Land at Wendover Road, Aylesbury Buckinghamshire: Archaeological Mitigation

Albion Archaeology was therefore commissioned to carry out an archaeological excavation in order to mitigate the impact of the proposed development, in line with a written scheme of investigation that had been approved by the Buckinghamshire Council Archaeology Officer. The excavation was carried out between March and May 2023. It principally revealed features associated with a late Iron Age to early Roman settlement, with later Roman bedding trenches and quarrying also present. An archaeological notification area lay within the proposed development area (PDA): previous evaluation within and surrounding the PDA had shown it to have a high archaeological potential. The settlement comprised two ring gullies and numerous pits, postholes and small enclosures, all surrounded by a large enclosure ditch. Although individual elements could be identified which belonged to notably earlier and later phases of use, the settlement's overall chronological development was less clear. Outside the main settlement enclosure, the presence of a small number of features including a post-built structure demonstrates that activity was not limited to the enclosed area. The later Roman use of the area was broadly limited to bedding trenches and quarrying, which appeared to respect the extant earthworks of the earlier settlement. This theory is supported by the recovery of Roman pottery from the upper fills of earlier features.