Land adjacent to Thame Road, Longwick, Buckinghamshire

Evaluation
In April 2017 Oxford Archaeology was commissioned by Croudace Homes to
undertake an archaeological evaluation of land adjacent to Thame Road in Longwick,
Buckinghamshire. The site, centred on NGR SP 7875 0525 and lying at 85m above
Ordnance Datum, has been proposed for a new housing development.
The evaluation involved the excavation of sixteen 25m by 1.8m trenches and it took
place over three days from the 3rd to the 6th April 2017.
The results of the evaluation confirmed the presence of archaeological features at
the site, mainly comprising a modest number of linear features, laid out on an
approximately NW-SE alignment. Some of the features, in the two most northerly of
the three fields under investigation, were parallel with present-day field boundaries.
Although most of these features remain undated, Roman pottery was recovered from
one of them and medieval pottery was recovered from unstratified contexts.
Excavation
In June and July 2017 Oxford Archaeology was commissioned by Croudace Homes to
undertake an archaeological excavation of land adjacent to Thame Road in Longwick,
Buckinghamshire. The site, centred on NGR SP 7875 0525 and lying at 85m above
Ordnance Datum, has been proposed for a new housing development.
The excavation was undertaken to further investigate features that were discovered
during the April 2017 evaluation by Oxford Archaeology. Two Areas were excavated
(1 and 2) and this took place from the 27th June to the 3rd July 2017.
The results of the excavation revealed part of a possible Roman trackway orientated
NNW-SSE, which may have linked to the Lower Icknield Way (a prehistoric or Roman
trackway) to the south. This trackway was formed by two ditches 10m apart
containing Roman ceramic building material and pottery. One of these ditches
appeared to be the same ditch found during the evaluation where pottery was found
dating to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.
The excavation also revealed a number of undated parallel ditches orientated northwest
to south-east, which may be evidence of medieval to early post-medieval strip
farming.