Iron Age Remains on the Hanslope Pipeline Scheme, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: Anglian Water WAT-07085 (Section B)

In response to a request by Nick Crank, the Senior Archaeological Officer for Milton Keynes Council, OA East carried out archaeological monitoring along a c.23m long section of Anglian Water pipeline scheme WAT-07085 (Section B), Hanslope, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The monitoring was carried out for the laying of a new water pipeline through undeveloped agricultural land. Anglian Water had recovered a quantity of pottery from a location along the pipeline route and informed Nick Crank of their findings. Further investigation work was therefore deemed necessary to determine the possible presence of associated archaeological features at this location. A visit was carried out between 27th and 28th June 2019 which partly uncovered a pit feature whose fill produced Middle Iron Age pottery. This pit was cut by a partly revealed ring gully which yielded an assemblage of Late Iron Age pottery along with some reworked Middle Iron Age sherds. The gully also produced a piece of saddlequern, a quantity of burnt stone and fragments of animal bone. A further sterile pit was also uncovered to the southeast. These remains clearly suggest the presence of Middle and Late Iron Age settlement activity and complement the recently excavated evidence for Iron Age occupation in the north of Hanslope (Ingham 2019). No further archaeological remains were observed, or artefacts recovered from the remaining monitored area of the pipeline route.