Investigations at Danesfield Camp, Medmenham, Buckinghamshire. Graham Keevil and Gregory Campbell
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Il\TVES'TI(}A'TI()NS A'T DANESFIELD CAMP~ MEDMENHAM B UCI(INGHAMSHIRE GRAHAM D KEEVILL and GREGORY E CAMPBELL with contributions by Andrew Brown, Alistair Barclay and Gillian Campbell Excavations by Oxford Archaeological Unit at the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Danesfield Camp, Medmenham, revealed evidence for Neolithic activity. More signifi• cantly, middle Iron Age features and finds were present within the hillfort, establishing its date of occupation for the first time. Finds included flintwork, an iron ring, pottery, and structural daub. The results of the work are described, and an attempt is made to place the site in its Iron Age context. Acknowledgements bank and ditch. Most of the W side of the The authors wish to thank the site owners, circuit has been obliterated, presumably by Danesfield Ltd, for providing access and construction works for Danesfield House, but funding for the project. The cooperation of at its S end a portion of the bank survives. No the building contractor, Ayala, and especially original entrance is evident in the surviving Mr Oliver and Mr Glacier, during the salvage earthwork. excavation in the car park is warmly app• reciated. Mike Farley, Buckinghamshire The interior is bisected by a N-S shallow County Archaeologist, provided invaluable valley and stream, sloping gently from the top support and information. Tony Fleming of En• of the plateau down to the Thames scarp. The glish Heritage provided advice with regard to site thus provides an excellent location for sec• Scheduled Monument Consent. Our thanks urity, and for observation of river traffic both are especially due to David Miles and John upstream and downstream, combined with Moore of the Oxford Archaeological Unit for ready access to the river Thames. A second initiating the project. Paul Hughes drew the earthwork, substantial and univallate, lies 1 illustrations for this report. The site archive km to the W of Danesfield Camp, above has been deposited with the Buckinghamshire Medmenham village. This is believed to be County Museum Service. prehistoric, although no formal archaeological work seems to have been undertaken, and the Introduction site has suffered considerable damage from The site and its setting quarrying (RCHM 1912, 256). Danesfield Danesfield Camp (SU 817884), also known as Camp has been recognised as a hillfort since Danes Ditches (Cocks 1911), is a bivallate the late 18th century, when it was described as earthwork occupying an outcrop of chalk• 'A strong and perfect Danish encampment' with-flints capped with a thick layer of plateau (Langley 1797, 335). This ascription persisted gravel, lying immediately to theN of a bend in into the early 20th century, and parallels were the River Thames between Henley and drawn with the configuration and siting of Marlow (Fig. 1); the Camp is 1 km E of the Dyke Hills at Dorchester on Thames, Oxon village of Medmenham. The site is defined to (AIIcroft 1908, 388). The site was listed as the S by a steep scarp down to the N bank of unclassified in 1912 (RCHM 1912, 256). The the Thames, and on the E and NE by a double misinterpretation of the site accounts for the 87 N 846t 845 844 GO A41 5 GO 843 842 , \i"larnes e( ~\-.! Sheduled Mlonument area / ····~·~·-~ · · -·- · ·· · -··-· · · 841 0 300m. 812 813 814 I 8 15 I 616 8 17 818 819 Fig. 1 Danesfield Camp, Medmenham : the site and the Scheduled area place-name of Danesfield Camp/Danes were excavated in the Scheduled area, while a Ditches; a farm on the site had been known as sixth trench and a test-pit sampled the car• Medlicotts in the later 18th century, but the park (Fig. 2). ln all cases, topsoil was removed then owner changed the name to Danesfield mechanically; thereafter archaeological de• House soon afteT 1786 (VCH, 85 , 88). posits were cleaned and investigated man• ually. Deposits observed in the car park area A I-1 Cocks questioned the accepted Saxon were such as to merit a watching brief and date of the site, partly because of the chance small-scale excavation in conjunction with the discovery of a bronze spearhead (Cocks 1910). construction groundworks (Figs 2 and 3); this He also correctly pointed out the incongruity work was undertaken in late October and of comparing Danesfield Camp with Dyke early December 1990. Hills (Cocks 1911, 24), because the latter occupies fiat land in a bend in the Thames whereas the former sits on top of a cliff rising RESULTS from the bank; nevertheless, he stopped short of suggesting an Iron Age date. Other chance The assessment in the scheduled area finds from the site include Neolithic or Bronze Assessment trenches 1 to 5, within the Age flint flakes (Plaisted 1925, 4-5; Farley Scheduled Ancient Monument, failed