Between 2019–22, fieldwork involving archaeological strip, map, sample excavations, and watching briefs, was undertaken at Holme Hall Quarry, Stainton, South Yorkshire by ARS Ltd on behalf of Breedon Aggregates. This fieldwork took place across a large area of 41.1ha prior to the northward extension of the limestone quarry. The site was located 7.6km to the south-west of the city of Doncaster, 12km to the east-north-east of the town of Rotherham and 3.2km south of the River Don.
The earliest archaeological features on the site were two pits, c. 520m apart, which were radiocarbon dated to the fourth to second centuries BC – that is to the Middle Iron Age, a period rarely encountered in South Yorkshire. A fire had been set in the easternmost pit, which was probably used for cooking. Several post-holes or small pits were found near the other pit and may have been contemporary with it, perhaps representing a structure or structures of some kind.
The main features found on the site were ditches that formed part of an extensive, well-preserved Late Iron Age to Roman rectilinear/coaxial field system, similar to those known in areas of South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire to the north and east. A large continuous area of this field system, spanning at least 650m east–west by 495m north–south, was excavated in 2020–22, with further parts of the system excavated a short distance to the east in 2019. This field system was associated with north–south and east–west droveways, three curvilinear enclosures, a rectilinear enclosure and another rectilinear enclosure or small field. Three deposits containing burnt or charred human bone fragments were found in enclosure or field ditch fills. An assemblage of 3625 sherds (39,308g) of Late Iron Age to Roman pottery was recovered, large for a rural site in this part of the country, as well as several small finds, such as a coin, a glass bead, a brooch and other metalwork.
On the basis of the pottery and radiocarbon dates, the field system at Holme Hall Quarry was probably established during the first century AD. It is unclear whether the system was established before or after the appearance of the Roman military in the locality, probably from the early AD 50s onwards, although one of the rectilinear enclosures was constructed/ added in the late first or second century AD. This was a rural site focused on mixed agricultural production of livestock and crops (as evidenced by the animal bone assemblage and palaeoenvironmental samples recovered from the excavations), probably largely for local consumption with some export to nearby Roman military sites. There is little evidence for non-agricultural production, apart from a second- to third-century limestone quarry pit, which was probably for local use, and a few small nodules of possible iron smithing slag.
The surviving parts of the field and enclosure ditches appear to have been filled by the late second or early third centuries; however, the upper parts of the ditches may have remained open into the later part of the Roman period or early medieval period only to be removed by later ploughing. Numerous late Roman pits and post-holes were found within one of the rectilinear enclosures, suggesting that this enclosure probably remained a feature into the late third and possibly the fourth century.
A few early medieval features of seventh- to tenth-century date were identified on the basis of radiocarbon dating; there was no pottery or other identifiable finds of this period, which is rarely encountered archaeologically in South Yorkshire. These features comprised: an oven set in a hollow worn into the fill of a Roman field ditch; and a pit containing burnt material, which was possibly associated with a nearby similar pit.
The Holme Hall Quarry area was primarily an agricultural landscape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but the excavations revealed that limestone was clearly being mined on a considerable scale and lime was being made. Four limestone quarry pits, probably of eighteenth- to nineteenth-century date were found. The well-preserved base of a limestone-built lime kiln, probably of flare kiln type, was set in the bottom of one of these quarries in the mid nineteenth century.