Taplow Court (Phase 2), Taplow, Buckinghamshire

Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out a field evaluation at Taplow court Buckinghamshire on behalf of SGI-UK. The site environs had previously been subject to an archaeological evaluation by Wessex Archaeology in 1998, and an excavation and subsequent Watching Brief carried out by OA in 1999 & 2000 in advance of the construction of Batsuma (phase 1). The latest evaluation was carried out in advance of Phase 2 of the development to investigate two alternative locations for a proposed accommodation block.

The northernmost evaluation trench revealed further evidence relating to a previously identified late Bronze Age / Iron Age hillfort complex in the form of a very large defensive ditch.. This trench also revealed a Late Bronze Age pit west of the ditch, and a later shallow ditch that cut both the upper fills of the defensive ditch and the pit. Three trenches dug further south contained one possibly Saxon tree-throw h0ome, but no further archaeological features, possibly due to truncation prior to the construction of industrial units in the 1950's.