Data from a Trial Trenching at the West Ruislip Golf Course, Hillingdon, 2019 (HS2 Phase One)
High Speed Two Ltd., AOC Archaeology Group, Wardell Armstrong Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Archaeology Wales, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5284/1106773. How to cite using this DOI
This work is licensed under a The Open Government Licence (OGL).
Primary contact
High Speed Two Ltd.
2 Snowhill
Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6GA
United Kingdom
Tel: 08081 434 434
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 4168
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1106773
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This collection comprises site data (digital photographs, spreadsheets, specialist reports, scanned trench and context sheets, registers and drawings) from trial trenching at WPP011 1EW02 Enabling Works - Area South, West Ruislip Portal, Gatemead Embankment and River Pinn Flood Mitigation, between 11th and 27th September 2019. The fieldwork was undertaken by AOC Archaeology and Wardell Armstrong, and later archived and deposited by Archaeology Wales.
The site covers an area of approximately 7 ha and the Ruislip Portal and Gatemead Embankment Area is centred between National Grid references TQ072872, TQ072872, TQ083868 and TQ082868. The River Pinn Area is centred between National Grid References TQ073873, TQ074874, TQ075873 and TQ073872, located in the London Borough of Hillingdon.
Project Summary
The evaluation forms part of Phase One of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, which was granted Royal Assent in 2017 as the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Act. Phase One runs 230 km from Euston Station in London to Curzon Street in Birmingham.
The evaluation was designed to address the following Knowledge Creation objectives within the footprint of the West Ruislip Portal and Gatemead Embankment:
- Undertake research and investigation into medieval manorial complexes. What was their origin, development and impact on the landscape?
- Investigate the impacts on rural communities of social and economic shocks in the mid C14th and thereafter and their contribution to settlement desertion
- Identify patterns of change within medieval rural settlement from 11th to mid-14th century
- Ground truth and develop multispectral and LiDAR prospection techniques
The evaluation was designed to address the following Knowledge Creation objectives on the banks of the River Pinn:
- Develop a model of the deposits associated with the River Bytham, the proto-Thames and other pre-Anglian Rivers
- Identify settlement location and developing models for settlement patterns for the Mesolithic, Neolithic and early Bronze Age
- Understanding the evidence for change in the environment and management of the landscape for the Mesolithic and early Neolithic Periods
- Exploring the degree of continuity that existed between Late Mesolithic and Neolithic communities in terms of population mobility and subsistence strategies
- Does the high density of prehistoric settlement evidence in the Colne Valley reflect a genuine focus of activity or does it reflect a bias in the archaeological record?
- Identify sequences of environmental change for the Late Upper Palaeolithic-Early Mesolithic transition through investigation of sites in the Colne Valley and other locations along the route.
Reuse Value Statement
The evaluation has revealed that little activity is present in the area, except for a potential surviving post-medieval land boundary of low significance found within Trenches RPFMB02 and RPFMB03, and an undated ditch present in Trench WRPA10.
The evaluation works have shown that the area has little potential for significant archaeological remains and further works would be unlikely to further contribute to the GWSI: HERDS specific objectives. No further work is recommended for the site.
The physical archive is currently being stored by Archaeology Wales and will be deposited in a repository specified by HS2 in the future.
