Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

BEDFORDSHIRE PARISH SURVEY - Angela Simco, Robert White, Stephen Coleman,
Alison Bennett and others, Bedfordshire County Council and DoE
The Bedfordshire parish survey programme, begun in 1975, involves
checking basic documentary sOurces, carrying out fieldwork, updating the
Bedfordshire Sites and Monuments Record, and preparing a summary essay
with maps. The aim is:
to identify new sites and features;
to checkthe condition of known sites;
to rationalise information already in the Sites and Monuments
Record, and
to provide a general_ background historyfor each parish and
its landscape. .As the bulk of the source material is documentary,
and detailed fieldwalking is not undertaken, the survey
is of necessity biased towards the medieval and post-medieval
periods.
At the'end of 1979, 71 modern parishes had been covered, out of a
county total of 124. Work has concentrated on rural parishes, beginning
in the north of the county. Most of the area of North Bedfordshire
Borough has been covered, with a large part of Mid Bedfordshire District.
Parishes in South Bedfordshire District will be started soon. The twelve
historic towns, of which the basic historical development was studied by
Annette Edwards in 1974, will be dealt with towards the end of the survey
programme.
SHARPENHOE CLAPPERS, STREATLEY, Bedfordshire (TL 066 302) - Brian Dix,
Bedfordshire County Council and DoE
Sharpenhoe Clappers occupies a north-facing promontory of the
Chilterns, and today consists of a beech plantation which is also a nature
reserve and recréation area in the ownership of the National Trust.
Both promontory and plantation are delimited on the south by a bank which
runs across the neck of /and, with a' break along its middle course. This
has traditionally been taken as evidence'that the site was an Iron Age
hillfort. The trees were first planted in the early. 19th Century and
make the site a prominent and attractive landmark, so the National Trust
is embarking upon a replanting programme. In view of this it seemed desirable
to establish whether the site in fact was that of a hillfort,
and, if so, to determine the degree of preservation which might be expected
within its interior. A trial trench excavated through the bank
revealed the remains of a medieval rabbit warren which had been built
over an Iron Age palisade trench and other possibly contemporary remains.
Some geophysical work will be carried out in an attempt to resolve some
of the problems raised by the excavation.results and to assist the determination
of further paicy.
LIBERAL CLUB, MIDLAND ROAD, BEDFORD (TL 048 498) - David Baker,
Bedfordshire County Council and DoE
Small scale trial excavations were carried out by Robert White 'and
Richard Thomas in August 1979 in advance of development. Failure to
-3-