 The track was discovered in 1970 during peat excavations , and is named after its finder , Ray Sweet . The company he worked for , E. J. Godwin , sent part of a plank from the track to John Coles , an assistant lecturer in archaeology at Cambridge University , who had carried out some excavations on nearby trackways . Coles ' interest in the trackways led to the Somerset Levels Project , which ran from 1973 to 1989 , funded by various donors including English Heritage . The project undertook a range of local archaeological activities , and established the economic and geographic significance of various trackways from the 3rd and 1st millennium BC . The work of John Coles , Bryony Coles and the Somerset Levels Project was recognised in 1996 when they won the Imperial Chemical Industries ( ICI ) Award for the best archaeological project offering a major contribution to knowledge , and in 2006 with the European Archaeological Heritage Prize . 
