Data from Trial Trenching at Grove Hill Farm, Buckinghamshire, 2020 (HS2 Phase One)
High Speed Two Ltd., COPA: Cotswold Oxford Pre-Construct Archaeology, Oxford Archaeology Ltd, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5284/1126681. 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: 4335
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1126681
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
![View to W, trench 14 S. 1401 of pit [1402] 1x1m scale](images/1C19GHFTT_0083.jpg)
This collection comprises the site records; CBM and flint recording data; and the photographic archive from an archaeological trial trench evaluation at Grove Hill Farm, Westbury, Buckinghamshire. The fieldwork was undertaken by COPA in September 2020. The documentary and finds archives will be deposited with Discover Bucks Museum.
Project Summary
An archaeological trial trench investigation was undertaken at Grove Hill Farm, Buckinghamshire (hereafter referred to as ’the Site’), as commissioned by the Contractor as part of the enabling works for High Speed Two Phase 1. The Site code for the investigation is 1C19GHFTT. The fieldwork was undertaken in September 2020. During the main phase of construction works, the Site will be required for Turweston Cutting including rail alignment formation and associated engineering earthworks, temporary material stockpile, construction site compound locations, temporary highway diversion, drainage works and the creation of a new Public Right of Way.
A Project Plan was prepared for the works in 2019, which superseded an earlier version that covered only Area C25064. The document summarised the results of previous surveys of the Site, including remote sensing survey (which incorporated light detection and ranging (LiDAR), multi-spectral imagery and aerial photographic analysis) and geophysical surveys. It also presented archaeological and historical background information prepared for the Cultural Heritage Baseline Report for CFA 14 as part of the wider Environmental Statement in 2013. The Project Plan established the scope, aims and potential contribution to the GWSI: HERDS, as well as the objectives, techniques, deliverables and reporting mechanism for the trial trench investigation.
Re-Use Value Statement
The trial trench investigation revealed limited evidence of early prehistoric date, comprising only a few worked flints suggestive of a limited background presence in the landscape during this period. Therefore, the results have a low potential to contribute further to GWSI: HERDS objective KC5.
No evidence of Bronze Age settlement activity was revealed on Site and so the results have no potential to address GWSI: HERDS objective KC10 and cannot provide evidence relevant to an understanding of the development and changing patterns of settlement patterns across the Bronze Age period.
The trial trench investigation identified the remains of a pit alignment of early/middle Iron Age date. Whilst no clear evidence of associated Iron Age settlement was revealed, the pit alignment provides evidence of an important land boundary. The remains revealed by the trial trench investigation and those likely to be exposed during further mitigation have the potential to make a contribution to GWSI: HERDS objective KC15 and the understanding of landscape organisation during the later prehistoric period. As stated in the Solent-Thames Research Framework, ‘large-scale land divisions are not well understood and there is a need to clarify their frequency, to discover whether these might have defined land rights and ownership or land use areas, and to discover who organised them’ (Lambrick 2014, 151). A single sherd of either prehistoric or Anglo-Saxon date provides the only potential evidence for Anglo-Saxon activity within the Site and so the results have little potential to address GWSI: HERDS objective KC 31.
The archaeological remains indicative of a probable medieval parish boundary and ridge-and-furrow cultivation demonstrate the agricultural nature of land use during the medieval period. Although the Site is located in the agricultural hinterland of the medieval historic market town of Brackley and the village of Westbury, the results of the trial trench investigation may have some potential to contribute to GWSI: HERDS objective KC40, by placing the results within a wider context to further understand patterns of change in the formation of rural settlement and associated agriculture in the medieval period. As stated in the Solent-Thames Research Framework, medieval town/village fields and commons and how they relate to parish boundaries require further analysis (Munby 2014, 257).
The geophysical survey of the north of the Site accurately identified anomalies indicative of the prehistoric pit alignment, despite its initial interpretation as a possible drain. Anomalies indicative of ridge-and-furrow cultivation were also identified by both the remote sensing and geophysical surveys. Although not directly corresponding with the position of the anomalies, below ground plough furrows were revealed by the trial trench investigation, demonstrating the potential to contribute to GWSI: HERDS objectives KC 47 and KC49. Based on the results of the trial trench investigation, a decision record notice will be produced by the Contractor in consultation with the Employer and stakeholders for any further work. Further work should be concentrated around Trenches 12, 14, 24–26, 42–44 and 51, where the remains of the pit alignment are indicated by the trial trench investigation and geophysical survey results. Further smaller areas may also be targeted, for example Trench 68, where the remains of a potentially placed middle Iron Age pottery vessel was uncovered.
