In May I decided to visit the Church Croft site at Puttenham before the summer growth covered too much of the area. As it turned out I needn’t have worried, the small field (approximately 100 metres square), where the 19 Druid Mile point on the DEERLEAP LINE sat, had recently been ploughed and the ground was clear and open. It is strange that it is the only plot of cultivated ground in mixed deciduous woodland. This is an area of orange sandy soil which showed evidence of having been the site of a maize crop from last year.
I navigated with my hand-help Garmin GPS to the coordinates of the point on the eastern side of the field and found myself to be in a patch of distinctly grey sandy soil about twelve metres in diameter. In the above photograph, it can just about be seen in the centre of the view. Nothing could be found to differentiate it fro the surrounding orange soil.
Although now partly obscured by the tree line on the boundary the site was found to be in a good position to see down the valley towards Puttenham.
A substantial scattering of worked flint, including a hammer stone, was evident as I walked this side of the field, and I am sure that with more time and effort I could have amassed a substantial collection. But as I was trespassing (I did not know the identity of the landowner) I was reluctant to spend too much time there.
A close examination of Google Earth, using historical Imagery, did not reveal anything of interest and LIDAR was no help. It would be most interesting to have a ground-penetrating radar survey carried out.