Archaeology

Until quite recently, the archaeology of Weston Turville has been discovered ad-hoc by gardeners, builders, engineers and road builders. More recently, proactive piecemeal exercises have been conducted as part of the planning process prior to major housing developments and road construction. It is worth mentioning that there was a very thorough Metal Detector Survey Report of 3 Acre Field, to the rear of Bates Lane in 2004 produced by H. Barbour.

Currently the Society is following a more orderly plan to discover the history of Weston Turville with the support of the Bucks County Archaeologist.

The project will have the multiple aims of:-

  1. To determine the age and dimensions of the Village.
  2. To investigate any ‘finds’ within the Village to determine their origin and context.
  3. To investigate the medieval Manors and the 4 mills believed to have existed within the Village.
  4. To undertake training in archaeology and its techniques for Society members.
  5. To demonstrate Weston Turville archaeology to other local groups and schools etc.

The County has asked us to employ a professional Archaeologist to oversee the project and we have appointed Bob Zeepvat of Archaeological Services and Consultancy Ltd. As the Society has limited funds we shall not be able to fund all this ourselves and would ask all members of the Weston Turville Community to make a donation to this project. We need at least £1,000.00 to get us started. We are also applying for funding to the Council for British Archaeology, the Lottery Fund and Bucks Archaeological Society.

The first step was a desktop study of all the records of archaeological finds in the parish.

The current phase of the project is Test pitting in Village gardens, allotments and school grounds.

We shall follow this up with field walking – with Landowner permission- in the ploughing season at the end of this year.

This project will give everyone in the Village an opportunity to participate in uncovering Weston Turville origins and to find out a lot more about our history.

We need Money, Volunteer Gardens and Diggers and would like to hear from anyone who is interested in joining in financially and/or wants to learn something about Archaeology.