Monument record 0116100000 - Field E of Sentry Hill, Low Grounds Farm, Marlow

APS SHOW 3 RING DITCHES, INCLUDING 1 WITH 2 CONCENTRIC RINGS, & 2 IRREGULAR ENCLOSURES (B1). FEATURES DESCRIBED & PLOTTED (B2).
FEATURES PLOTTED FROM AVAILIABLE AP'S AT 1:2500 (NMR METHOD)(B3).
RCHME REPORT ON THAMES VALLEY AP MAPPING PROJECT (B5).
Field walking undertaken by Marlow Archaeological Society in 1999/2000 produced a concentration of finds along the northern edge of the field, consisting of some 123 flint implement, 2 cores, and some 487 sherds of pottery and other metal finds (B6).
In 2001 Marlow Archaeological Society conducted a resistivity survey on two of the ring ditches and investigated an area to the SW where the presence of the edge of a palaeochannel was possible detected. Three evaluation trenches were opened. Trench 1 (2m x 2m) in the north of the site was opened to test the depth of the overburden and nature of the underlying geology. 93 waste and worked flakes were recovered together with 6 core nodules and 1 burnt flint. Trench 2 (2m x 2m) was located between the ring dicth features and was dug to check the depth of the overburden. 14 waste flakes and 2 worked points were recovered together with 55gm of burnt flint. Trench 3 (1m x 5.6m) was dug at a point of high resistivity at a junction between two gravel terraces. 5 flint artefacts were recovered (B7).
In 2002, CAS 1161:01 had a small trench re-opened across the possible ditch feature which was shown to have been truncated by ploughing and was 2m wide by 1m deep. It appears to be u-shaped and have two phases of backfilling or a possible recut. Worked flint and contemporary building material was identified in the fills which were disturbed from the previous year's excavation (B8).
Further geophysical surveys and trial trenching carried out by Marlow Archaeological Society in 2003 to consolidate previous surveys and investigate the N edge of a possible gravel island. Magnetometry identified 2 circular anomalies, possibly ring ditches, 1 of which is double-ditched and 2 sub-rectangular ditched anomalies, probably small ditched enclosures. The trial trench apparently confirmed the presence of the edge of a palaeochannel (B13).
Further fieldwalking by Marlow Archaeological society in 2004 identified discrete concentrations of flint debitage and tools, interpreted as flint-working areas and burnt and cracked flints interpreted as cooking areas. Resistivity survey identified an extended sub-rectangular ditched enclosure aligned NW-SE, apparently associated with Barrow 'D' (B14).
LIDAR survey undertaken by Oxford Archaeology showed all the cropmarks are on high ground of a possible former island in the Thames. It is possible that alluvium masks cropmarks on lower ground (B15).
Fieldwalking and geophysics recorded evidence of possible settlement and flintworking (B17).
MAS undertook an evaluation of a site at Low Grounds Farm in conjunction with Oxford Archaeology. Intact prehistoric soils were located in the northern corner of the site above the level of the natural gravel. Stakeholes forming one or more structures were found cutting the prehistoric soil here, together with worked flints and an area of burning that produced a C14 date of the early-middle Neolithic from radiocarbon dating of charcoal and hazelnut shells. Neolithic pottery was recovered from the same deposit. Several adjacent areas of stakeholes were investigated: they possibly supported cooking frames or acted as drying racks. Elsewhere, natural gravel was sealed beneath sand and/or reddish brown clay silts, probably the geological subsoil. The evidence suggests a continuity of 'occupation' or more properly 'activity' here from the Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. Such activity may have been seasonal, though no time-scale can be elucidated from the excavated evidence and this should be treated as a cautious interpretation of the area as a whole (B18).
It would seem that the evidence and specialist advice is that all find and features are of a similar date and associated with the same activity (tanning) and that this activity was removed form the immediate vicinity of habitation. Of great significance is the suggestion that this area at this time was regularly grazed and that this with the activity maybe indicating more or less continuous occupation. An important matter not resolved is the relationship between the suggestions here for occupation and activity in say BC 2742 Neolithic and the barrows immediately adjacent, suggested by form only as being early Bronze Age. If it transpired that these were associated with the same period of occupation, then this site becomes of major importance (B19).
A detailed gradiometer survey carried out by Wessex Archaeology successfully located numerous anomalies of archaeological interest. The most interesting of these are two concentric annular anomalies appearing to form part of a barrow cemetery with two ring ditches identified by the previous WA geophysical survey. Near the northeastern extent of the survey area a sub-annular anomaly some 12m in diameter is consistent with the response from a roundhouse (B20)