Golden Hay Field Development

On this page we are tracking the development of the Golden Hay Field through photographs and timelines and will share any important notices or documents.

The development has a number of conditions that must be met and will be overseen by Tewkesbury Borough Council's planning department.

What will the site look like?

The image here is an snapshot from the Planning Document on the Tewkesbury Borough Council (TBC) Planning Portal,

"23_00569_FUL-70862_-_D02_-_SITE_LAYOUT_-_REV.ZK-1281714". Click on the image to enlarge it.

This shows the modified entrance in the north corner of the field and the houses arranged around the northern and western sides with a green space leading to the remainder of the field. There is a turning area for larger vehicles in the centre of the field, e.g. refuse trucks, delivery wagons.

The green space and the extra planting of headgerows and trees was a requirement to meet biodiversity needs and is intended to provide a net gain in biodiversity. There are 11 of the UK's bat species that forage in the field area and we are very concerned that this will be impacted by the loss of green area, and hope that the extra planting has the desired effect.

There are 24 Pre-Conditions for the start of building work. The first visible evidence of the developer meeting these is the requirement to carry out a full coverage archeological survey on the area of land that is being developed. We understand this is being funded by DB Land and Planning as the original promoter - it’s a sizeable cost but fairly standard given the interesting geophysics and trial trenching earlier in the process (2023). This is part of the developer pays principle and is known as rescue archaeology or developer-led archaeology under the Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) codes of practice. There is very little chance anything they find with stop development - it’s about recording and (for finds) recovering rather than anything else.

Note: If the entire field, not just the area within the red line on the image, is surveyed we expect this is a financial decision, to do it while relevant staff and kit are on site, and could be a precursor to future planning applications.

The full list of conditions is reference 25/00054/CONDIS on the TBC planning portal

Week 1 - 1st Day - Monday 2nd March 2026

Work started with the erection of heras fencing (safety and security) around the build site and two machines started to remove top surface ready for the archaelogical survey.

Note: Residents were not informed of the start of work, or any potential disruptions to access lower Main Street, Bank Farm and Cullabine Farm.

By the end of the day a trench along the length of the west end of the field had been dug, down to an estimated depth of up to 1 meter in places.

Week 1 Tuesday to Friday 3rd - 6th March 2026

Tuesday: Archaeologists from Thames Valley Archeological Services are onsite and have started work in the western end of the field, while the trench is being widened.

A toilet and site office is now in place at the eastern end.

Wed/Thurs: The trench is extend towards the east of the field, whilst archaeologists survey the first section.

The soil from the trench is being deposited along the south edge of the field, up to the gated entrance by the Village Club, and a pile of soil behind the Villag Club is becomg quite large.

Friday: worked continues on the survery and widening the trench.

Work has started before 8am, e.g. 7:30am, on each day so far, and a complaint has been raised with the TBC Compliance Officer who visited ghe site on Monday, but has had no effect on start times. Working times are limited by planning controls to 0800-1800 weekdays and 0800 to 1300 on Saturdays.

Week 2 - Monday to Friday 9rd - 13th March 2026

Monday: Further widening of the trench and the large pile of soil behind the Villag Club continues to grow.

Tuesday: the trench is now the full width of the build area on the southern border of the field. Archeaologists appear to be working in the nothern half of the trench area which aligns to the build area on the site map at the top of this page.

Wed: Archaeologists have dug a series of individual trenches within the primary trench on the western edge, and a new main trench has been started running along the northern edge of the field.

Thurs: Works are now starting at 8am and finishing by 4pm each day, following further intervantion by the Senior Planning Compliance Officer, Development Management, Tewkesbury Borough Council.

Friday: Further individual trenches are investigated and the nortern trech is further extended.

The site is very wet witdifficult.h large puddles on the clay surface and must be me making archeaology difficult.

Week 3 - Monday to Friday 16th - 20th March 2026

Work continues across the western trench to the south with more individual trenches across most of this primary trench. The trench across the norrthern edge now reaches most of the way to the northern corner which us used for access.

The pile of dug earth now almost fills the field behind the village club.

Week 4 - Monday to Friday 23rd - 27th March 2026

The week started with a number of individual trenches being marked with Red and Green flags within the western primary trnech and manual work started in the north eastern corner, in the second primary trench along the northern border of the field.

As the week progressed more Red and Green flags are being deployed and some samples (finds?) have been bagged up, presumably to be recorded.

....

Week 5 - Monday to Friday 30th March - 3rd April 2026

On 27th March Thames Valley Archeological Services advised that there is about another 2 weeks of digging, and they plan to have an open day for the village with trips to view the finds and trenches for those able.

They have confirmed this lookls like an Iron Age / Roman period agricultural settlement with pottery and coins so far.

3rd April is Easter Good Friday Bank Holiday so this is a 4 day working week. The archaeologists have been busy working on inidivual trenches near the southern edge of the first primary trench. More samples, or at lease bags of soil have been taken away to to analysed. There are blue markings adjacent to the individual trench, suggesting that the trench may be extended based on what they have deduced or found so far.

All the heavy machinery has left the site which suggest the two primary trenches are the area of investigation.

Over 30 villagers have expressed an interest in viewing the site and the finds and DCS are in contact with Thames Valley Archeological Services to help coordinate engagement with the village.

Week 6 - Monday to Friday 6th - 10th April 2026

6th April is Easter Monday Bank Holiday.

Further detailed surveying has left a series of small individual traces that appear to create multiple lines, perhaps indicating positions of the a iron age or roman settlement.