Data from a Test Pitting at Blank Area Testing, Brackley to Southam, Northamptonshire, 2020-2022 (HS2 Phase One)

This collection comprises digital photographs, spreadsheets, reports and scanned site records from a test pit survey by Archaeological Research Services across 31 fields identified as 'Blank Areas', extending from Versions Farm, Brackley to Starbold Farm, Southam, Northamptonshire. Work was undertaken between October 2020 and March 2021.
The targeted test pit survey involved the excavation of 1544 manually excavated test pits. Field packages AC300 Gp1 (Versions Farm) and AC300 Gp 2 (North of Illet's Farm and North of Radstone) produced significant chipped lithic assemblages that warrant further investigation. These areas have been identified for mitigation as part of Construction Integrated Recording. The flint assemblages recovered relate to past human activity in the Upper Palaeolithic, Early Mesolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic with a concentration of finds for the Upper Palaeolithic and to a lesser degree the Mesolithic periods. A range of types including cores, blades, scrapers, retouched blades and flakes, edge-trimmed blades, notched blades, burins, microburins, points, piercers, multi-tools and microliths were recorded with evidence for some spatial patterning.
The evidence for early prehistory activity in these field packages should be viewed as a significant finding as this is rare archaeology, and directly addresses specific objectives identified in GWSI-HERDS.