Buckingham Watermill
Archaeologists working near Buckingham have completed works on a former watermill site with potential origins in the Anglo-Saxon period, which continued to operate until the early 19th century.
Slide 1 of 3: The quartzite pebble mace head found at the site is roughly oval in plan with a central hour-glass perforation. Both ends of the mace head exhibit light impact damage, suggestive of use as a percussive tool.
Slide 2 of 3: The surviving remains of an associated watermill building were present, albeit heavily truncated by the demolition and levelling of the site in the 1940s.
Slide 3 of 3: Orthomosaic photograph of the earliest structural evidence recorded on site comprised of three timber beams.
Uncovering the site
A review of historical records by the Buckinghamshire Archaeological society (BAS), on behalf of HS2, showed that a mill at the site was recorded in the Domesday Book (compiled in 1086) as part of an earlier Anglo-Saxon estate. This estate developed after the year 949 to support the establishment of the burh at Buckingham.
Historical evidence indicates continued activity at the site through the medieval period, with the pattern of water management feature and meadows remaining unchanged in the landscape certainly from 1638 and probably for longer before being pulled down in the 1940s. Features relating to the watermill, bypass channel, mill race and outflow pond were still extant on site at the start of the archaeological works. The earliest structural evidence recorded on site comprised of three timber beams.
A find of particular interest at the site was a Mesolithic stone mace head. Small chip marks around the circumference of the central perforation suggest that it was made using a technique known as pecking, rather than having been drilled.
The mace head was recovered from a post-medieval quarry fill, which truncated a curved ditch. It is possible that this ditch was the remnant of a prehistoric ring ditch, with the mace head originating from a truncated internal deposit. Further ring ditches, possibly representing Bronze Age round barrows, have been identified by aerial photography near-by and, two further ring ditches and Bronze Age cremation burials known from the wider area.
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