Monument record 0011600000 - BRAYS WOOD, BRAYS GREEN: farmstead

Dimensions - Length 0400 m
Plan Form - IRREGULAR
Site discovered 1936 by H D Cockburn and some excavation (2 trenches, 8 ft and 10 ft. long). Subsequent visits show house platforms damaged and now not positive features. Roof tiles scattered throughout area of enclosure but concentrated on or near house platforms. No tile or pottery visible on surface. Site lies at sides and base of dry valley. Pottery identified by G C Dunning as grey sandy ware with angular rims. Dated by him & R Dunnett to late C13/early C14. Small quantities green glazed jug fragments recovered (said to be C13/C14) including 1 slashed handle and 2 pieces of rim. Some of pottery held by Buckinghamshire County Museum, some lost, some held by finders (H D Cockburn, E V Rogers, and C E S King). Iron nails and/or fiddle key, plus rectangular plate with 2 rivet holes at one edge opposed by two notches also recovered by Mr King and retained by him. The rectangular plate is possibly a belt fitting (B1-3).
Site survey carried out by M Wells and J Chaffrey of the Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society on 18 February 1997 noted that the earthworks are more ovoid than rectangular and are defined by part bank, ditch and part bank. The bank encloses a small NE-SW valley with a spring. Internally there are at least two buildings as indicated by roughly rectangular flint bases with a peg-hole roof tile noted in the vicinity. Some other internal banks and one quarry pit also noted.(B4)





Medieval site located by Mr H D Cockburn, in Bray's Wood, (SU 933995) consisting of a banked and ditched enclosure now greatly overgrown. Roofing tiles, fragments of pottery and 13th-14th century greenglaze ware were found all over the site. Several mounds or banks of flint were seen and, roughly in the centre of the area, a small square pit some 5 or 6 feet deep was noted. Possibly the remains of a farm connected with the near-by "Castle Tower". (SU 99 NW 7) (B2).

SU 933996 An irregular earthwork with the foundations of three buildings inside was found by E V Rogers. 13th-14th c sherds were found within two of the buildings. Finds in Bucks Co Mus (Acc No 68.68) (B5).

Area SU 93359952 Gilt bronze plate, iron nails and c 30 Md sherds found by a Mr King (b8) during surface excavation in 1972-73. Sherds with Bucks Co Museum Acc No 28772 (B1).

No specific 'enclosure' or earthwork was found in the overgrown and part afforested Brays Wood, although there are remains of linear baulks and ditches forming no coherent pattern. These appear typical of much of S Buck's woodland.
There is no trace of the above excavations which according to D Humphries (b7) were largely located near the N boundary of the wood in area SU 932997. (B6)
NRHE Insert 1999 (B9).