The history of the name Warren Wood is somewahat surprising. A Warren was originally an animal enclosure, not just for rabbits. Interestingly there was a Warren Baronetcy of Little Marlow – which was created on 1 June 1775 for the naval commander and politician John Borlase Warren. There seems to have been two lines of local Warren baronets since that time.
The investigations at Warren Wood were started as part of AIM’s ROMADAM (Recording of Marlow and District’s Ancient Monuments) Project, which was funded by the Local History Initiative. The Warren Wood Project began in 2005 with the surveying of a double enclosure, defined by ditches and banks, near the top of a wooded Chiltern hill, near Little Marlow.
The inner enclosure is roughly circular with a diameter of approximately 50 metres. A bank feature, possible an entrance way, sits in the north-west corner. The outer enclosure is nearly twice the size of its inner counterpart. The enclosures stand approximately 100 metres above sea level and the River Thames is a mile os so from the base of the hill.
Excavating at Warren Wood
The local geology of the area is glacial sand and gravel, lying over Upper Chalk.
There are local stories of a family living nearby, plus a barn that existed almost until recent times, though we have found no documentary evidence to support these claims.
The current theory is that the site is likely to have been the home of a stock-man, or gamekeeper, possibly with a family that occupied the building (maybe with a barn or annex?). The outer enclosure seems likely to have been built to keep and protect domestic or wild animals.
Tentative dating of the roof tile puts the site into medieval times, possibly between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. There is a possibility that the hill was not wooded in those days as records only trace it back to around 1700 and many woods were planted in this period.
There are at least six similar enclosures in Buckinghamshire all on hills in woodlands and all at approximately the same height. There is speculation that they may have been occupied by gamekeepers who kept either pigs, milking cows for commercial reasons, or deer, or wild boar, for hunting.
AIM submitted a plan to the County Archaeologist and eight test pits were dug (four in the inner enclosure, four in the outer enclosure). The large amount of roof tile found in the test pits in the inner enclosure shows there must have been a reasonably large roofed structure(s).
An anomoly, such as the one shown below, was unearthed in the very last half hour of the 2010 year’s dig. It appeared to be a post hole or pit. The deposits of chalk (not found in other test pits), a little charcoal and more than a kilogram of burnt stones found wihin the conext/level are intriguing. Further identification by a professional body should tell us more.
AIM concluded its excavations at Warren Wood in November 2011.
A possible post hole at Warren Wood
In total, more than 50 kilograms of artefacts were unearthed at the site and identification and dating results are awaited from an outside professional organisation. Once the results are received, a report will be available to AIM members and an offial report will be forwarded to the S.M.R. in Aylesbury.
