Data from Trial Trenching at Aylesbury Golf Course, Buckinghamshire, 2020 (HS2 Phase One)
INFRA Archaeology, High Speed Two Ltd., 2025. https://doi.org/10.5284/1133017. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © High Speed Two Ltd. unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under a The Open Government Licence (OGL).
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 4329
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1133017
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
Project Summary
The general aims of the trenching were to:
- Confirm the presence/ absence, extent and depth of any surviving archaeological remains within the Site.
- Determine the nature, date, condition, state of preservation including a preservation bias, complexity and significance of any archaeological remains.
- Determine the likely range, quality and quantity of artefactual and environmental evidence present.
- Suggest measures, if appropriate and feasible, for further archaeologic investigation to mitigate identified significant impacts.
- To understand the impact of agricultural regimes on earlier activity.
- To record the character of stratigraphy and examine the potential for cultural and environmental archaeological remains within and beneath the deposits either as primary or secondary assemblages.
- To sample appropriately for absolute dating in order to establish robust and secure chronostratigraphic frameworks.
- To sample appropriately for paleoenvironmental assessment.
The evaluation also aimed to help answer the following GWSI: HERDS Specific Objectives:
- KC2: Explore the location of Palaeolithic deposits, reconstruct past environments and investigate the relationship between climate variation and phases of hominin activity.
- KC4: Develop more refined chrono- stratigraphic models for Pleistocene river terrace deposits present throughout the route, such as those associated with the Great Ouse, and to correlate these with the more established elements of the Thames Valley sequence.
- KC5: Identifying settlement location and developing models for settlement patterns for the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.
- KC15 Can we identify regional patterns in the form and location of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements 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.
- KC21: Assess the evidence for regional and cultural distinctiveness along the length of the route in the Romano-British period, with particular regard to the different settlement types encountered along the route.
- KC31: Identify the location of middle to late Saxon settlement, explore processes of settlement nucleation and understand the development of associated field types and agricultural regimes.
- KC33: Investigate the development of water mills from the Anglo-Saxon through to the modern period. How did the technology of milling change, and what implications has this for farming practice?
- KC34: Undertake research and investigation into medieval manorial complexes. What was their origin, development and impact on the landscape?
- KC35: Investigate the impacts on rural communities of social and economic shocks in the mid-14th century and thereafter and their contribution to settlement desertion.
- KC40: Identify patterns of change within medieval rural settlement from the 11th to 14th century.
- KC47: Test and develop geophysical survey methodologies.
- KC49: Ground truth and develop multispectral and LiDAR prospection techniques.
Re-Use Value Statement
At present there is evidence for Iron Age and medieval activity, but the scale and nature of this activity is still largely unknown. The Site has potential to investigate this activity and contribute to multiple HERDS objectives through further examination of the archaeological remain, therefore it is recommended archaeological recording be carried out. There is also a moderate to high potential for the site to contribute to HERDS objectives KC15, 16, 18, 33, 34, 35 and 40 (which pertain to Bronze Age activity), as well as activity from later periods.
Any further investigation would benefit from the data presented here, and should be used to help inform methodologies. Accordingly the results of the evaluation of the Site will be incorporated into the results of any further work and disseminated in accordance with the Employer policy as instructed.
