ENN110115 - HS2: Turweston Manor East, 2018 (Trial trench)

The trial trench evaluation was undertaken on a small parcel of land located east of Turweston Manor, near Turweston, Northamptonshire. The aims of the evaluation were to assess the archaeological potential ofthe Site to contain artefacts, deposits or features of archaeological significance, particularly those of medieval or later date. The Site encompasses an area of c. 1.78ha and occupies part of a field located adjacent to the Whitfield racecourse to the west and is bounded by the River Great Ouse to the east. It occupies land that gently slopes down from west to east towards the river at c. 107m aOD. The Site is required for the formation of new wet grassland habitats, two hibernacula, two recipe egg laying heaps, a reptile basking bank, two ecological mitigation ponds and an associated swale. The Site lies within the Whitfield parish and is within Community Forum Area CFA14 (Newton Purcell to Brackley). The site lies within Archaeological Sub-Zone (ASZ) 14/23 (Valley floor of the River Great Ouse at Turweston). The HS2 Phase 1 Environmental Statement (ES) which included which included the results of a remote sensing survey (interpretation of aerial photographs, hyperspectral imagery and LiDAR imagery) of the Site and its environs revealed ridge and furrow directly to the south-west of the Site, representing former mixed arable activity and a seasonally wet landscape with little obvious sign of activity pre-dating the medieval period. The Site lies immediately adjacent to the River Great Ouse which served as a leat for the mill of medieval manor of Turweston, located about 1km downstream from the Site. Earthworks indicative of a probable water management system survive in the valley floor of the River Great Ouse which includes the area of the Site. The trial trench evaluation comprised two trenches in the worth-western corner of the Site associated with the ecological pond excavation. The two trenches contained no archaeological finds or features and therefore the results of the evaluation were negative. Information from OASIS online form.