Chiltern Hills Golf Course Chorleywoods Buckinghamshire

Home , Chiltern Hills

Archaeological Watching Brief

for Brookside Planning Consultants on behalf of Quattro UK Ltd

CA Project: 660374 CA Report: 00000

Month (in words) Year

Chiltern Hills Golf Course Chorleywoods Buckinghamshire

Archaeological Watching Brief

CA Project: 660374 CA Report: 15091

Document Control Grid Revision Date Author Checked by Status Reasons for Approved revision by A 08/03/2016 Andrew Internal Whelan review

This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report entirely at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission.

CONTENTS

SUMMARY ...... 2

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 3

2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ...... 3

3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ...... 4

4. METHODOLOGY ...... 4

5. RESULTS (FIGS 2-6) ...... 5

6. DISCUSSION ...... 5

7. CA PROJECT TEAM ...... 6

8. REFERENCES ...... 6

APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS ...... 7

APPENDIX B: OASIS REPORT FORM...... 8

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1 Site location plan, 1:25,000 Fig. 2 Trench plan, showing site plan 1: 5000 Fig. 3 Site shot pre-excavation looking southwest (SAM_0245) Fig. 4 Stripped area at the southern end of reservoir looking northwest (SAM_0253) Fig. 5 Stripped area in the middle of reservoir looking west (SAM_0261) Fig. 6 Stripped area in the north of reservoir looking northeast (SAM_0273)

1 © Cotswold Archaeology Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

SUMMARY

Project Name: Chiltern Hills Golf Course Location: Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire NGR: TQ 0226 9718 Type: Watching Brief Date: 17-20 February 2015 Planning Reference: CH/2010/0133/VRC Location of Archive: Milton Keynes Accession Number: Site Code: CHG 15

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology during groundworks associated with ground disturbing works associated with construction of the club house and a reservoir at Chiltern Hills Golf Course.

No features or deposits of archaeological interest were observed during groundworks, and no artefactual material pre-dating the modern period was recovered.

2 © Cotswold Archaeology Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 In February 2015 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological watching brief for Brookside Planning Consultants on behalf of Quattro UK Ltd at the Chiltern Hills Golf Course (centred on NGR: TQ 0226 9718; Fig. 1). The watching brief was undertaken to fulfil a condition attached to a planning consent for a club house and a reservoir (Planning ref: CH/2010/0133/VRC).

1.2 The watching brief was carried out in accordance Condition no. 17 regarding the planning permission to revise the original plans for the clubhouse and golf course granted by Chiltern District Council (application no. CH/2010/0133/VRC), and with a subsequent detailed Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by CA (CA 2011) approved by the Chiltern District Council. The fieldwork also followed Standard and guidance: Archaeological watching brief (CIfA 2014). It was monitored by Chiltern District Council.

The site

1.3 The development area is approximately 70ha in size and is located c. 500m south of Chenies and c. 400m north-west of Chorleywood. It comprises three previously agricultural fields, woodland to the west extent, and land now in use as a golf course. The site is bounded to the north and east by Amersham Road and Green Street respectively, to the south by Chiltern Rail Line from Aylesbury to Marylebone Station, and to the west agricultural. The site lies at approximately 126m above Ordnance Datum (aOD) in the north-western part of the site, sloping gently to c. 95m aOD in the south-east.

1.4 The underlying bedrock geology of the area is mapped and appeared as Seaford Chalk Formation and Newhaven Chalk Formation of the Cretaceous Period. This was overlain by superficial quaternary deposits of gravel (BGS 2016).

2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 The archaeological and historical background of the site compiled from the WSI (CA 2011) and Buckinghamshire Historic Environment Record (HER) identified from a

3 © Cotswold Archaeology Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

geophysical survey by GeoQuest Associates undertaken in June 1999 (GQA 1999) highlighting three ditches of possible archaeological interest, and several probably geological anomalies. In the area immediately to the west of Green Street there was a semi-circular anomaly and an L-shaped anomaly quite close to each other. However negative results from a watching brief carried out by Foundations Archaeology in September 1999 (FA 2010) in two areas of previous topsoil stripping reduced the probability of archaeological features within the development area, however the wider area is rich in archaeological remains relating to prehistoric settlement.

3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

3.1 The objectives of the archaeological works were:

 to monitor groundworks, and to identify, investigate and record all significant buried archaeological deposits revealed on the site during the course of the development groundworks;

 at the conclusion of the project, to produce an integrated archive for the project work and a report setting out the results of the project and the archaeological conclusions that can be drawn from the recorded data.

