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Iron Age Settlement

Archaeological finds in, and just outside, St Laud's Churchyard suggest that there may have been an Iron Age (800 BC - 43 AD) settlement at this spot. Click here for photos of the excavations and their location.

Iron Age Settlement

Details of the finds are included in Records of Bucks, Vol 19, Part 4, 1974, Pages 373-421, R Cain, D C Mynard and H Waugh, 'Some Iron Age Pottery From Mid and North Bucks with a Gazeteer of Associated Sites and Finds', which records many such sites in the area. The information below, and the illustrations, are extracts from that source.

This site is in a rather different category from the the others in that it lies not beside the Ouse but on higher ground, and may be one of a series of defended hilltops in strategic positions along the river valley. (Reference: D C Mynard 'Archaeology of North Bucks, The Iron Age', W&DAS Journal 2 (1969) 18-24)

The site is now Sherington Churchyard and traces of the defensive ditch can still be seen. The sherds illustrated were found in the spoil of graves dug in the west end of the Churchyard, they include hand made wares and Belgic Pottery.

Hand made
Dull brown ware, with a few grits; outer surface rougly smoothed.
Soft, rather 'corky' ware; brown core, outer surface black; inner surface reddish brown.
Fairly hard ware; black core. blackish-brown surface. The angle is uncertain; it might possibly have come from a vessel resembling Barley 21 and 22.
Hard ware; dark grey core, patchy reddish-brown surface, smoothed, matt. The ware resembles some of the Hunsbury wares quite closely. For globular jars of the same general type cf. Wilbury Hill 29, also Barley 76.
Greyish-brown core, lighter brown surface; fairly hard ware, with smoothed surface cf. Leckampstead (List II no. 16).

Wheel-thrown sherds - Belgic
Dark grey ware; smoothed, slightly soapy surface. Exact parallels are not common; cf. Tottenhill, Norfolk (Iron Age in Norfolk by R Rambid Clarke in Arch Journ, IANS, Fig 9, 4), there might possibly be a distant relationship with Weathampstead no. 8 (Versulamium 1936 Pl XLIX). The cordons are of the same type as those on the hollow-cordoned beakers.
Sandy, fine-granulated ware; grey core, reddish-brown surface. The form is possibly a variant of Camulodunum 216-217.
Greyish-black ware, smoothed on neck and shoulder; two matt zones on lower part of body. cf. Swarling 9 (=Birchall, 1965, no 35) from grave 18, which also contained a corrugted urn and was assigned by Dr Birchall to her Kent 'Middle' Group.
Very soft, soapy ware; grey core and bright orange surface, which has remained smooth though much worn and abraded.
Chalk and shell-gritted ware, soapy; grey core, orange/pink-grey surface; very slight downward brush-marks just visible below shoulder.
Soft, fine ware, dark grey core, brownish-range surface, carefully smoothed and probably originally burnished.
Sites
Other Reports Related to this Site

St Laud's Churchyard - Archaeological Evaluation

A proposal to extend St Laud's church necessitated a field evaluation of parts of the graveyard by Oxford Archaeology Unit. However, no significant archaeological features were found because of disturbance by post-medieval grave digging. (reported in Records of Bucks, Vol 40, 2000)

The investigator's report is:
      Peter Gilbert Scott - St Lauds Church Sherington, Buckinghamshire.
      Archaeological Evaluation Report, SP 8910 4680
      Oxford Archaeological Unit, September 1968

Other Iron Age Finds

English Heritage's Pastscape website Monument No. 344883. Bucks Museum Report, April 1960 - March 1963
Iron Age 'A' and Belgic sherds found at grid reference SP 89 46

Also, several cropmarks have been seen at Lathbury:

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Latest Revision: 22 July 2009