Archaeologists will soon be uncovering a rare Iron Age settlement in a North Somerset (England) village. The ancient site at Goblin Combe Environmental Centre in Cleeve is the only known Iron Age settlement in Britain not to have been dug up. The trees and plants currently covering the site will be cleared this winter in preparation for a team of archaeologists to study the site in detail. A group of 45 pupils from Broadoak Mathematics and Computing College in Weston started the work this week by helping clear some trees.
     Centre manager Kenton Keys said: "We took over the site in 2003 as a trust and before that time there was no management plan in place and very little thought had been put in on how to deal with the site. We started talking to English Heritage and English Nature who were very interested in making more of it. They established it was an Iron Age site and the only one in Britain which had not been excavated. The first thing that needs to be done is to take the trees down and remove their roots to make sure the site is preserved. All we know about it is that it is a settlement site where people would have lived. At the moment it looks like a large horseshoe with a distinctive mound, with a series of platforms and levelled areas. It is most likely to be here for trading goods dug from this area with goods coming from the coast. I know archaeologists from the Cleeve, Claverham and Yatton area are keen to get started on the site, but English Nature will decide when archaeologists will be allowed on the site."

Source: The Wston Mercury (28 September 2006)