New Barn Farm, Cholsey, Oxfordshire

Oxford Archaeology completed a 54 trench evaluation on a 33.8ha proposed gravel
extraction site at New Barn Farm, Cholsey, in the upper Thames Valley in
Oxfordshire (NGR SU 5990 8800), between 31/08/2016 and 14/10/2016.
The archaeological finds and deposits, where datable, fall into two broad periods,
the Bronze Age and the medieval/post-medieval. Some of the worked flint recovered
from the trenches was of early Neolithic type, but the assemblage was very small
and none of the material was in situ. Late Iron Age, Roman, and medieval artefacts
were notable for their scarcity.
The earliest in situ features comprise a single crouched inhumation burial,
accompanied by probable early Bronze Age pottery, and a single cremation burial,
contained within a collared urn, which is also most likely to date from the early
Bronze Age. The burials were both found in the south-western quadrant of the
application site (Area 1). Further prehistoric burials are likely to be present in the
vicinity. No traces of barrow ditches were recorded in association with either of the
burials, although two probable barrows have been recorded as cropmarks in
neighbouring fields, the closest being 200m north of the application site.
The geophysical survey and trenching results, in combination, suggest the presence
of a landscape of extensive but sparsely distributed Bronze Age tracks and
enclosures. These appear to be concentrated in two main groups in the western and
eastern quadrants of the site (Areas 1 and 2 respectively). Artefacts recovered from
the enclosure and trackway ditches are very few in number, but consistently of midlate
Bronze Age date. Area 1 includes a trackway, linked to a co-axial boundary,
located in the same area as the early Bronze Age inhumation burial. In Area 2 the
mid-late Bronze Age features appear to form a series of irregular curvilinear
enclosures.
On present evidence, the limited time-depth and lack of complexity in the
archaeological record of the New Barn Farm site suggests that the identified Bronze
Age activity is of local significance, although further study would contribute to
important regional and national research objectives.
The former line of the Wallingford-Cholsey road (as depicted on the 1842 Tithe
Map) and associated features, was investigated by trenching at five locations (Area
3). No evidence for road surfaces was found and it is likely that it was unmetalled.
The trenches revealed a roughly parallel pair of large drainage ditches, one of which
(on the south-east side) was substantially deeper and wider than the other. At the
south-west end the LIDAR data suggest that the road approached a crossing over
Buckland Creek via a small stream valley. No reliable artefactual dating evidence
was recovered from the trenches. A J Grayson (2004) suggests, on the basis of
detailed documentary and topographical research, that the natural streams in the
area to the south and west of Wallingford were gradually captured and incorporated
into a network of drainage channels, probably in stages in the late Saxon and
medieval periods. They were probably originally intended to relieve winter flooding.
Extrapolating the line of the large ditch suggests that it may originally have been
dug to link the Winterbrook with Buckland Creek. The road and associated features
are of local archaeological significance.