Monument record 0960200000 - Taplow-Dorney pipeline: Site A LBA/EIA settlement

Archaeological geophysical survey, evaluation trial trenching, excavation and a watching brief were undertaken on the Taplow-Dorney water pipeline.
Geophysical survey picked up lots of pit-like anomalies and a large ditch in the fields south of Hitcham Lane (B1).
Trench 3 of the evaluation covered this area and revealed a dense cluster of archaeological features, including pits and ditch and thought from the pottery to date to the Middle Iron Age (B3).
Site A was excavated east of Taplow village, south of Hitcham Lane. A large E-W orientated ditch was identified towards the southern end of this site. It contained pottery dating to the Late Bronze Age -Early Iron Age and appeared to define the southern edge of activity dating to this period. A large number of post-holes, small pits and larger pits probably used for storage were found to the north of this ditch. The majority of these contained pottery dating to the LBA/EIA. One pit contained a worked stone phallus. A large ditch at the northern end of this site formed the northern edge of a possible enclosure defining the settlement. In addition, two residual blade core fragments were probably Mesolithic and one posthole contained a single isolated sherd of probably residual Middle Bronze Age pottery (B4).
The main interest on this site is the Late Bronze Age/early Iron Age settlement…The settlement was represented by a large number of pits and postholes (over 160 features covering a range of these types) and perhaps just one ditch. A proportion of these features contained pottery dating from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age, Middle Iron Age, Late Iron Age, Roman and medieval periods, as well as other artefacts such as loomweights, fired clay and iron smithing residues. The size and nature of the settlement is not easily definable, although it would appear to have been extensive - c.160m north/south. An equivalent east/west dimension would make the overall area about 2.5ha. It would seem to have had a southern boundary in the form of Ditch 1, although this may have been added later. There is no clear evidence for a northern boundary, the segmented ditch close to Hitcham Lane being considered more likely to be Roman because of its alignment. The long chronology along with the general lack of intercutting of the pits, gives the impression of a prolonged, non-intensive occupation. It may have been peripheral to more intensive occupation further west, although the geophysical survey does not depict indisputably archaeological features with any clarity. The abundance of postholes indicates the presence of structures, and houses seem likely to have been among them. Most of the pits are of the grain storage type. The settlement Site A lies within 800m of the hillfort at Taplow Court which had its origins around 1100BC. The role and status of Taplow Court as a 'settlement' in the Late Bronze Age is not yet clear and whether both sites played the same role at different times, or whether they had distinctive, perhaps complimentary functions are topics awaiting further research (B5).