Belvedere Nurseries, Fenny Stratford, Nr Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire Archaeological Watching Brief and Features Mapping Report

In July and August 2003 Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out an archaeological watching brief and feature mapping exercise at Belvedere Nurseries, Fenny Stratford, Near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (NGR SP 8874 3395) The work was commissioned by Conserve-a-Tree Ltd in advance of a new garden centre building with adjacent car-parking and planting areas (Planning Ref: MK/0035/94). The watching brief followed on from an archaeological evaluation of the site by OA in 2001 and comprised the monitoring of topsoil stripping to the natural and mapping of exposed features.

The finds included part of an extra-mural Roman cemetery lying outside the Roman settlement of Magiovinium, revealing a minimum of 23 burials, enclosure ditches, pit features and pottery, all of Roman date. At least two phases of burials are suggested here, though the limited strip and record strategy has thus far precluded detail interpretation about the nature and extent of the site. Ridge and furrow agriculture had truncated the Roman levels, though survival of skeletal remains was good where investigated.