THE MJ[Ll'O N KJE '1{NJE S PROJJE C 1' R. J. ZEEPVAT Between 1971 and 1991, the Milton Keynes Archaeology Unit carried our the most intensive archaeological investigation yet undertaken of part of the East Midlands countryside. This paper summarises the arch.aeo!Ggicallandscapes that can be constructed ji·om the results of this work, and assesses the methods employed to obtain them. Introduction Milton Keynes is underlain by beds of Oxford The new city of Milton Keynes covers an area Clay, which outcrop extensively on the west of some ninety square kilometres, straddling side of the Ouzel floodplain, which forms the the narrowest part of north Buckinghamshire, east side of the city. Much of this central area is with the counties of Bedfordshire and North• covered by glacial deposits of Boulder Clay, amptonshire to the south-east and north res• whilst both glacial and alluvial deposits of pectively (Fig. 1). Part of the reasoning behind gravel are found in the Ouse and Ouzel valleys. the choice of this location can be seen in its Rocky outcrops are mainly confined to areas situation on the principal natural 'corridor' bordering the O use valley. Soils in the area are linking the south-east to the Midlands and heavy, though lighter soils are found in areas of north, a route followed by all the major forms gravel subsoil, and drainage is generally poor of surface transport, ancient and modern. even in the riv·er valleys, which were prone to flooding until recent years. Until the designation of Milton Keynes, the area was devoted almost entirely to agri• Despite its situation on a major communica• culture. Settlement consisted mainly of small tions corridor, th_e Milton Keynes area re• villages, isolated farms, and the market towns mained largely ignored by antiquaries and of Bletchley, Stony Stratford, and Newport archaeologists until the 1950s, with the growth of Pagnell. The more recent establishment of two local archaeological societies. A large Wolverton , and the large-scale expansion of amount of fieldwork, as well as several small Bletchley, provided a more modern industri• excavations, were undertaken by these groups alised environment, the former being a in the area, particularly after the designation of nineteenth-century railway creation, and the Milton Keynes in I 967. The result was a total latter a post-war development, sponsored in change in the historical map of the area, part by the Greater London Council. showing that the Ouse valley and its hinterland had been densely settled since at least the In geological terms, the area forms a part of Roman period. the Oxford Clay vale of the cast Midlands, bounded to the south-east by the Lower As a result of this work, and campaigning by Greensand escarpment (Fig. 2). The under• the societies, the Milton Keynes Development lying geological sequence is represented by Corporation appointed two full-time arc• mudstones and limestones of the Upper Lias, haeologists in 197l to carry out excavation of outcropping on the edges of the floodplain of sites in the new city area in advance of de• the river Ouse, which forms the north bound• velopment. From this grew the Milton Keynes ary of the city. Moving southwards, much of Archaeology Unit, which has been funded the high ground forming the central part of principally by the Development Corporation, 49 Milton Keyn es designated area boundary 0 1 2 km. F Ig ..1 Milton Keynes; location--- map. 50 MILTON KEYNES Os(nrd dl}' Surface geology & clraimge C(mll,r,o,h , 0 I Hl~::~istlrth hm1 to ~ ll' ~~ d ;:y ~ . [~ tuJu».~ ,qrli:!!l.. --- lh. l l fl~ l Ll•ly 1~''" (g; dll)' Fig. 2. Milton Keynes; geology and drainage. 51 with only small contributions from the De• have produced suitable samples of environ• partment of the Environment and the Man• mental material to allow detailed reconstruc• power Services Commission. tion of the palaeoenvironment for periods prior to the Iron Age. Since its inception, the Unit's brief has been to undertake excavation of sites threatened by Palaeolithic occupation is represented only development within the Milton Keynes de• by five hand-axes, no 'in situ' occupation sites signated area, taking as a starting point sites having been discovered. Gravel pits in the identified by fieldwork carried out by local Ouse and Ouzel valleys have proved difficult to societies, as well as to advise on the retention monitor constantly. In contrast, Mesolithic and and management of selected sites. Over the Neolithic flintwork and artefacts have been years, this approach has been modified with found throughout the city, mainly sealed in the discovery of additional sites by fieldwork riverine deposits in the Ouzel and Laughton during the course of development, or, more Brook valleys, though the discovery of a recently, by local metal