Excavations at the Gloucestershire M5 Junction 10 Improvements Scheme – Part 4

In the past few weeks we’ve been keeping you updated on our excavation work near Cheltenham for Gloucestershire County Council’s M5 Junction 10 Improvements Scheme, for our client Galliford Try.

The excavations have uncovered a well at Site 2.1 and there has been a substantial group of features there documenting past settlement, agriculture and industrial activity including an assortment of ditches, pits, postholes, trackways, enclosures and dumps of domestic debris and demolition material.

We have continued to collect an amazing assemblage of artefacts! There were two in particular from the Late-Roman period that deserve some attention.

The first is a copper nail cleaner, consisting of a cylindrical phallus and flattened straight, two-pronged blade with a suspension loop in the centre. This type is known from the late Roman period (c. AD 300-400) and several examples have been found across the country, including in Gloucestershire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, but this may be the finest example known.

The second incredible find was a copper alloy belt buckle and plate from the late Roman period (c. AD 300-450). The plate is made from a single bent metal sheet rivetted together at the open end, while the D-shaped buckle is held in the bend, allowing flexibility to move while worn. The plate is engraved with a series of stamped circles on the outer edges and geometric foliate design in the centre.

Meanwhile, our team has also been finding and collecting coins spanning over 2000 years of use! These include:

• An Iron Age silver unit issued by the local Dobunni tribe, featuring the classic horse motif
• Roman bronze coins issued by Allectus (c.293-296) and Constantine I (c.321-324)
• Medieval pennies possibly from as early as 1216 to the reign of Edward II (1307-1327)
• A sixpence from 1963 issued by George VI

Finally, we’ve got quite the range of post-medieval and modern finds, including 18^th century Navy issued ‘dandy’ buttons, a possible Holland and Barrett lead seal (that would have been used for bags of flour), and some 19^th century livery buttons with animal depictions representing specific families—all of which you can see below!

That’s it from the M5 for this week. We look forward to bringing you more updates soon, so make sure you don’t miss an update by following us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Bluesky!

 

You can find part 3 of our M5 updates here.