4. METHODOLOGY

4.1 The fieldwork followed the methodology set out within the WSI (CA 2011). An archaeologist was present during intrusive groundworks include excavation of foundation and service trenches for the new club house and the stripping of topsoil / ploughsoil in advance of the creation of the reservoir. All material was removed under archaeological supervision via mechanical excavation using a toothless ditching bucket.

4.2 Where archaeological deposits were encountered written, graphic and photographic records were compiled in accordance with CA Technical Manual 1: Fieldwork Recording Manual.

4 © Cotswold Archaeology Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

4.3 The archive from the evaluation is currently held by CA at their offices in Milton Keynes, prior to its final deposition with Buckinghamshire Museum Services. A summary of information from this project, set out within Appendix B, will be entered onto the OASIS online database of archaeological projects in Britain.

5. RESULTS (FIGS 2-6)

5.1 The natural geological substrate (103) consisting of dark brown clay, was revealed at across the site at an average depth of 0.9m below present ground level. This was overlain by two separate deposits of made ground consisting of redeposited natural 101 and 102 averaging 0.8m and 0.7m in thickness respectively, which was in turn sealed by 0.2m of friable dark brown grey clay loam topsoil (100).

5.2 No features or deposits of archaeological interest were observed during groundworks and, despite visual scanning of spoil, no artefactual material pre-dating the modern period was recovered.

6. DISCUSSION

6.1 Despite the archaeological potential of the application area (see archaeological background above); the watching brief identified no archaeological remains within the area of observed groundworks. The absence of archaeological deposits may indicate that structural remains associated with the wider area, which is rich in archaeological remains relating to prehistoric settlement, either do not extend as far as or were not exposed by the development, or that they may have been removed during previous development.

6.2 The previous WIB undertaken by FA (FA 2010), did demonstrate the lower potential for archaeological remains from the negative results regarding geophysical results from GQA (GQA 1999), and given that a large part of the site contained made ground 101 and 102 overlap of areas may have occurred during this previous phase of development.

7. CA PROJECT TEAM

Fieldwork was undertaken by Ralph Brown. The report was written by Andrew Whelan. The illustrations were prepared by Daniel Bashford. The archive has been compiled by Emily Evans, and prepared for deposition by Hazel O’Neill. The project was managed for CA by Derek Evans.

8. REFERENCES

BGS (British Geological Survey) 2016 Geology of Britain Viewer http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html Accessed 9 March 2016

CA (Cotswold Archaeology) 2011 Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Written Scheme of Investigation for an Archaeological Watching Brief FA (Foundations Archaeology) 2010 Green Street, Chorley Wood

GQA (GeoQuest Associates) 1999 Geophysical Surveys on Land for Chenies Golf Club, Green Street, near Chorleywood

HER (Buckinghamshire HER) 2016 Heritage Gateway http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/ Accessed 9 March 2016

APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS

Trench Context Type Fill of Context Description L (m) W Depth Spot-date No. No. interpretation (m) /thick ness (m) 1 100 Layer Topsoil Dark brown grey clay loam, friable. 0.35 modern 1 101 Layer Made ground Mid brown orange sandy clay, soft 0.8 modern with stones. 1 102 Layer Made ground Dark brown grey clay silt, soft with 0.7 modern stones. 1 103 Layer Natural Mid orange brown clay, firm with flint and chalk.

APPENDIX B: OASIS REPORT FORM

PROJECT DETAILS

Project Name Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Watching Brief Short description An archaeological watching brief was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology during groundworks associated with ground disturbing works associated with construction of the club house and a reservoir at Chiltern Hills Golf Course.

No features or deposits of archaeological interest were observed during groundworks, and no artefactual material pre-dating the modern period was recovered.

Project dates 17-20 February 2015 Project type Watching Brief

Previous work Geophysical Surveys GeoQuest Associates. 1999.

Watching Brief Foundations Archaeology. 2010

Future work Unknown PROJECT LOCATION Site Location Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire Study area (M2/ha) Site co-ordinates TQ 0226 9718

PROJECT CREATORS Name of organisation Cotswold Archaeology Project Brief originator Chiltern District Council Project Design (WSI) originator Cotswold Archaeology

Project Manager Derek Evans Project Supervisor Ralph Brown MONUMENT TYPE None SIGNIFICANT FINDS None PROJECT ARCHIVES Intended final location of archive Content Physical None Paper Buckinghamshire Museum Services Pro-forma recording sheets, registers, WSI Digital Buckinghamshire Museum Services Database, digital photographs, digital survey data BIBLIOGRAPHY

CA (Cotswold Archaeology) 2016 Chiltern Hills Golf Course, Chorleywoods, Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Watching Brief