This collection comprises photographs, GIS, spreadsheets, reports, and scanned site records and drawings from an archaeological excavation by INFRA Archaeology at Widmore Farm, Oxfordshire between November 2020 and February 2021.

The excavation forms part of Phase One of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, which will involve the construction of a new railway approximately 230km (143 miles) in length between London and the West Midlands. Powers for the construction, operation and maintenance of Phase One are conferred by the High-Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Act 2017.

The excavation (sitecode 1C20WIDAR) formed part of a wider archaeological recording of two land parcels within the site (C25107 and C25086). Within C25086, excavation was preceded by trial trenching (sitecode 1C20WIDTT).

Project Summary

The general aims of the Archaeological Excavation across the Site were provided in the Project Plan and were as follows:

• To provide further understanding of the undated settlement features across the site and establish a date for their use
• To confirm and record the presence, extent of any late Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement activity
• To confirm and record the origin of the domestic activity across the site and its continuation through the periods
• To confirm the presence of the likely medieval settlement activity in the central southern area of the site
• To confirm the nature and extent of the likely medieval settlement activity in the central southern area of the site
• To understand the impact of the earlier phases of settlement activity on those of a later date

The excavation also sought to contribute to the following specific HERDS objectives:

• KC5: Identifying settlement location and developing models for settlement patterns for the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age
• KC9: Does a lack of visibility of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments reflect genuine area distinctiveness, or is this due to variation in geology or investigative techniques?
• KC10: Provide further understanding of the transition between a mobile pattern of settlement in the Early Bronze Age to the development of fixed settlement and enclosure, in the Middle and Late Bronze Age
• KC15 (KEY OBJECTIVE): Can we identify regional patterns in the form and location of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement across the route, and are there associated differences in landscape organisation and enclosure?
• KC16: Investigate the degree of continuity that existed between Late Bronze Age and Iron Age communities in terms of population, mobility and subsistence strategies
• KC18: Explore the evidence for increasing social complexity in the archaeological record in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, and identify patterns of intra-regional and regional variation
• KC19: The Roman0-British period saw the beginning of a more established infrastructure network. Can we investigate the development of these routes, trackways and roads and the influence they had on landscape change?
• KC47: Test and develop geophysical survey methodologies.

Re-Use Value Statement

The archaeological works successfully identified a number of features, principally evidence of early to middle Iron Age occupation within the site, including the remains of at least five roundhouses with associated pits and postholes, as well as an associated system of enclosure and/or boundary ditches.

Further analysis is recommended for several finds assemblages including the worked stone (detailed analysis), burnt stone (detailed analysis and lipids), and wood (species ID and radiocarbon dating). The data produced by this work could help us understand where domestic cereal processing was happening on site, contribute to our understanding of the local economy, and make some inferences regarding woodland reconstruction.

This data from the excavation in addition to any produced by further work should be compared to sites from the wider area, such as Finmere Quarry to the south-east of the site.