Images and GIS Data from an Archaeological Evaluation at Caldecote Farm, Caldecote Lane, Bushey, Hertfordshire, February 2021
Cotswold Archaeology, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5284/1116135. How to cite using this DOI
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 5689
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1116135
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This collection comprises site photographs and GIS data from an archaeological evaluation carried out by Cotswold Archaeology in February 2021 at Caldecote Farm, Caldecote Lane, Bushey, Hertfordshire.
A total of 22 trenches were excavated across the development footprint within the overall 8ha site, which is located within an area of broad potential for remains of Roman date, piece of tegula and a jar fragment recorded as having been found within the development area. No evidence for Roman activity was noted in any of the trenches and no artefactual material of Roman date was recovered either.
However, the recovery of five sherds of late medieval pottery from the topsoil in Trench 22 is suggestive of medieval activity in the vicinity. Two features in Trenches 9 and 14 were undated, but appear to represent small field boundary ditches, possibly relating to an early 18th century system of land division which divided up the heath between Bushey and the small hamlet at Bright Street.
Further to the east, the small pit recorded in Trench 25 may be a planting hole or tree throw, dating from the setting-out of the estate associated with Caldecote House. A concentration of modern linear features in trenches 6 and 7, in the north part of the site, are best interpreted as wheel-ruts associated with the construction of a gas pipeline running along the north edge of the Site or the M1 motorway, immediately beyond.
Construction along the motorway corridor appears to have had a negative impact on and potential below-ground archaeology within the proposed earthwork scheme, with subsoil removed in Trenches 7, 8, 17 and 18, suggesting mechanical stripping of land within the motorway construction corridor. This was compounded by the excavation of a balancing pond and landscaping, the latter recorded as layers of made ground in Trench 17.
