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Archaeological Notes from Buckinghamshire County Museum

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Archaeological Notes from Buckinghamshire County Museum ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES FROM BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COUNTY MUSEUM These notes include archaeological discoveries County Museum Archaeological Group is abb• reported during 1991 and a few earlier finds. reviated as CMAG. Abbreviated grid refer• The results of some fieldwalking not yet pro• ences have unfortunately to be given for a cessed will be included in next year's notes. number of sites to prevent looting. The use of The assistance of many informants is gratefully the list as a guide for metal detecting inhibits acknowledged: other discoveries are by future publication of information, an inhibi• museum staff. The compiler would be pleased tion that is in nobody's long term interest. to learn of any errors or omissions. Findspots are recorded under civil parish. Some selec• During the year a substantial number of tion of material has been necessary; single new discoveries were made in Taplow and struck flakes for instance have not normally Dorney on the line of the proposed Maiden• been recorded, nor field scatters of medieval head to Windsor Flood Relief Scheme. Field• pottery unless of sufficient quantity to indicate walking was carried out by the museum, and settlement, nor single Roman coin finds. trial trenching by Thames Valley Arch• Bracketed numbers indicate that the material aeological Services. is with the County Museum (BCM). The Michael Farley PREHISTORIC Aylesbury SP 8179 1166 filled with gravel; however it was 2m in width A socketed side-looped bronze spearhead, and 1.3m deep with a V-profile. Seven sherds found in digging house trenches in the from an ?Early Bronze Age globular vessel Humber Drive area of Walton Court in 1981 came from primary silts. A further, undated and not previously recorded, was given to the ditch lay nearby. Museum by Mr. J. Sallis. (1991.85.1) Dorney SU 9262 7947 area Trial trenching following fieldwalking, which Buckland see Romano-British had produced a fairly dispersed scatter of pre• historic, Roman and medieval sherds, located Denham TQ 0452 8712 a series of cut features, but not a 'banjo' enclo• Material from a fieldwalk, carried out by Mr. sure tentatively identified on air photos. M. Tingle in 1984, was passed to BCM. It Significant features included a single mid includes Neolithic struck flakes, a leaf Bronze Age cremation in an inverted Deverel• arrowhead and a transverse arrowhead. Field• Rimbury urn, possibly indicating a larger walk records are at BCM. cemetery; pits, ditches and gullies possibly (1991.63) Iron Age; pits and postholes possibly of Saxon date; and a group of features of medieval/late Dorney SU 9210 7997 medieval date. Trial trenching located one of two ring ditches noted on air photos and during geophysical Dorney SU 930 770 area survey a little north of the M4. The ditch Trial trenching was carried out by the Oxford proved difficult to locate having been back- Archaeological Unit in connection with a plan- 148 ning application for a rowing course in a field Princes Risborough see Post-Medieval containing extensive cropmarks. A report appears in South Midlands Archaeology 22, Stokenchurch SU 767 936 26. Extensive field systems of mid to Late An evaluation adjacent to a cropmark of un• Bronze Age date were investigated and an certain character at Chequers Manor Farm urnfield cemetery located. Although gravel was carried out by the Museum under the di• islands within the alluvium appear to have rection of Andrew Hunn for Mr K. Freeman, been favoured, the presence of Bronze Age in advance of proposals for golf course con• horizons off the islands show the whole to struction near Cadmore End. The site lay on form part of a continuous landscape. the Chilterns plateau at approx. 660ft (190m) Halton see Saxon and Medieval above sea level on a level promontory of pebbly gravel and clay-with-flint. The evalua• Latimer SP 9865 0185 tion revealed several small cut features inc• A palaeolithic ovate hand axe was discovered luding ditches, containing small quantities of by Mr R. Cato at Dunton brickworks. The axe struck flint. The majority of this material was found during processing of clay at the could be dated to late Mesolithic-late Neolit• works. The find is one of a rare group of axes hic. Some buried soil horizons were also pre• from the Chilterns discovered in unrolled con• sent containing similar material which was also dition in localised clay pockets (e.g. one dis• reflected in surface collection. Overall, six covered at Cholesbury sometime prior to scrapers and fourteen cores were recovered. 