The Archaeology of Mills and Milling

Bread for the People: The Archaeology of Mills and Milling Proceedings of a colloquium held in the British School at Rome 4th - 7th November 2009 Edited by David Williams David Peacock BAR International Series 2274 2011 Published by Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeological Reports Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England [email protected] www.archaeopress.com BAR S2274 Southampton University Archaeology Monographs no 3 Bread for the People: The Archaeology of Mills and Milling. Proceedings of a colloquium held in the British School at Rome 4th - 7th November 2009 © Archaeopress and the individual authors 2011 ISBN 978 1 4073 0848 7 Printed in England by All BAR titles are available from: Hadrian Books Ltd 122 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7BP England www.hadrianbooks.co.uk The current BAR catalogue with details of all titles in print, prices and means of payment is available free from Hadrian Books or may be downloaded from www.archaeopress.com The widening use of Lodsworth Stone: Neolithic to Romano-British quern distribution Ruth Shaffrey and Fiona Roe Iron Age rotary quern sites and 51 late Iron Age / Romano- Introduction British and Romano-British rotary quern sites. Nearly all the data included in the main analysis has been personally In 1987 David Peacock published a seminal paper in the recorded by one or both authors, or else has reliable Antiquaries Journal, in which he described a distinctive identifications. Bibliographical references to the sites are rock type, the Lodsworth Greensand, which was used to be found in the gazetteer rather than in the text. All new for saddle and rotary querns across the south of England sites are mapped, as are any sites listed by Peacock which (Peacock 1987). The paper located the area where the have now produced finds with a wider chronological stone was quarried from Lower Greensand Hythe Beds in range; those with additional finds of the same dates as in the parish of Lodsworth, between Petworth and Midhurst the original publication are listed in the gazetteer but are in West Sussex, and described the sandstone thus: not mapped as new sites. Sites with querns of possible Lodsworth stone noted in publication but not seen by the 12.1 Rowbury ‘a hard, medium-grained, greenish-grey or brownish- authors have been included in the gazetteer but are not grey, silicified, glauconitic, quartz sandstone, with mapped. characteristic swirls and stringers of dark cherty material, rich in glauconite’ (Peacock 1987, 62). The paper is subdivided into the Prehistoric use of Lodsworth stone for saddle querns and the Iron Age and During the course of some fifteen years of research, Roman use for rotary querns followed by a brief discussion Peacock visited 59 museums. In the resulting publication of typology. he investigated all aspects of the use of Lodsworth stone for querns, including the production technology, the typology of the querns (including the transition from Saddle querns (Neolithic to middle Iron saddle to rotary varieties) and the periods during which Age) they were used. He then went on to plot and discuss the distribution of both saddle and rotary querns, which In 1987 there were only 14 known sites with saddle querns were listed in an Appendix. This publication became and of Lodsworth stone (Peacock 1987, fig. 6). The earliest has remained the reference source whenever querns of saddle querns then recorded were from the late Bronze Lodsworth stone are found. The paper presented here aims Age site of Green Lane, Farnham, some 25 km (15.5 17.2 Roman Maritime Artefacts to build upon the foundations laid by Peacock with data miles) north of the quarry area. Two further saddle querns accumulated by both authors during the course of their of late Bronze/early Iron Age date, from Harting Beacon work across the south of England. As with the original and Park Brow were both from West Sussex, and so also paper, it is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of the fairly local to Lodsworth. The distribution of the originally use of Lodsworth stone, but includes data collected from recorded saddle quern sites barely stretched beyond the a combination of museum visits, independent research and limits of Sussex and Hampshire with most finds occurring reports for professional archaeological bodies carried out westwards from the quarry area. It is now possible to add since 1985. As the authors’ work has been concentrated in a further 21 definite sites to the original list, of which 12 the Thames valley, a noticeable bias towards this area may occur outside the original distribution area (Fig.1 and be observed; however, the additional sites are real finds Table 1). and make a significant contribution to our understanding of Lodsworth Greensand quern distribution. It is worth noting In 2008 the first saddle quern from a Neolithic context that neither of the authors has had much