragmatic framework for archaeological evaluation, excavation and post-excavation work with Devon County Council, alongside preparing a comprehensive site-wide Written Scheme of Investigation covering all future phases of development.

Our approach

Since appointment, Orion Heritage has procured and managed major programmes of archaeological investigation across multiple residential phases and the new Sherford Business Park, coordinating works carefully alongside live construction and infrastructure delivery.

A key part of the project has involved developing targeted and proportionate mitigation strategies, including identifying areas within Sherford’s extensive Country Park where archaeological remains can be preserved in situ, helping reduce unnecessary excavation and protect important heritage assets within the wider masterplan.

The results

The scale and significance of discoveries at Sherford have continued to evolve throughout the project.

In 2021, internationally important Ice Age animal remains, including woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, wolf and hyena, were discovered. Orion Heritage rapidly assembled and managed a specialist team of leading Pleistocene experts, field archaeologists and stakeholders to design and deliver a complex investigation programme under significant technical and programme pressures.

More recently, investigations connected to the delivery of Sherford Business Park revealed further evidence of extensive prehistoric and Romano-British activity across the site, including a probable Roman road, Bronze Age settlement evidence and Roman-period farmsteads. These discoveries continue to transform understanding of the area’s ancient landscape and long history of settlement, movement and trade.

Throughout the project, Orion Heritage has acted as the central coordinating consultancy between the Consortium, archaeological contractors, Devon County Council, Historic England and the wider consultant team – helping balance rigorous archaeological investigation with the practical realities of delivering one of the South West’s largest strategic developments.

Alongside excavation and mitigation, Orion Heritage has also played an important role in communicating Sherford’s discoveries to wider audiences, supporting media engagement, public outreach and educational activity in collaboration with project partners and The Box, Plymouth.

Archaeological investigations and post-excavation work at Sherford remain ongoing, with further significant discoveries continuing to emerge as the new community develops.

The project

Orion Heritage has provided long-term archaeological and heritage support for Court Lodge, Kingsnorth – a major residential development to the south of Ashford, Kent, promoted by Hallam Land.

The scheme occupies a highly sensitive archaeological landscape with significant potential for prehistoric and Roman remains. Most notably, the site is crossed by a Roman road connected to the nearby scheduled Roman settlement at Westhawk Farm, creating a series of complex archaeological, planning and design challenges that evolved over many years.

Our approach

From the outset, Orion Heritage worked closely with the client team, Kent County Council and Ashford Borough Council to develop a robust and proportionate archaeological strategy capable of supporting the progression of a large-scale housing scheme within this sensitive historic environment.

A key aspect of the project involved helping shape the design of the development itself to maximise the preservation of the Roman road wherever possible. This required detailed archaeological understanding alongside close collaboration with the wider masterplanning and design team.

As the planning process progressed, archaeology became a central issue within the wider appeal process, including disputes surrounding the timing and scope of archaeological evaluation works. Orion Heritage undertook extensive consultation and negotiation with stakeholders to agree archaeological mitigation strategies and investigation scopes under significant programme pressure.

The result

Working to extremely tight deadlines in advance of the public inquiry, Orion Heritage successfully negotiated an agreed position with Kent County Council relating to archaeological mitigation and the long-term preservation of substantial sections of the Roman road. Securing this agreement proved critical in narrowing areas of dispute ahead of the inquiry itself.

The subsequent appeal decision upheld the scheme and granted planning permission for the development.

The project demonstrates Orion Heritage’s ability to manage complex archaeological issues within major strategic developments, balancing the protection of significant heritage assets with the delivery of large-scale housing growth.

The challenge

Orion Heritage is supporting the archaeological investigation of Slate Meadow, Bourne End, ahead of a new residential development in the Wye valley. Working alongside field archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology, the project has followed a careful, staged programme of excavation – and, just as importantly, has shared the story of what is being found with the local community.

Our approach

The site is unusual. It lies at the bottom of a valley where, over thousands of years, the river Wye has repeatedly laid down layers of silt and sediment that sealed and protected earlier ground surfaces. One of these buried surfaces – a dark layer of soil up to half a metre below the modern ground – survives here, whereas elsewhere such deposits have often been ploughed away or worn down by wind and rain. The buried soil offers a rare chance to find objects close to where people left them thousands of years ago.

Investigation has built on several years of earlier study. Archaeologists first examined historic maps and written records, then, in 2022, used geophysical survey to identify buried features without digging, followed by targeted trial trenching. In 2023, this work revealed a series of old ditches – probably used to mark field boundaries, manage water and work the land – alongside the far more unusual discovery of the buried soil, which could only be found by excavation.

To recover finds from the buried soil, the site has been excavated in stages.

After the overlying silt was removed, the area was divided into a grid of one-metre squares, marked out with string and nails and dug carefully by hand.
Where flint or worked animal bone is found in numbers – a concentration archaeologists call a scatter – the surrounding squares are excavated too, so that nothing is missed, and the exact position of each piece of struck flint is recorded using GPS.

Soil samples are collected and sieved to recover the smallest evidence: tiny bones, burnt seeds, nutshells and snail shells that help build a picture of the ancient landscape and what the people living here once ate.

The results

The results have been remarkable.

After excavating around a third of the site, more than 15,000 artefacts have been recorded, including around 13,000 pieces of struck flint, alongside worked flint tools and animal bones bearing butchery marks – some nearly 10,000 years old.

By the end of the programme, the team expects to have hand-dug more than 7,500 test pits and around 750 cubic metres of soil, with over 530 soil samples – more than 2,000 buckets, or some 20,000 litres – already processed.

Together these finds are beginning to reveal how people were living and working in the Wye valley at the very start of the post-Ice-Age period.
Alongside the excavation, a central part of the project has been sharing the discoveries with the local community.

On Saturday 4th July 2026, the site hosted an open day that welcomed 480 people from the surrounding area, giving local residents the rare opportunity to see the excavation first-hand and hear about the finds directly from the archaeologists.

The open day helped local people understand the deep history beneath their feet, and set out to connect the future community at Slate Meadow with the long story of the place before the new homes are built.