Border Archaeology (BA) has been instructed by Crest Strategic Projects to carry out a programme of archaeological work including geophysics in connection with a proposed residential development at Shenley Park, Whaddon, Buckinghamshire. This report refers specifically to the southernmost field of the application site, an area of some 352,000m2 of land lying between Shenley Road to the N and the A421 Buckingham Road to the S (centred on NGR SP 818 330). Of the 296 trenches opened, 89 contained significant archaeology comprising features and deposits representing an Iron Age and Romano-British enclosure complex, together with features associated both with the Medieval deer park of Whaddon Chase and the Second World War Transmitter Station of Tattenhoe Bare. The enclosure comprised a number of linear ditches, with probable stock enclosures at its southern end, and remained in use from the Early 1st Century AD through the 3rd Century AD, as attested by the later addition of ancillary enclosures on its eastern and northern sides. It contained at least two 1st Century AD roundhouses, with evidence for ditched areas, beam slots with associated postholes and ring-gullies recorded. A single un-urned subadult cremation was found to the east of the enclosure, close to its entrance. A series of cobbled surfaces and colluvial deposits with associated drainage gullies were revealed along the central line of the enclosure, probably representing former work surfaces. Romano-British ceramic building material recovered from these deposits suggests the presence of a substantial structure within the vicinity. A Post-Medieval structure comprising a foundation wall and wood-lined pit uncovered to the southeast is thought to be associated with the management of Whaddon Chase, the boundaries of which remained intact until 1840, with Post-Medieval ditches seen in several of the trenches. Modern foundation pits for possible telegraph poles or similar were seen to the northeast and were considered likely to be associated with the Transmitter Station
J France (Fri,) studied this question.