detectorists, working tranchet axe at Pennyland, 2 km. from the in co-operation with the Unit. However, the Ouzel on heavy clayland suggests that tree• emphasis always has been on examining at felling may have been under way in the least a representative selection of types of sites Mesolithic period on what is assumed to have of all periods throughout the city area, in order been a heavily wooded area. Only three occu• to obtain a comprehensive picture of changes pation sites, all late Neolithic in date, have so m land use and settlement pattern since the far been identified and excavated, at Stacey end of the last Glacial period. This approach Bushes, Heelands, and Secklow. has met with varying degrees of success, largely depending on the archaeological period con• The Stacey Bushes site (Green and Sofranoff cerned. The Unit's involvement with fieldwork 1985) was located on a Cornbrash limestone ceased in 1991, prior to the winding-up of the area to the west of Laughton Brook, sur• Development Corporation, and Unit staff are rounded by intractable clays. It consisted of engaged presently on completing post• a group of pits and other features containing excavation work before the Unit itself is closed occupation debris, including Grimston style down in 1994. and Grooved Ware pottery. Environmental evidence from the site suggests that the area This article was prepared following a confer• was wooded, but that substantial clearance had ence on landscape archaeology projects, held taken place around the site. At Heelands, a in Leicester in 1989. Its aim was to describe the group of pits similar to those at Stacey Bushes aims of and methods employed on the Milton were found on a south-facing slope on the Keynes project, and to assess their success or Boulder Clay plateau which covers the central failure. With the completion of fieluwork by part of Milton Keynes. Also on the plateau, the Unit in the new city area, this paper has about one kilometre to the south-east, a single been amended to include a more detailed look Neolithic pit was located beneath a Saxon at the results of the Unit's work over the last mound at Seck low. twenty years, and the picture it presents of the changing landscape of this part of the county All the evidence from these and other con• since the Palaeolithic era. temporary finds in the city suggests extensive dearance, even ot the heavier wooded clay Prehistoric areas, by the late Neolithic period. It is unfor• Turning first to the hunter/gatherer cultures, tunate that with the pdncipal direction of tbe it is evident that the area of Milton Keynes is Unit's programmes being dictated by the pre - too small and its geology and topography insuf• smes of development it has not been p . sible ficiently diverse to allow any meaningful to organise or fund tbe type of intensive field• observations to be made from the results of the work and sampling programme necessary to Unit's work (Fig. 3) . Furthermore, few sites identify sites of this period. Both Stacey 52 M ~lT()[\~ KEY~~E S PALAEOLITHIC~>BRONZE ACE ~ _/ j 0 0 Q PALAEOLITHIC FINDSPOTS 6 FLINT SCATTERS (Neolithic/Mesolithic) (;1ft OCCUPATION SITES (Neolithic) / Q RING DITCHES it: BRONZE HOARDS @ OCCUPATION SITES (Bronze Age) Fig. 3. Milton Keynes; Prehistoric sites (Palaeolithic to Bronze Age). Bushes and Heelands were brought to light Green's excavations of 'ring ditches' in the during construction work, which invariably Ouse and Ouzel valleys, which provided the imposes severe restrictions on any arch• basis for his pioneering study relating burial, aeological investigation. territories, and population (Green 1974). Green's hypothesis of an essentially pastoral Turning to the Bronze Age, much of the economy in this period, with ranch-like estates available evidence has come from Stephen or units covering the Ouse and Ouzel valleys, 53 requires further confirmation from excavation to the north-west, situated on a gravel spur and fieldwork. overlooking the Ouzel valley, cultivation of the surrounding clay soils was clearly taking place. In recent years, an increasing number of Wavendon Gate, the largest site so far ex• Bronze Age artefacts have been reported to amined, was located on a 'head' deposit over• the Unit by local detectorists. However, it has looking a tributary of the Ouzel, while Ban• proved difficult to locate settlements, a prob• croft and Furzton were both on the west side of lem which is not limited to Milton Keynes the Lough ton Brook valley, the latter on very alone. There is one exception to this, the intracable clay soils. At Furzton in particular massive late Bronze Age roundhouse, dis• the evidence points to a cattle-based economy, covered beneath an Iron Age settlement at perhaps seasonal in nature, with few traces of Bancroft. This structure, 18.5 m.