Monument record 0173400000 - DANESFIELD CAMP

Dimensions - Width 260m, Length 310m.
Plan Form - Subrectangular.
EARTHWORK ORIGINALLY ENCLOSED ROUGHLY RECTANGULAR AREA, BUT ONLY SURVIVES ON N & E. S SIDE NEEDED NO EXTRA DEFENCE, AS STEEP SCARP DOWN TO THAMES. W SIDE DESTROYED DURING BUILDING OF DANESFIELD, EARLY C20. ON N & E ARE DITCH, INNER RAMPART & OUTER BANK. RAMPART: HEIGHT 5M; WIDTH 19M. DITCH DEPTH 4M; WIDTH 21M (B1-9).
Scheduled Monument (B1).
Evaluation trial trenching and subsequent excavation and watching brief carried out by OAU in August, October and December 1990 during creation of a new car park to the north of Danesfield House identified well-preserved remains of Middle Iron Age date, suggesting domestic occupation within the hillfort. [See CAS 1734:02](B16).
Archaeological evaluation and excavation in interior of camp failed to find any archaeological features or finds. Suggested that original topsoil and any archaeological features and deposits cleared away during garden construction (B18-21).
Monitoring of ten machine-excavated test-pits in the hillfort in 2007 found buried modern dumped deposits and modern topsoil from farming activities in the 19th and 20th centuries. No archaeological features or artefacts before the modern period were exposed (B22).
Topographic survey (3 sections across hillfort ramparts and a small area of contour survey) carried out by Archaeology in Marlow between October 2007 and April 2008. See report for detail (B23-24).




(SU 81808435) Camp (NR) (B28)

Dane's Ditches. The remains of an Iron Age camp of some twenty acres naturally defended by the Thames on its south side. The NE defences are bivallate with a medial ditch, while those of the E side have the outer rampart reduced to a slight counterscarp bank. Little remains of the W side and no original entrance can be detected. Langley (B2) records the traditional proper name of Dane's Ditches and suggests that the site of Bolebec's Castle (SU 88 SW 17) lay here. (B2, B5, B29, B30)

Iron Age fort. Surveyed at 1:2500. (B31)

Remains of a sub-rectangular, univallate Iron Age fort measuring internally about 230.0 m square, situated on a gentle south facing slope above the steep river cliff of the Thames, and now occupied by an RAF station. It is bounded on the north and east sides by a rampart and ditch and outer bank, best preserved in the NE corner and in the south by the river cliff where there are no traces of artificial scarping. The western defences are destroyed by building and landscaping and only an inner bank and ditch at the extreme southwest corner remain and even this is obscured by a rock garden. No entrance can be seen. The proper name, Dane's Ditches, is unknown locally.
Published 25" survey revised. (B32)

In 1983, a shallow pipe trench was dug through the southern part of Danesfield Camp, from SU 8168/8428 to 8171/8441. This produced 3 Neolithic-Bronze Age flint flakes, but no features. The flakes are now in Bucks County Museum, accession no. 206.1983. (B33)

There are no remaining traces of RAF occupation within Danesfield Camp. The name derives from mistaken attribution to the Danes, and appears to have first been used in the late 18th century. The farm occupying the site was known as Medlicotts prior to the erroneous Danish attribution. Small-scale excavations in 1990, associated with plans to turn Danesfield House into a luxury hotel, found features relating to military use of the area in World War 2 (Danesfield House was home to the Allied Central Interpretation Unit, headquarters of air photo intelligence), plus a single length of ditch circa 11 metres long and given a probable Neolithic date; and a number of pits and postholes of probable Middle Iron Age date (the dating based on pottery evidence). One possible sub-circular feature was identified among the postholes. (B16)


NRHE Insert 1997, Update 1999 and 2007 (B27).