T H A M E S V A L L E Y AARCHAEOLOGICALRCHAEOLOGICAL S E R V I C E S New Grain Store, Hall Farm, Lillingstone Lovell, Buckinghamshire Archaeological Watching Brief by Steve Crabb Site Code: HFL12/29 (SP7125 3987) New Grain Store, Hall Farm, Lillingstone Lovell, Buckinghamshire An Archaeological Watching Brief For Mr J Culley by Steven Crabb Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code HFL 12/29 April 2012 Summary Site name: New Grain Store, Hall Farm, Lillingstone Lovell, Buckinghamshire Grid reference: SP7125 3987 Site activity: Watching Brief Date and duration of project: 5th–8th March 2012 Project manager: Steve Ford Site supervisor: Steven Crabb Site code: HFL 12/29 Area of site: watching brief c. 600 sq m; earthwork survey c. 3.25 ha Summary of results: Two brick-floors were revealed during the watching brief and were preserved in-situ. These may be from an outbuilding associated with the manorial buildings known to have been demolished in 1788. Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Buckinghamshire County Museum in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. All TVAS unpublished fieldwork reports are available on our website: www.tvas.co.uk/reports/reports.asp. Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford9 03.04.12 Steve Preston9 03.04.12 i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 47–49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR Tel. (0118) 926 0552; Fax (0118) 926 0553; email [email protected]; website: www.tvas.co.uk New Grain Store, Hall Farm, Lillingstone Lovell, Buckinghamshire An Archaeological Watching Brief by Steven Crabb Report 12/29 Introduction This report documents the results of an archaeological watching brief carried out at Hall Farm, Lillingstone Lovell, Buckinghamshire (SP7125 3987) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr James Harrison of Bowie Lockwood, Coombe Abbey Farm, Coombe Fields Road, Binley, Coventry, on behalf of Mr John Culley, Hall Farm, Lillingstone Lovell, Buckinghamshire. Planning permission has been granted (11/02819/APP) by Aylesbury Vale District Council to construct a new grain store at Hall Farm, subject to a condition (3) which requires the implementation of a programme of a preliminary earthwork survey and a watching brief during the overburden removal and the digging of any foundations and service trenches. The is in accordance with Planning for the Historic Environment (PPS5 2010) and the District Council’s policy on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Ms Eliza Alqassar of Buckinghamshire County Archaeology Service, who advises the Local Planning Authority on archaeological matters. The fieldwork was undertaken by Steven Crabb between 5th and 8th March 2012 and the site code is HFL 12/29. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Buckinghamshire County Museum in due course. Location, topography and geology The site is located between the villages of Lillingstone Lovell to the north and Akeley to the south, both of which are to the north of Buckingham in north Buckinghamshire. (Fig. 2). The land is currently open farmland under grass, gently sloping from c. 95m to 90m above Ordnance Datum from north-east to south-west, to the south of the existing farm buildings. The underlying geology is Blisworth Clay (BGS 1969). There is a canalized stream to the west and south of the site and a spring feeding a drain to the east. There is also evidence for dried springs on the site. 1 Archaeological background The archaeological potential of the site has been highlighted in a briefing note provided by Ms Eliza Alqassar of Buckinghamshire County Archaeology Service (Alqassar 2012) and from data within the county historic environment record. In summary, to the south of the proposal site, a number of earthworks correspond to a moat, fishponds and part of the formal gardens associated with a post-medieval manorial complex. The manor house itself was demolished in 1788. The current farm house is a grade II listed building with 17th century origins, and with other elements of the existing farm buildings dating to the 18th century. The site is located close to the village of Lillingstone Lovell which has Saxon origins and was documented in Domesday Book (Williams and Martin 2002). Although the site lies a short distance from the current village centre in Medieval times the village would have encompassed a larger area (Jones and Page 2006, 206). Objectives and methodology The purpose of the watching brief was two-fold: firstly to survey any earthworks on or close to the proposal site prior to the commencement of any groundworks; and secondly to excavate and record any archaeological deposits affected by the groundworks. The specific research aims of the project were: to determine if archaeologically relevant levels have survived on this site; to determine if archaeological deposits of any period are present; and to determine whether archaeological deposits relating to late Saxon, medieval or early post- medieval settlement are present. The upstanding earthworks were recorded using a Korec GPS unit as a walkover survey, initially this survey was restricted to c. 30m around the area of the groundworks, but this was further extended to include a larger area of the site. This was supplemented by digital photographs of some of the features. The removal of overburden and levelling of the site of the new grain store was to be observed and any features uncovered during this process were to be hand cleaned and recorded. The excavation of footing and service trenches was also to be observed. 2 Results Earthwork survey A number of earthworks were observed both within the area of the new grain store and to one side. These earthworks consisted of a roughly circular mound and a linear feature on the western side (Figs 2 and 3). The circular earthwork was subsequently investigated and shown to be a pile of recent demolition debris as suspected. The other earthworks present to the south are considered to include fish ponds and a house platform along with other landscaping features (Fig. 2; Pl. 1). Watching Brief The site of the new grain store, 27m by 20, with a 7m by 6m extension to the west, was stripped of topsoil with a 360° type machine to allow a stable base for a layer of hardcore to be spread forming the base of a slab. The topsoil removed was between 0.05m at the northern side and 0.25m thick at the southern side. This revealed across the site a layer of made ground and rubble consisting of brick, tile and stone fragments within a mid grey brown silty clay (52). Three pieces of clay pipe, one piece of bottle glass and one lead fitting were recovered from this layer. This directly overlay two brick surfaces (53 and 54) which consisted of bricks laid flat (Fig. 4; Pl. 2). Surface 53 comprised an area approximately 4m by 5m, and 54 was approximately 3m by 1.2m. Both were composed of bricks laid flat in a stretcher-type pattern, with no mortar bond. These floors were part of a structure formed with earth and stone built walls, of which the base only remained. These foundations are roughly 1.0m across and have not been fully exposed. Recessed into the floor was a short section of flint 1.0m long and 0.2m wide possibly used as a footing for an internal wall. Beside this in 53 was a length of iron bar 0.1m wide and c.1.0m long lying on the floor. These structural remains were below the level at which the slab was to be laid. They were covered with a geotextile mesh and a layer 0.3m thick of hardcore material was layered on top (Pl. 3). The development therefore preserved these floor deposits in- situ. Twenty footing trenches were then excavated through the layer of hardcore using a 360° type machine, as shown in Figure 3. The footings for the main building measured 1.4m wide by 1.6m long and 0.8m deep. The stratigraphy revealed typically comprised 0.2m of hardcore over 0.4–0.6m of made ground (Pl. 4). When the footing trenches were deep enough to reach the underlying natural geology on the northern side and south western corner only, this was revealed as a mid brown grey. No archaeologically deposits were observed below 3 the made ground in any of the footings. Made ground observed in footings along the western edge had an increased amount of large lumps of sandstone, potentially masonry, but none had been obviously faced. Finds Metalwork by Steven Crabb A single copper alloy token was recovered from the made ground removed from the south-eastern corner footing. It measures 20mm in diameter with a small amount of damage to one edge (pl. 5). It has been hammered and given the thin material this has led to a concave shape on the obverse side. The obverse of the coin has three fleur de lys and three crowns interspersed equally in the central ring. The outer ring consists of inward facing isosceles triangles. The reverse also follows a basic six-fold symmetry with an inner ring of three points interspersed with three semi-circles, being the base for a central symbol of a circle intersected with a T-shape which terminates in a trefoil mark. As with the obverse the outer ring consists of inward facing isosceles triangles. There is no inscription or indication of a date mark on either side.