Type

Monument

Title / Name

Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Settlement, All Cannings Cross

Summary

A late Bronze Age/early Iron Age settlement and midden site excavated 1911-22. Further work was commenced in 2003.

MIDDEN; HUMAN REMAINS; UNENCLOSED SETTLEMENT, Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age (-2350 to 42)

Source Detail: Cunnington, M. E. + Goddard, E. H., 1934

Title: Catalogue of Antiquities in the Museum of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society at Devizes -Part II 1934 (master)

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI12024

Source Detail: Pugh, R. B. + Crittall, E. + Grinsell, L. V. + Gifford, J., 1957

Title: The Victoria County History of the Counties of England: A History of Wiltshire Vol.1.1 (master)

Summary: Gazetteer Source ID: SWI13104

Additional Information: Oxford University Press 1 1

Description: An Iron Age settlement on All Cannings Cross Farm (see plan). Excavated 1911-22 by B H and M E Cunnington. The area had been under the plough for many years and no surface indications remain to mark the site which probably covered an area of about four acres, but the limits were not precisely ascertained. The chief interest of the site lies in the pottery represented by nearly 1000 pots, the style for which All Cannings has become the type-site. As a whole it seems to belong to the Hallstatt period, not mixed with any other type, and was practically all hand made. The haematite-coated bowls (see photo) with the omphaloid base may be regarded as the most characteristic and distinctive type on the site. During the excavation 75 pits were opened, some were corn-drying ovens, and some contained pieces of wattle-and - daub. The site yielded two La Tene bonze brooches, bone implements such as pins, needles, combs, scoops, etc, spindle-whorls, loom-weights, bronze and iron slag, fragments of crucibles, hammerstones, and a large number of animal bones that had been used for food. The main collection of material from the site is now in Devizes Museum.

Source Detail: Ordnance Survey, 1961

Title: Ordnance Survey 6 inch Map 1961

Summary: Map Source ID: SWI13358

Description: (SU 08006347) Iron Age Settlement (NR) (site of).

Source Detail: Annable, F. K. + Simpson, D. D. A., 1964

Title: Devizes Museum Catalogue 4 - Master

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI13613

Source Detail: Bowen, H. C. + Fowler, P. J. (eds), 1978

Title: Early Land Allotment in the British Isles

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI16948

Additional Information: 48

Source Detail: Cunliffe, B. + Rowley, T. (eds), 1978

Title: Lowland Iron Age Communities in Europe

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI17097

Additional Information: BAR Publishing 48

Source Detail: Fitzpatrick, A. P. + Morris, E. L (eds), 1994

Title: The Iron Age in Wessex: Recent Work

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI20639

Description: Ehrenreich, R. M. Ironworking in Iron Age Wessex

Source Detail: Devizes Museum, 1995

Title: Devizes Museum Accession Register 1995.150

Summary: Register Source ID: SWI20799

Source Detail: Devizes Museum, 1995

Title: Devizes Museum Accession Register 1995.78

Summary: Register Source ID: SWI20832

Description: 50 sherds dug up by badgers.

Source Detail: Devizes Museum, 2000

Title: Devizes Museum Accession Register 2000.94-95

Summary: Register Source ID: SWI21765

Source Detail: Barrett, J. + McOmish, D., 2003

Title: All Cannings Cross

Summary: Excavation - Interim report Produced for Current Archaeology but not published. Source ID: SWI22254

Description: A settlement site linking the transition between the Late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age periods. Bronze Age pottery was incorporated in the colluvial build-up of soil across the site indicating the site was situated in a landscape which had already been heavily utilised agriculturally. The finds from the 1909 excavation have been re-catalogued in Devizes Museum during 2000. The site was re-examined during 2003 by John Barrett and David McOmish with the University of Sheffield students. A series of 1m square test pits were opened which confirmed that in areas to the north of Cunnington's trenches, archaeological deposits survived modern agricultural practices. A number of pits and postholes were uncovered. The site extends over several hectares.

Source Detail: Barrett, J. + McOmish, D., 2009

Title: The Early Iron Age in Southern Britain: Recent Work at All Cannings Cross, Stanton St. Bernard and East Chisenbury, Wiltshire

Summary: Excavation (Barrett, J.C and McOmish, D. 2010. ‘Travaux récents sur la fin de l’âge du Bronze et le début de l’âge du Fer dans le sud de l’Angleterre’, in M-J Roulière-Lambert (ed.), De l’âge du Bronze à l’âge du Fer en France et en Europe occidentale (Xe – VIIe siècle av. J.-C.): 565-75. Actes du XXXe colloque international l’aeaf, co-organisé avec l’aprab). Source ID: SWI27042

Additional Information: Proceedings of the 30th International Colloquium of the AEAF

Description: The site was thought to be a large open settlement of late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age origin, but re-evaluation of the site, including re-excavation of part of the site in 2003-4, led to interpretation of the site as a midden comparable to those at Potterne and East Chisenbury. The investigations in 2004 identified another midden to the east at Stanton St Bernard (NMR Monument 1545428).

Source Detail: Williams, H. + Swallow, R., 2017

Title: Report and Proceedings of the 162nd Summer Meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute, 2016

Summary: The Royal Archaeological Institute' Summer Meeting 2016 was held in Wiltshire, focusing on recent archaeological research in the county from prehistory to current times. Source ID: SWI28128

Additional Information: Archaeological Journal 174 Supplement

Description: Work by pioneers, such as Maud Cunnington, in the first half of the C20 laid the foundation for the study of the Iron Age nationally, and sites, especially All Cannings Cross, are still important. The large middens found around the Vale of Pewsey are a distinctive regional phenomenon of the Late Bronze Age and earliest Iron Age (C8-7 BC). Sites such as Potterne and East Chisenbury must represent repeated episodes of feasting and key sites of communal gathering; the site at All Cannings Cross was probably of a similar nature.

