Orchardway Wind Farm, Hill Farm, Haversham, Milton Keynes. Archaeological Evaluation (OASIS ID: cotswold2-116735)

An archaeological evaluation, comprising the excavation of eighteen trial trenches, was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology (CA) on the proposed site of the Orchardway Wind Farm, at Hill Farm, Haversham, Milton Keynes. The work was carried out in two stages, in August and September 2011. The earliest remains encountered dated to the middle to late Iron Age, and these were largely located on the ridge of high ground at the northern end of the site, overlooking the valley of the River Great Ouse. They comprised a sub-rectangular enclosure and associated ditches and pits in the area of Turbine 2, and two ring ditches and a possible second enclosure on the track, approximately 200m to the east. A human cremation burial (left in situ), also believed to be of Iron Age date, was identified to the south of the ring ditches. Iron Age remains, forming part of a small D-shaped enclosure, were also encountered on the track c. 400m to the north-west of the site for Turbine 2, and an isolated pit was investigated in the proposed area for Turbine 4. Although no Roman features were identified, a number of sherds of Roman pottery recovered from the upper fills of Iron Age features on the hill top suggest Roman activity in the vicinity. Elsewhere, there were a number of medieval, postmedieval or modern agricultural features, including furrows, former drainage ditches, land drains and spreads of stone and tile. The remains of a possible medieval or post-medieval industrial feature were identified within the Iron Age enclosure in the area for Turbine 2. This was one of three highly magnetised discrete anomalies that were identified within the enclosure by geophysical survey and interpreted as possible lime kilns