Eel Pie Farm lies directly to the north-west of Markham Moor village, on the north side of Old London Road (a minor road connecting Markham Moor to the village of West Drayton), a short distance to the east of the point where it crosses the River Maun on the Scheduled and Grade II Listed Eel Pie Bridge. The development site lies to the east of the farmstead, in the angle of Old London Road and the A638. It is approximately 1.5ha in area and roughly lozenge-shaped, bordered to east and south by the roads and to the north by farmland; to the west, a copse separates it from the buildings and grassed grounds of Eel Pie Farm. A total of six 20m x 2m trenches were excavated on site. These were positioned in order to sample those areas of the site that will be most impacted by the proposed development, while avoiding the existing landscape features and overhead cables. Trenches were opened using a 360o excavator fitted with a 1.8m toothless bucket. Machine excavation was halted at the first archaeological horizon, or at the surface of the natural geology where no archaeological deposits were present; excavation thereafter was by hand. Of the six trenches excavated, five were archaeologically negative, whilst the other contained three furrows related to medieval agriculture. The group of parallel linear features – medieval to post-medieval cultivation furrows - indicate that, prior to enclosure in 1816, the site formed part of one of Markham Moor’s open fields: this discovery is unexpected, as pre-enclosure mapping shows this area as common grazing land. It is possible that the sandy ground was unproductive, and was turned over to pasture as soon as technological advancements made it possible to drain heavier clay ground elsewhere in the parish and bring it into arable production.