involvement in the came to light, the result of an evaluation by Cotswold Greater London area so that the lack of new discoveries Archaeology at Lavant Quarry, near Chichester, 16 km here may be considered something still to be investigated. (10 miles) south of Lodsworth. The associated pottery is provisionally identified as early Neolithic Plain Bowl, This survey adds 69 new sites to the original gazetteer, while the quern is made from a boulder, which suggests amounting, with some overlap, to 21 saddle quern sites, 11 utilisation of surface deposits at the quarry area. Numbers 309 The widening use of Lodsworth Stone Figure 1. Map of saddle quern distribution. of Lodsworth querns continue to be low in subsequent early Iron Age date. This quern has not been recorded by phases, with no finds from early Bronze Age contexts, and the authors (and is therefore not on the map) but it is given only one from a middle Bronze Age site at Angmering, 24 the same published lithological description as a rotary km (15 miles) from the quarry area. Both of these early quern that has been identified by us (FR) as Lodsworth finds are within the original distribution area. stone. There has been a proliferation, however, of examples By the early Iron Age it appears that the middle Thames dated from the middle Bronze - late Bronze/ early Iron Valley was less densely occupied, although fragments Age transition onwards. The most striking feature of these of Lodsworth stone were found in a probable hillfort is that many are not local to the quarry area (Fig. 1 and enclosure at St. Ann’s Hill, Chertsey. Despite this, there Table 1). Both the middle/late Bronze Age sites known to is evidence that Lodsworth stone was being taken further us at present are on or near the River Thames, at Taplow up the Thames than before, with finds at Gravelly Guy, Motorway Division, and Imperial College Sports Ground, Oxfordshire from both early and middle Iron Age contexts. Harlington. These sites are some 57 km (36 – 37 miles) The minimum distance from here to the quarry site is about north from Lodsworth. By the late Bronze Age the number 100 km (62 miles) but the actual journey would no doubt of certain sites with querns of Lodsworth stone now have been somewhat longer. Peacock’s work demonstrated identified amounts to seven, only two of which, Green an emphasis on Hampshire during the Iron Age, where he Lane, Farnham (Peacock 1987, 77) and Bognor Regis, are recorded a number of sites with Lodsworth stone saddle local to the quarry area. There are four new sites located querns of both early and middle Iron Age date. The in the middle Thames region: Cippenham, Lot’s Hole most distant of these sites from Lodsworth was probably (Dorney), Home Farm (Laleham) and Runnymede Bridge. Danebury hillfort, near Middle Wallop (Cunliffe and Poole Two further Bronze Age sites, less well documented, 1991, 396), which would have required a journey of more are on the River Kennet, at Pingewood and Field Farm, than 66 km (41 miles) to transport the numerous finds of Burghfield, both near Reading. Lodsworth stone querns to the hillfort. Further Lodsworth stone saddle querns of early and middle Iron Age date have With chronological progression towards the Iron Age, there subsequently been recorded from the Danebury Environs are two late Bronze/early Iron Age sites with Lodsworth project. stone saddle querns in the middle Thames area, Taplow Court and Imperial College Sports Ground, Harlington (the latter site already noted with middle to late Bronze Age Discussion of saddle querns fragments). It seems likely that the observed distribution area could now be extended into the upper Thames Valley Sussex is well provided with earlier prehistoric sites and since excavations at Appleford, Oxfordshire produced examination of quern fragments from some of these could a possible Lodsworth stone saddle quern of late Bronze/ well yield further examples of the early use of Lodsworth 310 Shaffrey & Roe Time Local Thames and Coast Hampshire Period Kennet Valleys NEO Lavant Quarry, W Sussex (The Trundle, W Sussex?) MBA Angmering, W Sussex M/LBA Taplow Motorway Division, Bucks Harlington, Greater London (Pingewood, Berks) LBA Green Lane, Cippenham, Berks Gosport, Hants Farnham, Surrey Dorney, Lot’s Hole, Bognor Regis, W Bucks Sussex Laleham, Surrey Runnymede, Surrey (Burghfield, Field Farm, Berks) (Hurst Park, Surrey?) LB/EIA Harting Beacon, W Taplow Court, Park Brow, W Sussex Bucks Sussex Harlington, Greater London (Appleford, Oxon) EIA Gravelly Guy, Oxon Southampton, Balkesbury Hants St Ann’s Hill, Danebury Surrey Environs Winchester, Staple Gardens MIA Gravelly Guy, Oxon Balkesbury Danebury Danebury Environs Owslebury Table 1. List of sites with saddle querns of Lodsworth Winnall Down Littlehampton, W Greensand. Peacock’s sites in italics, sites of less Sussex certain date in brackets, uncertain identifications Fareham, Hants with question mark.

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