Source Detail: Carpenter, E. + Winton, H., 2011

Title: Marden Henge and Environs, Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire: National Mapping Programme Report

Summary: NMP Project Report. This report describes the methods and results of the Marden Henge and Environs National Mapping Programme (NMP) project. Aerial photographs, taken from the 1930s to present, were studied and all archaeological features were mapped and recorded. The report discusses perceptions of the Vale and its archaeology. Remains of prehistoric funerary monuments and possible prehistoric or Roman settlement enclosures were seen on the edges of the Vale and along the river to the south east of Marden henge. Medieval or post-medieval settlement remains were seen in and around some of the modern villages. Extensive earthworks of post-medieval water meadows flanked virtually all the streams in the Vale, but many were ploughed level. Aerial photographs from the 1940s recorded many structures associated with the Second World War. Source ID: SWI28245

Additional Information: English Heritage

Description: The site, which covered an area of circa 4 hectares, comprised a large quantity of artefactual material, including pottery, various bone tools and bronze items, animal and human remains, iron slag,crucible fragments, spindle whorls, loomweights and other items. Some 75 pits were also excavated. The site was generally regarded as a large open settlement of late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age origin, but re-assessment, including rexcavation of part of the site in 2003-4, led to the interpretation of the site as a midden comparable to those at Potterne and East Chisenbury. It is possible that this site relates to some of the boundaries on the lower slopes on either side of Clifford's Hill.

Source Detail: Shell, C. A., 2003

Title: Geophysical Surveys of East Chisenbury and All Cannings Cross Sites

Summary: Geophysical Survey Source ID: SWI28658

Additional Information: Shell, C. A.

Description: The survey showed a wide scatter of small, less than 1 metre diameter, pit-like features but these may have been plough surface noise. There was however a line of characteristic pit-related features of 1 metre or greater diameter crossing the survey area across the slope of the field, and they occured periodically elsewhere. In the western, lower, part of the survey area was an unusual network of broad, diffuse, higher signal, strips with some rectilinear aspects at the western edge, but becoming less regular in the central part of the survey. They did not extend up the slope of the site. These features may have represented greater depths of soil, or alternatively a greater thickness of chalk in areas between them. Their orientation did not correspond to the recent ploughing direction, nor, given the orientation of the ground slope, were they consistent with underlying periglacial stripe and polygon formations. Further work to determine their origin could be worthwhile.

Source Detail: Historic England, Various

Title: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) Entry

Summary: Data held by the NRHE database. The data is made available and licenced under the Open Government Licence version 3. Source ID: SWI29488

Description: Field Investigators Comments (F1 MHB 11-OCT-73): SU 08006347. There are now no extant remains of this settlement. The site lies in arable ground but no finds were made during field investigation. OS 1:2500 siting acceptable from Cunnington's plan.

Source Detail: Society of Antiquaries of London, 1922

Title: Antiquaries Journal - Volume 2

Summary: No summary information. Source ID: SWI2973

Additional Information: The Antiquaries Journal 2 4

Source Detail: Tyler, A., 1976

Title: Neolithic Flint Axes from the Cotswold Hills

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI30760

Additional Information: BAR Publishing 25

Source Detail: Cunliffe, Barry W., 1974

Title: Iron Age Communities in Britain: An account of England, Scotland and Wales from the seventh century B.C. until the Roman conquest.

Summary: No summary information. Source ID: SWI31143

Description: Re-assessment and regional grouping of pottery from All Canning's Cross is discussed by Cunliffe.

Source Detail: Esposito, C. et al, 2025

Title: Diverse feasting networks at the end of the Bronze Age in Britain (c. 900-500 BCE) evidenced by multi-isotope analysis

Summary: 10 September 2025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113271 Source ID: SWI31472

Additional Information: iScience September

Description: The multi-isotope data shows that All Cannings Cross, East Chisenbury, and Stanton St Bernard were raising animals locally, following a prescribed management regime, while Potterne was a central hub where animals were brought in for feasting events from distant locations.

Source Detail: Marlborough College Natural History Society, 1918-1922

Title: Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society - 1917-1921, Volumes 66-70

Summary: Archaeology Notes: Vol.70, pp.12-15 Source ID: SWI31615

Additional Information: Marlborough College Natural History Society 66-70

Description: Mrs. Cunnington's excavations at All Cannings Cross.

Source Detail: Cunnington, M. E., 1923

Title: The Early Iron Age Inhabited Site at All Cannings Cross Farm, Wiltshire

Summary: A description of the excavations and objects found by the Cunningtons 1911-1922. Source ID: SWI32076

Source Detail: Harding, D. W., 1974

Title: The Iron Age in Lowland Britain

Summary: General survey of the Iron Age reconstructing patterns of settlement in lowland Britain in the light of revisions in chronology. Source ID: SWI32077

Source Detail: Challis, A. J. + Harding, D. W., 1975

Title: Later Prehistory from the Trent to the Tyne

Summary: Part i: Discussion Part ii: Catalogue and Illustrations Source ID: SWI32078

Additional Information: BAR Publishing 20

Source Detail: Devizes Museum,

Title: Devizes Museum Daybook - 1782

Summary: Register Source ID: SWI6373

Description: Bifid razor length 2.25 ins.

Source Detail: No Originator information., 1996

Title: Antiquity - Volume 70, Issue 267 -1996

Summary: Publication Source ID: SWI750

Additional Information: Antiquity 70 267