Castle House, 5 North Street, Castlethorpe, Milton Keynes Mk19 7ew Archaeological Strip Map and Record

The site for the conservatory was set out by the building contractor and paving stones were removed. The oversite was reduced by 250 to 400mm under archaeological supervision. The area was partially within the lower topsoil with part of the area revealing the top of demolition/levelling deposits below and archaeology which was recorded in plan. The trench for the foundation was carefully mechanically excavated using a toothless bucket down to the top of the wall, which had been discovered during the evaluation, with excavation either side of it down to the archaeological horizon. After recording, the archaeological horizons were excavated down to the next archaeological horizons which were then recorded and removed down to the undisturbed natural. All archaeological deposits and features were cleaned, recorded and investigated. The known rubble layers were recorded in sides of the foundation trench. The excavations at Castle House, Castlethorpe, revealed the southerly continuation of the north to south orientated wall 05 which had been identified during the previous evaluation. Whilst no further features were revealed which could be related to the wall or associated with a former building, the excavation conditions did allow for a better understanding of the post-demolition site formation processes. This showed an initial demolition of the wall which was mostly concentrated to the east of the wall but with some rubble to the west. This was followed by various made-ground and levelling deposits up to the modern era. Due to the total lack of dating material from all but the latest modern deposits it was not possible to ascertain any more than a relative chronology to the formation of the various deposits. There is little can be said of the wall itself than what has been previously discussed in the evaluation report. The wall runs at a right angle to the northern face of Castle House. The current excavations have not revealed how far south the wall continues. The wall is constructed of roughly squared and rectangular block which are squared on the outer faces. These are constructed around a rubble core. Previously, the deposits overlying the wall could only be broadly dated by the finds from the medieval to the post-medieval period. During these most recent excavations the majority of dateable finds were modern material from later deposits. A fragment of Potterspury type, medieval roof-tile, with a bright green copper-speckled glaze on the upper surface, was recovered from deposit (1/11) during the evaluation. The Potterspury tile fragment has been used suggest that a higher than normal status building stood on or near to the site in the medieval period. This deposit may correspond with deposit (11) during these recent excavations, although the presence of windowpane glass recovered during the evaluation would date the deposit to the post-medieval. How early in the post-medieval period is however uncertain for this deposit due to the small size of the glass fragment. Pottery of this type is also rare on this part of the site and the recent excavations only recovered a single small fragment of Potterspury Ware which could not be securely stratified. There is no evidence that these fragment relates to the date of the construction of this wall. In short, the wall may relate to the original 16th century structure which stood on the site or to or to later construction of the building occupied in the early 18th century and recorded as being partially demolished after that date. It may also relate to an earlier building of medieval date, although there is no evidence to support this. What is also notable is that the spread of rubble is not as vast in the area of the site as one might expect from a more substantial stone building.