to pro• pers comm). A Neolithic flint axe was found duce archaeological deposits. A few worked on the N bank of the Thames at the bottom of flints were recovered from silty deposits within the scarp (County SMR No. 5119). No formal the plateau gravel; the artefacts are unlikely to excavations had been undertaken prior to be in their primary contexts. No later prehis• 1990. toric material was recovered. Much of the interior of the hillfort has been The car-park site landscaped to form the gardens of Danesfield Assessment trench 6, in the car park area to House, a late Victorian mock-Tudor manor the N of the House, revealed several deposits house constructed between 1898-1901. A of archaeological interest; three archaeological building programme during the Second World features were excavated. Several modern fea• War caused extensive damage to theW half of tures were present. Further investigations the site; at this time Danesfield House was were concentrated in this area. Context num• occupied by the Royal Air Force. None of the bers were assigned in a continuous sequence RAF buildings survive. The E and S portion for both the assessment and the subsequent of the site has been designated as a Scheduled observations. Contexts 1-15 were assigned Ancient Monument (County Number BU 135, during the assessment; contexts 16-47 were Fig. 1). used during the later observation and ex• cavation. Numbers were not given to Victo• The redevelopment rian and modern features or layers during the The owners of the site, Danesfield Ltd., latter works. proposed to convert the House into a luxury hotel. This involved the construction of a new Groundworks for the car-park were slight, wing and maze to the E of the House in the and in some areas did not entirely remove the Scheduled area, and the construction of a car existing topsoil; deep excavations were con• park to theN of the House (Fig. 2) . Scheduled fined to four E-W lines of stanchion footings, Monument Consent was required for the and a N-S services trench through the centre former works. of the car park. Thus only a small number of features under threat from construction had to The archaeological response be excavated. Two areas up to 30 m long In August 1990 the Oxford Archaeological (E-W) and each up to 10 m wide were man• Unit undertook an assessment of the arch• ually cleaned at the E end of the car park; the aeological deposits on the site. Five trenches two areas were separated by an existing road 89 N t Area of excavation ·.;r~ ' , J~ ;·!i Assessment trenches , • ...J Fig. 2 Danesfield Camp, Medmenham: location of assessment trenches and salvage excavation area (Figs 2 and 3). All features which appeared to flakes of worked flint. F28 was overlain by a be of archaeological origin were planned; de• silty layer 0.09 m thick, 26; this was partially finition was by soil/fill type and/or by the pre• sealed by layer 22, of similar character and sence of artefacts revealed in exposed surfaces 0.11 m thick. Both layers also contained during initial site cleaning and subsequent worked flint , but their full extents could not be examination. traced due to the limitations of the obser• vation. The fill of the feature, and the layers, The nature of the coarse, flinty plateau lacked either the ash or humic content gravel made the edges of features and the in• characteristic of the Iron Age deposits (see terfaces between strata indistinct. This prob• below). lem was compounded by the presence in the gravel of broad pockets of sandy silt and thick Posthole F18, which cut through layer 22 bands of silty clay, making it difficult to into the eastern terminus of F28, also con• differentiate between geological and arch• tained vvorked flint. The post-hole, however, aeological deposits. The features and possibie is more likely to be an Iron Age feature. The features observed during the assessment and flintwork is described below. subsequent work are plotted in Figure 3. Phase II- Middie Iron Age Phase I - Neolithic Several possible pits were observed during An E-W feature, F28, 0.26 m deep and the investigation; artefacts were recovered filled with pale sandy silts , contained several from some of these, and two were excavated 90 - · - · - i I ' - · - · - -- · - I I I I " 40 I \ 45 / N - -- 39''__...--.., - , I I " -, I I - \ 0 ~ I _,.,......-' --- .... __' !"' ~ \ l ..," ,, \ I ,..."' \\ \ ~ - \I ., - Lt ..,' 44 3611 ;' /-..... 1 t structure j ' -\ , ('\ } N J -, ,""' ~' F43 \' t ', l~ .... ,-, / -"- I / ,_, t . ' -;,-" 035\ ; -41 ," I " " - c; . ( In'~ •:> .Q ', I ', /' - 34~42 · - - ~ -- -- - ·- ·- - ·- ·- · - ·- ·- ·- paved road ·- ·- i ;--- ·- _ .. - -- ·- ·-- • I \ \ . -- 0 '\]-·-·-· l . \0 ... l __~ , ..I f ,- ~, \ \ \ ,,,--,, ence F" ' II \ \ '. I II -(_)-..."\ r .._ / 1 17 I J~r- 23 ''B->8 ,, 1 \ l 46\I ,471I I ,,/-,- \ ~ ' Ir' I .... I / ~ --./ ,,,-.~, lL ! _ , __ _._ _ .