Woburn Safari Park, Bedfordshire (BE-WOB04)

Clients: Centre for Conservation and Education, Woburn Safari Park

Author: Elizabeth Howe

Site supervisor: Simon Davis

Project ‘Raja’ at the Woburn Safari Park comprises the construction of new elephant houses, yards and paddocks, and a new Centre for Conservation and Education.

A large enclosure system, identified as a series of cropmarks from aerial photographs, was more clearly defined by a geophysical magnetometer survey, which covered an area of approximately 5 hectares. The survey and photographs combined showed a large, roughly square, enclosure of c 80 x 80m, with the southern boundary appearing as two ‘bowed’ ditches aligned east–west. The lower half of the ‘square’ was further subdivided by ditches. Extending north from the ‘square’ is another rectilinear enclosure, also divided into two, measuring approximately 80 x 50m. Within this, anomalies were identified which may represent burning or metalworking. A further, possibly rectilinear enclosure was recorded to the east, measuring c 200 x 30m, while a number of fragmented linear anomalies may represent former trackways or possibly larger field divisions.

The trial trench evaluation targeted the ditches and the internal areas of the enclosures including some of the larger anomalies. Trenches were also located in the area of the proposed new building complex and the new access road running north–south along the east side of the site.

The evaluation confirmed evidence of significant Middle Iron Age activity comprising the enclosures, along with pits, postholes and, importantly, evidence for ironworking. A significant pottery assemblage comprising 88 sherds dating to the Middle Iron Age was also recovered.

There appears to have been little horizontal truncation of the archaeological features. Small pits and postholes survive on the higher ground and the contemporary ground levels appear to respect the natural topography of the area. The large boundary ditches of enclosures 1 and 2 are 0.6–1.3m in depth. Internal ditches and other cut features were relatively shallow.

The mitigation strategy involved redesigning the elephant enclosures to minimise damage to the underlying archaeological deposits. A further phase of archaeological works is proposed over the winter of 2004–5, comprising a strip, map and record investigation.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2004: annual review