EDO6184 - New car park and welfare amenities, St Mary's Church, Litton Cheney; watching brief 2010

Observations and recording during groundworks for a new car park/turning area and churchyard access ramp, and installation of new welfare facilities. Part of the foundations of the west tower was exposed and recorded. A small quantity of 11-12th century pottery was found in a deposit pre-dating the tower. Service trenching through the south-west part of the churchyard revealed at least twelve previously unknown burials aligned east-west and probably of medieval or early post-medieval date. The southern edge of the site was shown to have been terraced, probably in the 18th or 19th century. Where areas of original ground surface survived in this area, no burials were found, suggesting that the churchyard did not extend south of its present boundary. A piece of inscribed stone unearthed during grading for the access ramp was found to fit a late 17th-century headstone just south of the chancel.