Eversley Quarry Finchampstead, Wokingham Berkshire Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design for The Guildhouse Consultancy on behalf of Cemex UK Operations Ltd CA Project: 9095 CA Report: 12300 October 2012 Eversley Quarry Finchampstead, Wokingham Berkshire Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design CA Project: 9095 CA Report: 12300 Author: Alan Hardy Approved: Martin Watts Signed: ……………………………………………………………. Issue: 01 Date: 16.10.2012 This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report entirely at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission. © Cotswold Archaeology Building 11, Kemble Enterprise Park, Kemble, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 6BQ t. 01285 771022 f. 01285 771033 e. [email protected] 1 Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology CONTENTS SUMMARY 5 1 INTRODUCTION 6 Location, topography and geology ...................................................................... 6 Archaeological background ................................................................................ 6 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 7 3 METHODOLOGY 8 4 RESULTS 9 Fieldwork summary ............................................................................................ 9 5 FACTUAL DATA AND STATEMENTS OF POTENTIAL 12 Stratigraphic Record: factual data ...................................................................... 12 Stratigraphic record: statement of potential ........................................................ 12 Artefactual record: factual data ........................................................................... 13 Artefactual record: statements of potential ......................................................... 15 Biological record: factual data ............................................................................ 15 Biological record: statements of potential ........................................................... 16 6 SUMMARY STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL 16 7 STORAGE AND CURATION 17 8 UPDATED AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 17 Objective 1: Refine the chronology of the site..................................................... 17 Objective 2: Clarify the likely function of the pits ................................................. 18 Objective 3: Characterise the ironmaking process and its context ...................... 18 Objective 4: Characterise the medieval activity .................................................. 19 9 PUBLICATION 19 Synopsis of Proposed Report ............................................................................. 20 10 PROJECT TEAM 21 2 Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology 11 TIMETABLE 22 12 REFERENCES 23 APPENDIX 1: SUMMARY STRATIGRAPHIC QUANTIFICATION .................................. 24 APPENDIX 2: ABSOLUTE DATING (SUERC) ................................................................ 26 APPENDIX 3: FLINT BY E.R. MCSLOY.......................................................................... 27 APPENDIX 4: POTTERY BY E.R. MCSLOY ................................................................... 28 APPENDIX 5: ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL RESIDUES BY T.P. YOUNG .................... 29 APPENDIX 6: PLANT MACROFOSSIL AND CHACOAL REMAINS BY S. COBAIN ....... 45 APPENDIX 7: OASIS REPORT FORM ........................................................................... 59 3 Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Site (centre) trench and feature plan (1:2000) Fig. 3 Site (east) trench and feature plan (1:2000) Fig. 4 Site (west) trench and feature plan (1:2000) Fig. 5 Plan of Iron Age roundhouse and smelting furnace 105363 (1:100) Fig. 6 Selection of pit features 4 Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology SUMMARY Site Name: Eversley Quarry Location: Finchamstead, Berkshire NGR: SU 7890 6230 Type: Evaluation/Excavation/Monitoring Date: May to December 2009 (CA) Location of archive: Reading Accession Number: REDMG 2008.694 Site Code: FHF09 A programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology (CA) between May and December 2009 at the request of The Guildhouse Consultancy (on behalf of Cemex UK Operations Ltd) at Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Berkshire (SU 7890 6230). The comprised evaluation, excavation and monitoring, and was carried out across an area designated for quarry expansion. The work recovered evidence for two main phases of activity, specifically a phase of iron smelting and charcoal production dating to the middle-later Iron Age, and a phase of medieval charcoal production dating to between the 11 th and the 13 th centuries. Slight evidence of a Mesolithic presence and Bronze Age activity was also found, along with post-medieval and modern landscape management in the form of a scatter of field ditches and drains. A further programme of ‘strip-and-record’ was carried out by Wessex Archaeology (WA) in 2010 and 2011, on a total of 10.62ha in the south-western part of the CA investigation area, and bordering the north bank of the River Blackwell. An assessment report for this work was produced in December 2011 (Wessex Archaeology 2011). Agreement was reached between the client, the curator and Wessex Archaeology to incorporate the Wessex Archaeology results into a single Cotswold Archaeology publication report. This document presents a quantification and assessment of the evidence recovered from the investigations. It considers the evidence collectively in its local, regional and national context, and presents an updated project design for a programme of post-excavation analysis to bring the results to appropriate publication. 5 Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Between May and December 2009 Cotswold Archaeology (CA; then Cotswold Archaeological Trust) carried out programme of archaeological investigation at the Eversley Quarry, (centred on NGR: SU 7890 6230; Fig. 1). The work was undertaken at the request of The Guildhouse Consultancy (on behalf of Cemex UK Operations Ltd), in respect of Condition 7 of the planning permission MIN/2007/2622, in accordance with Local Plan Policy 7 & Wokingham Local Plan Policy WNC 6. A detailed Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) was produced by CA (2009) and approved by the LPA acting on the advice of Mary O‘Donaghue. The fieldwork also followed the Standard and Guidance for Archaeological Field Evaluation issued by the Institute of Field Archaeologists (1999), Berkshire Archaeology: general standards for Archaeological fieldwork Projects (Berkshire Archaeology 2008) and the Management of Archaeological Projects II (EH 1991). It was monitored by Fiona McDonald of Berkshire Archaeology, including periodic site visits. Location, topography and geology 1.2 The site is approximately 0.5ha in area and lies to east of Eversley and west of Finchampstead, bordered to the south by the River Blackwater, a tributary of the Thames, and to the north by woodland. (Fig. 1). The site lies at approximately 50m AOD, with a slight slope to the south. 1.3 The site overlies fluvial gravels and silts within the floodplain (BGS 2000 Sheet 268 Reading). Pleistocene alluvial silts, and seams of gravel and sand and peat have also been recorded. 1.4 Prior to mineral extraction the site was under pasture, divided into 12 fields. Archaeological background 1.5 The archaeological potential of the area can be summarised by period: Mesolithic 1.6 Two extensive Mesolithic flint scatters were identified at Park Farm, Binfield (around 10km north-east of the study area) close to later Iron Age and Romano-British settlement (Roberts 1998). Characteristically Mesolithic worked flints have been found sealed beneath peat and alluvium deposits in a number of Thames tributaries, 6 Eversley Quarry, Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design © Cotswold Archaeology including the Kennet, Colne, and Wey, although no such sites have been identified in the valley of the River Blackwater in the vicinity of the study area. Neolithic/Bronze Age 1.7 No Neolithic finds have been made in the area but there is Bronze Age cemetery evidence from Watmore Farm (CA 1999). Iron Age/Roman 1.8 The nearest known Iron Age settlement evidence is at Arborfield Garrison, 4km to the northwest of the site. A Roman road (‘The Devil’s Highway’) lies 1.5km to the north of the site. Anglo-Saxon/medieval 1.9 No Anglo-Saxon activity is noted in the area. The manor of Finchamstead was held by Earl Harold, then by William I at Domesday. Post-medieval and Modern 1.10 Both Finchampstead to the east of the site and Eversley to the west of the site were inaccessible by road from the southern side of the River Blackwater until the 19 th century. Thus the area of the site has remained very isolated until recent years. 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2.1 The aims of the excavation were to establish the character, quality, date, significance and extent of any archaeological remains or deposits surviving