Monument record 0613704001 - NEWTON LEYS

Geophysical survey and evaluation trial trenching in 2006 and subsequent excavations between June and August 2007 by Northants Archaeology found a small Middle Iron Age farmstead just over the parish boundary in Milton Keynes. Environmental evidence suggested that the farmstead was occupied in a period of deteriorating climate with increasing flooding and was finally abandoned when the valley bottom became marshland. Excavations in advance of an access road on the part of the site within Buckinghamshire identified 6 recut field boundary ditches thought to be contemporary with the adjacent settlement. It is suggested that drainage ditches were extended onto the higher ground in this part of the site as climatic conditions deteriorated. The ditches were mostly parallel and shallow, 0.4m- 0.9m wide and 0.13m- 0.3m wide, aligned NW-SE; a single ditch 0.47m wide and 0.26m deep was aligned ENE-WSW and had steep sides and a narrow, pointed base. All the ditches had been truncated by ploughing in the medieval and post-medieval periods. See report for detail (B5).