Unearthing surprises with CHAP

Date: 21st October 2024

This summer marked the first of the Chilterns Heritage and Archaeology Project (CHAP) excavations.

Back in August, over 100 volunteers picked up a trowel to help reveal more information about the agricultural terraces, known as lynchets, that rise above the River Chess at Sarratt.

Each day, a small group learned about archaeological practice and put their excavation skills to the test to help the CHAP team find out when the lynchets were created.

To determine the date of the lynchets, the excavation team opened a 15m long trench and took soil samples at set intervals.

The samples were sent to a laboratory for analysis. This will hopefully help determine a date range for when the lynchets were constructed or in use.

This is done by looking for ‘ecofacts’ – land snails, charred plant remains, or anything that can help recreate the ancient landscape. The CHAP team expect to have some results early in the new year.

Aerial photo of people digging in a trench.

As the dig progressed, the volunteers unearthed an assemblage of Roman building material (mostly roof tiles), oyster shells, potsherds, and a lead steelyard weight. Some prehistoric pieces of worked flint were also found.

But the most surprising discovery was that of what appeared to a relict surface with many stone cobbles worn flat by traffic.

Dr Wendy Morrison, Heritage and Archaeology Manager at Chilterns National Landscape, says the current hypothesis is that there is a possible Roman road running diagonally across part of the hill, which is cut through at some point by an 18th century drainage ditch.

A group of people stand on the edge of a rectangle dug into the earth.

Over the course of the dig, daily guided tours were offered to anyone who wanted to learn more about the excavation and discover why the lynchets had been chosen. The tours were popular among the local community – in total, nearly 250 people visited the site!

Four people kneel with trowels in a shallow trench. A large group of people watch from behind an orange fence.

There is a lot more to discover about the site, and thanks to the landowners’ passion for history, Wendy and the CHAP team have been invited to return next season to test the current interpretation with a few more trenches across the line of the road.

A full excavation interim report will be circulated in the near future, and details of how you can get involved and join next year’s excavation will be available in spring 2025.

The excavation was funded by the River Chess Smarter Water Catchment and hosted by Sue and Richard Clark of Goldingtons.