SUMMARY In eight field plot trials in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire in 1977–79, insecticidal seed treatments and granules were tested against onion fly larvae. Carbophenothion, chlorfenvinphos, dieldrin, fonofos, iodo‐fenphos, permethrin and pirimiphos‐ethyl were tested as seed treatments in soil. Chlorpyrifos, dieldrin and pirimiphos‐ethyl were tested as seed treatments in peat blocks. Chlorfenvinphos and pirimiphosethyl were also tested as granules incorporated in soil and in peat blocks. Pirimiphos‐ethyl at 5 or 10 g a.i.†/kg seed and chlorfenvinphos, carbophenothion or fonofos each at 10 g a.i./kg seed gave good control of onion fly: all seed had been treated in the laboratory. Chlorpyrifos and pirimiphos‐ethyl seed treatments at 10 g a.i./kg seed were effective but severely phytotoxic to plants grown in peat blocks. Iodofenphos at 5 or 10 g a.i./kg seed was unsatisfactory when the seed was treated in the laboratory, but commercial treatment of seed gave adequate protection from attack. Permethrin at 2.5 g a.i./kg seed gave poor control and dieldrin at 30 g a.i./kg seed provided good control only where flies were not resistant. Granules of pirimiphos‐ethyl at 1.1 kg a.i./ha or chlorfenvinphos at 2.3 kg a.i./ha generally gave satisfactory control when incorporated in the top 2 cm soil at sowing, but the chlorfenvinphos treatment reduced seedling emergence. Chlorfenvinphos granules incorporated in peat blocks at 22.0 mg a.i./peat block (0.45 g a.i./kg peat) and pirimiphos‐ethyl granules at 2.5 mg a.i./peat block (0.05 g a.i./kg peat) gave only moderate control of onion fly attack, but pirimiphos‐ethyl granules at 5.0 or 10.0 mg a.i./peat block (0.1 or 0.2 g a.i./kg peat) were effective without apparent phytotoxicity. None of the seed treatments or granules entirely prevented egg laying by onion fly females. Following seed treatment, residues of chlorpyrifos, fonofos, iodofenphos and pirimiphos‐ethyl in harvested onions were <0.3 mg/kg.

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Rescue excavations on an extensive cropmark site at the confluence of the Lyne Water and Meldon Burn in the 1970s revealed several episodes of activity. A limited Mesolithic presence is indicated by the stone finds, but more intensive use is attested from the early/mid fourth millennium BC. Widely scattered groups of pits contained Impressed Ware of the local style. Radiocarbon dates chart this activity down to the early/mid third millennium BC, when a massive timber wall, 600 m long and up to 4 m in height, was constructed to shut off the 8 ha promontory between the Lyne Water and Meldon Burn. A timber avenue led into the enclosure on the north-west; standing posts and stones and settings of posts and stakes were erected; and cremation burials took place in the interior. No cultural material can certainly be associated with this phase and it probably lasted a century or less. A large stockade within the main enclosure could not be dated with certainty. A disturbed cist burial, yielding a jet pendant, 'slug' knife and possible Food Vessel sherds, may have been interred as one ofthe final acts in this phase. Renewed activity came in the mid/late second millennium BC, when the site was used for an extensive cremation cemetery. This involved erecting rows of posts, some standing in pits containing cremations. There was also a burial in a rough cist, and two cremations deposited in Cordoned Urns. There is no evidence for further activity until the Roman period when the road from Newstead to Castledykes was driven through the site, disturbing some of the prehistoric features. There were Roman forts just to the west at Easter Happrew and Lyne, and large temporary camps at Meldon Bridge itself. One of these partly overlay the prehistoric site, and appeared to have been constructed after the road. Long afterwards an 18th-century turnpike road was laid down on top of the old Roman road. At least some of the gravel pits found on both sides of the road were dug in this phase.