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Bulletin 439 June 2013

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Bulletin 439 June 2013 Registered Charity No: 272098 ISSN 0585-9980 SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CASTLE ARCH, GUILDFORD GU1 3SX Tel/ Fax: 01483 532454 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk Bulletin 439 June 2013 WOKING PALACE 2012 Fig 1. Trench 16: Medieval and Tudor wall foundations and hearth. WOKING PALACE – The 2012 excavations Rob Poulton A fourth season of community archaeological excavation work at Woking Palace was organised by the Surrey County Archaeological Unit and Surrey Archaeological Society, with the support, especially financial, of Woking Borough Council, and took place between 12th September and 30th September 2012. The exceptionally large (over three hectares) moated site was the manor house of Woking from soon after it was granted to Alan Basset in 1189. During the next three hundred years it was sometimes in royal hands, and otherwise often occupied by those close to the throne, most notably Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII, who lived there with her third husband. In 1503 Henry VII decided to make it a palace, and it remained a royal house until 1620 when it was granted to Sir Edward Zouch, and soon after mostly demolished. Nevertheless its remains are exceptionally interesting and include well-preserved moats (fig 1), ruined and standing structures and fishponds. The 2009 (trenches 1-3), 2010 (trenches 6, 9, 10, and 11), and 2011 (trenches 12- 14) excavations (fig 2) confirmed that the site was newly occupied around 1200, and revealed that ashlar buildings had been constructed in the earliest phases. Around 1300 these were demolished and replaced by a much larger range of stone buildings that formed part of the privy lodgings, and were built on a sufficient scale to continue in this role until the palace was demolished. A midden deposit predated the buildings and included foods only eaten by people of high status. Nearby, part of the medieval great hall was found, next to its replacement, built by Henry VII in 1508. The principal manorial kitchen and its Tudor replacement were also identified. These were built Fig 2. WOKING PALACE – Plan of all excavated features. 2 Fig 3. WOKING PALACE – Staircase newel to a tennis court viewing gallery? during extensive developments in the later 15th century, shown also by the discovery of a substantial range of brick buildings, which extended and improved the privy lodgings. The 2012 work took place in two locations. In trench 15, close to the standing structures, evidence was identified of considerable levelling-up in association with the early medieval privy lodgings. Further confirmation of their sophisticated character was given by the recovery of pieces of columns and a capital of Sussex marble. These came from the foundations of new structural elements of the early Tudor period that adapted and extended the earlier buildings. It is not always clear how the two periods of building worked together, but a particularly interesting feature was the external staircase, built as part of the construction of the partly standing early Tudor brick building, that also butted up to an early stone wall (fig 3). The brick building is of unproven function, but a strong possibility, in view of the apparent absence of windows at ground floor level, is that it was a tennis play (court). If so, a staircase in this position could have provided access to a viewing gallery, as well as to the first floor privy lodgings to the south. Trench 16 examined a location not previous looked at in the 21st century excavations (cover). The sequence of building begins with two parallel stone walls, around 1.5m apart. They share their orientation only with the gatehouse structure to the south (fig 2), and this suggests they are dividing walls in a timber framed lodging, perhaps with a length of over 20m if continuous to the gatehouse. Their position, and that of the gatehouse structural elements recorded in the early 20th century, suggest that the moat may originally have been narrower and on a slightly different alignment in the medieval period. A large rectangular building, with a tile levelling course at the top of its sill walls, and a tile-on-edge hearth at the centre of its short side, seems likely also to be lodgings and of 15th century date. It must have been retained when early Tudor brick walls on a different alignment were built, as, while the north wall of a rectangular structure butts up to its south wall, the south wall of the new building is continued only as a courtyard wall further east. This wall, in turn, had been butted up to a substantial brick wall, forming a revetment to the moat, running at right angles to it. The orientation of the courtyard wall differs from that of the great kitchen, believed to have 3 WOKING PALACE – A newly-cleared view from the moat towards The Great Hall. been built prior to Henry VII’s acquisition of the palace in 1503, but is nearly the same as that of the great hall that was built in 1508 (fig 2). It seems that the two went together to create a layout similar to that of the typical large Tudor courtyard house. A key part of the project, as always, was giving members of the public a chance to become involved in the excavations. In all some 128 adults and 285 children and young people with little or no previous experience were able to have their first taste of life in an archaeological trench. The public Open Day offered 223 visitors a tour, led by a Friend of Woking Palace, around the various trenches, where the discoveries were explained by some of the 40-plus archaeologists from SyAS who had worked on the site. The excavation was only possible as a result of the efforts of many organisations and individuals, who are particularly to be thanked for their persistence when the clayey sand in trench 16 baked to near-concrete during the first two weeks of the dig. More specifically, thanks are due to Woking Borough Council, the owners of the land; to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (acting on the advice of English Heritage) for granting consent for work involving a Scheduled Ancient Monument (No 12752), and particularly to Richard Massey, Inspector of Ancient Monuments for his encouragement and support; and to those who took the lead roles in organising and assisting the excavation work: most particularly Richard and Pam Savage of SAS, for their work in all aspects of site organisation and management; Andrew Francis and his finds team from SyAS; the enthusiastic group, ably led by Ann Harvey who completed the processing and initial cataloguing of all the finds at SCAUs offices; Abby Guinness (Community Archaeologist), Hannah Potter (trainee Community Archaeologist) and Giles Pattison (site planning and photography) of SCAU; and the Friends of Woking Palace for refreshments and much else. The technical expertise and assistance provided by Archaeology South-East (University of London) and QUEST (Quaternary Scientific, University of Reading) was also hugely important. 4 WOKING PALACE AND ITS PARK A Heritage Lottery-funded project It is very gratifying that the success of the project, reported in the Bulletin over the last four years, was a major contributing factor to the successful bid by the Friends of Woking Palace to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a three year project: Woking Palace and its Park. A key element in this will be three further seasons of excavation. The first of these will take place this autumn from September 18th to October 6th. Working days will be Wednesday to Sunday inclusive in each week. Full details will be available shortly, but we are very keen to hear from anyone who is interested in participating in the project, whether digging in the trenches or helping with finds. Please contact [email protected], or Tel: 01483 518772. ASHTEAD ROMAN VILLA AND TILEWORKS David Bird In March members of the Roman Studies Group carried out a short programme of test pitting near the Ashtead Common Roman villa. As the site was extremely wet activity had to be restricted, but it still produced useful results. Excavations in the 1920s had produced iron collars from wooden water pipes somewhere near the north side of the separate bath house (Lowther 1927, 154; 1930, 133), so a metal detector survey was undertaken by Mairi Sargent in difficult conditions in an attempt to find more collars and thus provide a clue as to the source of the water. Unfortunately none could be found. A probable Roman bronze coin was located but is likely to be unreadable. Only eight coins are known from the site (Lowther 1930, 137) and in general the lack of metalwork of any kind is very noticeable. Three areas were tested, each with two test pits. The first was intended to assess a site examined by John Hampton in 1966 to the south east of the separate bath house. It had been found by geophysical survey carried out by the late Tony Clark and trenches had produced evidence that hinted at a possible structure (information and records supplied by John Hampton). The location was surveyed in as accurately as possible by David and Audrey Graham, working with considerable difficulty because of the surrounding vegetation. A large amount of tile rubble with some flint was located, in part suggesting a linear feature. Finds included some 2nd/3rd century pottery and a fragment of a relief-patterned tile. There was no sign of previous trenching and it is thought likely that Hampton’s trenches were slightly further east, in an area which seemed to have signs of previous archaeological work but was too wet to dig.
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