The swallow hole on Forty Acre Farm, Alveston, Avon (UBSS Proceedings v.18(1))

Abstract: A swallet depression at Alveston, Avon, to the north of Bristol has been excavated. A natural shaft, roomy at first and completely filled with sediments, was cleared back to its solid rock walls to 6 m depth, where it became much more constricted. A narrow 6 m long passage was forced horizontally away from the foot of the shaft along the intersection of a joint and a bedding plane. In the course of excavating the mud and rocks which lay beneath the uppermost (very recent) soil infill, a small but unusual group of bones, including human bones, was recovered. Archaeologically the assemblage is uncommon in several respects and it is suggested that the bones were thrown into the swallet, then an open pit, during the mediaeval or post-mediaeval period.