Land to the South of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final

Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Archaeological Watching Brief Report December 2017 Client: Anglian Water Issue No: Final OA©Oxford Report Archaeology No: 2166 Ltd i 7 December 2018 NGR: SP 88659 33781 Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final Client Name: Anglian Water Client Ref No:. Document Title: Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Document Type: Watching Brief Report Report No.: 2166 Grid Reference: SP 88659 33781 Planning Reference: Site Code: XBUBNL16 Invoice Code: XBUBNL16 Receiving Body: Milton Keynes Museum Accession No.: TBA OA Document File Location: X:\Active Projects_Use KT\Buckinghamshire\XBUBNL16 OA Graphics File Location: X:\Active Projects_Use KT\Buckinghamshire\XBUBNL16 Issue No: Final Date: 6 December 2017 Prepared by: Robin Webb (Project Officer) Checked by: Richard Mortimer (Senior Project Manager) Edited by: Richard Mortimer (Senior Project Manager) Approved for Issue by: Paul Spoerry (Regional Manager) Signature: Disclaimer: This document has been prepared for the titled project or named part thereof and should not be relied upon or used for any other project without an independent check being carried out as to its suitability and prior written authority of Oxford Archaeology being obtained. Oxford Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability for the consequences of this document being used for a purpose other than the purposes for which it was commissioned. Any person/party using or relying on the document for such other purposes agrees and will by such use or reliance be taken to confirm their agreement to indemnify Oxford Archaeology for all loss or damage resulting therefrom. Oxford Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability for this document to any party other than the person/party by whom it was commissioned. OA South OA East OA North Janus House 15 Trafalgar Way Mill 3 Osney Mead Bar Hill Moor Lane Mills Oxford Cambridge Moor Lane OX2 0ES CB23 8SG Lancaster LA1 1QD t. +44 (0)1865 263 800 t. +44 (0)1223 850 500 t. +44 (0)1524 880 250 e. [email protected] w. oxfordarchaeology.com Oxford Archaeology is a registered Charity: No. 285627 ©Oxford Archaeology Ltd iii 7 December 2018 Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Archaeological Watching Brief Report Written by Robin Webb (BA MA ACIfA) With illustrations by Dave Brown (BA) Contents Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................... viii 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Scope of work............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Location, topography and geology................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Archaeological and historical background..................................................................................................... 1 2 EVALUATION AIMS AND METHODOLOGY ............................................................... 3 2.1 Aims ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 3 3 RESULTS .................................................................................................................. 4 3.1 Introduction and presentation of results ...................................................................................................... 4 3.2 General soils and ground conditions ............................................................................................................. 4 3.3 General distribution of deposits ................................................................................................................... 4 3.4 Trenches ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 3.5 Finds summary ............................................................................................................................................. 5 4 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................ 6 4.1 Evaluation objectives and results.................................................................................................................. 6 4.2 Interpretation ............................................................................................................................................... 6 APPENDIX A TRENCH DESCRIPTIONS AND CONTEXT INVENTORY .................................. 7 APPENDIX B BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 8 APPENDIX C OASIS REPORT FORM ................................................................................. 9 ©Oxford Archaeology Ltd iv 7 December 2018 Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final List of Figures Figure 1 Site location map List of Plates Plate 1 Trench 1, from the north Plate 2 Trench 1, from the north Plate 3 Trench 2, from the south-east Plate 4 Trench 3, from the south-west Plate 5 Trench 4, from the south-west ©Oxford Archaeology Ltd v 7 December 2018 Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final Summary Over three days between October and December 2017 (30th October – 1st November, 5th December 2017) OA East carried out an archaeological watching brief on land to the south of Watling Street, at Manor Fields Pumping Station, Bletchley (SP 88659 33781). The monitoring was carried out ahead of excavations for drill pits for inserting sewage pipes. The trenching was located close to the Roman fort and town of Magiovinium, east of Fenny Stratford. The trenches were located on either side of the River Ouzel. No archaeological finds or remains were observed. ©Oxford Archaeology Ltd vii 7 December 2018 Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final Acknowledgements Oxford Archaeology would like to thank Anglian Water for commissioning this project. The project was managed for Oxford Archaeology by Richard Mortimer. The fieldwork was directed by James Fairbairn and Robin Webb. Thanks are also extended to the OA staff who prepared the archive under the management of Kat Hamilton. ©Oxford Archaeology Ltd viii 7 December 2018 Land to the south of Watling Street, Manor Fields, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire Final 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Scope of work 1.1.1 Oxford Archaeology (OA) was commissioned by Anglian Water to undertake an archaeological watching brief at Manor Field Pumping Station, Bletchley. 1.1.2 The work was undertaken ahead of the laying of additional pipes between the pumping station and existing pipes to the south of Watling Street. 1.2 Location, topography and geology 1.2.1 The site lies on the eastern outskirts of Fenny Stratford, centered on SP 88659 33781 (Figure 1), within the parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. The northern edge was defined by Watling Street and the western edge by the road into Bletchley Rugby Club. The River Ouzel lay across the middle of the route. The proposed works consisted of four test pits to be dug in drill and access locations for the pipework. 1.2.2 The test pit area lay in the valley for the River Ouzel, with a maximum height of 68m aOD towards the south-east. The natural geology of the area consists of Oxford Clay, overlain in places by terrace gravels and alluvium (BGS 2017). 1.3 Archaeological and historical background 1.3.1 The archaeological and historical background of the site has been discussed in depth for works on the opposite side of Watling Street (Zeepvat 2004), and will only be summarized here with additional mention of works in the immediate vicinity. Earlier Prehistoric (before 600BC) 1.3.2 Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic activity in the region has been strongest in the section of the Ouzel Valley in Milton Keynes, and has been mostly represented by chance finds of flint hand-axes recovered during drainage works (SMR 1166, 1167, 1187, 1927), with no earlier prehistoric sites identified. Later Prehistoric (600BC-AD43) 1.3.3 Occupation sites have been identified in the region (Fenny Lock) dating from the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age in the form of post-built structures, gullies and pit alignments (Ford and Taylor 1996). Iron Age activity has also been seen on a larger scale during excavations in the Ouzel valley at Hartigans Gravel Pit and Pennylands (Williams 1993), Wavendon Gate (Williams et al 1996), Caldecote (Zeepvat et al 1994) and Saffron Gardens (SMR 1270). Roman (AD43-450) 1.3.4 The Milton Keynes area fell within the civitas of the Catuvellauni – an area covering much of the south-east Midlands – with its capital at Verulamium (St Albans).

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