ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the nine excavations around Shapwick House mansion undertaken between 1993 and 1997. The sequence of building and demolition phases close to Shapwick House is known principally from map evidence, most of it 18th century. The main house is depicted in various ways with ornamental ponds and a banqueting house to the north; to the south lies a dovecote, the Glastonbury Great Barn and village houses in plots divided by lanes. A pair of rectangular ponds had already been dug by 1750 to the north of Shapwick House. They are thought to be late 17th century in origin and contemporary with the banqueting house, though this could not be confirmed archaeologically. There is some evidence for prehistoric activity around Shapwick House mansion. Relatively high densities of worked flint were recovered from small excavations to the south and there is a small but significant group of late Bronze Age to middle Iron Age pottery from excavations further north.
