Monument record 0455100000 - BERRY HILL FARM, TAPLOW

Plan Form - TRAPEZOIDAL
TRAPEZOIDAL SHAPED ENCLOSURES WITH PART OF A RECTANGULAR ENCLOSURE ADJACENT, & VARIOUS ASSOCIATED LINEAR FEATURES, VISIBLE ON A/P (B1).
PLOTTED AT 1:2500 (PAPER-STRIP METHOD)(B2).
RECTANGULAR ENCLOSURE RE-PLOTTED FROM ADDITIONAL AP'S AT 1:2500 (RADIAL LINE METHOD) (B3) CONSIDERABLE NEW CROPMARKS - ROMANO-BRITISH SITE? (B4).
Geophysical survey carried out by GSB in September 2000 along the route of a proposed access road. Several pit-type and faint linear anomalies identied, with several pit type responses and a broad area of increased magnetic response at the NE end of the route (area 3) interpreted as a ditch and several pits. The survey concluded that there was likely to be more anomalies N and S of area 3 (close to the known cropmarks) (B5).
Excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in June and July 2006 and in June, July and August 2007 during topsoil stripping in advance of gravel quarrying idenfified a series of Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age boundary ditches aligned NE-SW, probably field boundaries, associated with shallow pits and a probable metalworking hearth. The field system appears to have continued in use into the late Iron Age and Romano-British periods, when a ditched track or droveway and further boundary ditches with the same NE-SW alignment were added, along with associated pits, wells and a possible waterhole or dew pond. 275 sherds of pottery were recovered of which 169 sherds (61%) were of Middle Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age date and 102 sherds (37%) were Late Iron Age and Romano-British in date. Few charred cereal grains were recovered and the evidence for wells and waterholes suggest a pastoral rather than arable economy. See report for detail (B6).
Further geophysical survey carried out in September 2007 by ArchaeoPhysica of a proposed western extension to the quarry identified a number of anomalies including the rectangular ditched enclosure and associated field boundaries known from the earlier cropmark plots. The late prehistoric and Romano-British field system identified during the preceeding excavations clearly extends as far as the settlement shown by the cropmarks (B7).