Monument record 0211400000 - WEST OF LAKE END

CROPMARKS VISIBLE ON AP1. 2 RING DITCHES & TRACKWAY TO N. & FRAGMENTARY FRAGS OF DITCHES & POSSIBLE PITS TO S. CENTRAL AREA CUT BY M4 IN 1970, DESTROYED WITHOUT INVESTIGATION. NO SIGN OF FEATURE ON GROUND IN LEVEL FIELD UNDER CROP, & NO FINDS DURING PLOUGHING OR PERAMBULATION (B1-5).
CROPMARKS PLOTTED BY BCM (B3-4) AND BY RCHME (B8).
The area excavation undertaken at Marsh lane East by Oxford Archaeology identified six broad phases. The first phase incorporated geaological formation processes with the cutting of the palaeochannel which turned south at this point from marsh Lane East into Lot's Hole. In Phase 2 the land was cleared of trees and an oval barrow constructed, probably in the Neolithic (although evidence for this was limited to its shape in plan and a recut that cleared out the entire circuit apart from a thin strip of deposits on the south side. This later recutting of the ditch was probably carried out in the Early Bronze Age, phase 3. The northern round barrow was probably built contemporary with this reconstruction and contained a central cremation within a collared urn. In phase 4, two Middle Bronze Age pits were excavated west of the barrows. These had no stratigraphic relationships. The area went out of use until the medieval period when it was used for agriculture; several parallel furrows were found running across the site. In the final phae a small post-medieval quarry, probably for gravel extraction, at the western extremity of the site, was excavated and the whole site was sealed by modern ploughsoil (B9).
Lot's Hole, immediately to the south, was also investigated in area excavation by Oxford Archaeology. It contained deposits covering a large time span from the Neolithic to the post-medieval. The prehistoric and Saxon occupation was fairly thinly spread and comprised pit clusters and isolated features. In the early medieval period the site was divided up into enclosures containing clusters of buildings. There appears to have been three occupation phases in this period involving major reorganisation and spatial shift. The latest occupation phase appears to cease in the mid 13th century and subsequently the land reverted to agriculture. In the post-medieval period the land was again reorganised into a new set of field systems and paddocks (B10).