1957). Fire-cracked flint was also present in arch• (1991.40) aeological contexts. Although small scale the evaluation is interesting in that it reinforces Lillingstone Dayrell SP 7039 the impression, gained from fieldwalking, of Mr D.Shelley reported the discovery of an widespread use and presumably extensive Iron Age strap-union, identified as of Taylor clearance, of the Chiltern plateau during the and Brailsford's Type 1. earlier prehistoric period. Little Missenden SU 9198 Tap/ow SU 9056 8168 area A gold quarter stater was found by Mr Mark Trial trenching exposed a shallow feature with Parry. LBA/EIA pottery, a pit with over 50 struck tlints including a barb and tang arrowhead, Little M issenden/ Penn su 9080 9660 and a single pit containing burnt flint probably CVAS 5776 of prehistoric date. Some 2m of colluvium of During systematic fieldwalking, Mr and Mrs Roman or later date occurred at the northern Cauvain with CMAG recovered 150 struck end of the site, covering some ephemeral fea• flints of Neolithic to Bronze Age date inc• tures including charcoal patches. luding two scrapers, also a polished flint adze, and a sparse scatter of RB sherds. Concentra• Taplow SU 9070 8105 area tions of burnt flint were also noted. Trial trenching exposed a probable midden (1991.62) lOcm thick, containing burnt and struck flint , together with quantities of possible Bronze Pitstone SP 9344 1552 Age pottery. Mr and Mrs B. Hickman drew attention to finds made over a period of some years in an Tap/ow SU 9093 8078 area allotment including 29 struck flakes of Trial trenching exposed an infilled hollow at Neolithic-Bronze Age date, part of a polished the base of which was much burnt flint with Neolithic axe, a transverse arrowhead, a uni• occasional prehistoric sherds and struck flints. facially flaked ovate, a fln e hi-facially flaked A second hollow with similar characteristics piece possibly from a sickle or part of an lay nearby. Other smaller burnt-flint-filled fea• arrowhead, and a single blade/flake core. tures occurred in the vicinity. 149 Tap/ow SU 9122 8068 area not obviously correlate with the results of trial Trial trenching exposed three features con• trenching which produced only three undated taining burnt flint, presumably prehistoric in ditches and a pit. However see following entry date. which lies in the southern part of the field. Tap/ow SU 9132 8045 area Tap/ow SU 9180 7997 Trial trenching exposed a series of individual Trial trenching near the M4 intercepted an old features or layers containing small quantities river channel containing at least a metre of of struck flints, also pottery of probable Late peat. A site located on the margins of the peat Bronze Age date. contained a charcoal patch, a pit full of burnt flint and a possible midden containing struck Tap/ow SU 9157 8023 area flints and Middle Bronze Age (Deverel• Fieldwalking in advance of trial trenching re• Rimbury) pottery with carbonised residues) . covered over 140 struck flakes including ten Finds appeared to occur only on the top of the scrapers of Neolithic-Bronze Age date, and a peat. number of retouched pieces. These finds did ROMANO-BRITISH C'D 0()<. '2'2'1 ~,...._.,_,..,.~ +).....,.... A~,..,,...,....,.,,.....,.~, roof' .....,..., r-,,.-f...,....,,...,~,,...,. 1"'\,...,........, ~f U.l. LJ./V .JJ~ _1-JVllL.-U lJJV UJ.;:)VV V \..-J J Vl Ull \....>/\ lVU.;,.l V V UJ. '-'U V.l. An excavation, directed by Andrew Hunn for slag, including smelting slag visible on a large the County Museum and funded by English lynchet. Heritage, ~as carried out in advance of con• struction of the Little Brickhill by-pass and Buckland SP 8912 following a geophysical survey by English During systematic fieldwalking, CMAG re• Heritage. The work abutted an area of corded the presence of Roman pottery and Magiovinium previously examined by David tile, indicating a small Roman settlement. Neal in 1978- 80. Flint-gritted Iron Age pottery was also Further evidence was uncovered for a series of present. ditched enclosures, apparently regularly plan• (BC) ned, to the east of the defended area of the town. Most of these property divisions appear Dorney See Prehistoric; also Saxon and to have been maintained with little re• Medieval positioning throughout the period of occupa• tion which lasted from the first through to the Great Brickhill SP 8928 later fourth century. Trial trenching further A report was received that during excavation east of the main investigation area may have of a small gravel pit a number of Roman coins located surfaces of Watling Street. A single had been discovered and ditches apparently of contracted inhumation burial was found within Roman date were present. As it was intended one of the enclosures during topsoil stripping that further extraction might take place an for a contractor's compound. evaluation was requested. The result of this work appears in this issue of Records. Bradenhnm SU X397 area Mr A.Waimvright, for the National Trust, re Stantonbury SP 8410 4200 ported th e discovery of three patches of iron Trial trenching was carried out by the Oxford smelting slag. First-century AD pottery was Archaeological Unit in advance of a proposed found in the same area.
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