Tangley House, Tangley, Hampshire

Tangley House, Tangley, Hampshire An Archaeological Watching Brief and Desk-Based Assessment For The Tangley Estate by Helen Moore and Clare Challis Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code THT 05/04 October 2005 Summary Site name: Tangley House, Tangley, Hampshire Grid reference: SU 3260 5255 Site activity: Watching Brief and Desk-Based Assessment Date and duration of project: 17th January – 2nd February 2005 Project manager: Helen Moore Site code: THT 05/04 Summary of results: The fieldwork revealed no evidence of any archaeological deposits or finds on the site. Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Hampshire Museum Service in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Report edited/checked by: Steve Preston 02/11/05 Steve Ford 31/10/05 i Tangley House, Tangley, Hampshire An Archaeological Watching Brief and Desk-Based Assessment by Clare Challis and Helen Moore Report 05/04 Introduction This report documents the results of an archaeological watching brief and desk-based assessment carried out at the site of Tangley House, Tangley, Hampshire (SU 326 525) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr Harry Marriott, The Estate Office, Tangley, Hampshire, SP11 0SH. Planning permission (TVN.06848/2) has been granted by Test Valley Borough Council for the construction of a new house on the site of the former Tangley House which was demolished after being destroyed by fire. The consent is subject to a condition that requires an archaeological desk-based assessment and (if necessary) an archaeological watching brief during groundworks. This is in accordance with the Department of the Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance, Planning and the Historic Environment (PPG16 1990), and the Council’s policies on historic buildings. The project was designed to a written scheme of investigation approved by Mr Frank Green, Test Valley Heritage Officer. The fieldwork was undertaken by Helen Moore between 17th January and 2nd February 2005 and the site code is THT 05/04. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Hampshire Museum Service in due course. Location, topography and geology The settlement of Tangley lies to the north-west of Andover and east of Ludgershall on the North Hampshire downland. The site lies towards the southern end of a broad ridge with dry valleys to the west and east and with a gentle slope to the south. Tangley House lies to the south of the core of the village on an irregular shaped piece of land adjoining parkland and surrounded by fields. The site lies at approximately 173m above Ordnance Datum, on clay with flints and tertiary debris overlying chalk (BGS 1993). Methodology The desk-based assessment of the site was carried out by the examination of pre-existing information from a number of sources recommended by the Institute of Field Archaeologists paper ‘Standards in British 1 Archaeology’ covering desk-based studies. These sources include historic and modern maps, the Hampshire Sites and Monuments Record, geological maps and any relevant publications or reports. The purpose of the watching brief was to excavate and record any archaeological deposits affected by groundworks. This involved examination of areas stripped of topsoil/overburden and excavation for drainage ditches and other associated works. Archaeological Background General Background The site is in an area which contains several upstanding monuments including enclosures, barrows and linear earthworks. To the north of the site the remains of an Iron Age plateau-fort named Bevisbury Camp consist of a single bank with outer ditch, and have attracted attention from an early date (e.g., Williams-Freeman 1915, 11– 12 and 355). The Roman road from Winchester to Wanborough and thence Cirencester (Margary’s (1955, 90) route 43, here called Hungerford Lane) passes through the parish to the east of the site (and interestingly traverses Bevisbury Camp). Several enclosures are present within the locality and include the remains of a rampart and ditch enclosure to the north-east of the site and two further enclosures at Blagden Copse to the east of the site. One of these is a banjo-shaped enclosure and the second the remains of a bank and ditch enclosing an irregular area. All three enclosures are of Iron Age or Roman date (Dewar 1925; 1930; Stead 1966). The site of a Roman villa lies to the south-west of Tangley within the parish of Ludgershall. A medieval settlement can be assumed from the presence of a 12th-century church (see below), but may be supposed to have lain to the east, closer to the church. Pevsner did not find Tangley House worth comment (Pevsner and Lloyd 1967). Hampshire Archaeology and Historic Buildings Record A search of the Hampshire Archaeology and Historic Buildings Record (AHBR) was made on the 13th January 2005, covering a 1km radius around the site. This revealed 14 entries within close proximity to the site including two on the site itself. The results from this search are listed in Appendix 1, and summarized below; their locations are plotted on Figure 1. Prehistoric, Roman and Saxon There are no entries relating to these periods. 2 Medieval There is only one entry for this period and it relates to the first documented account of the name ‘Tangelea’ [Fig 1:1]. There are earthworks east of Manor Farm and the site which are thought to be part of a medieval village but which are currently undated [2]. These were mentioned as part of the RCHME Medieval Settlement Project (Edwards 1996). Post-Medieval The majority of AHBR entries for the search radius are buildings, either statutorily Listed or surveyed as part of the Test Valley Historic Buildings Survey in 1993. The parish church of St Thomas of Canterbury [3] is of early medieval origin but was largely rebuilt in 1875 to the design of William White and enlarged in 1898 with the addition of the western tower. The church is listed, Grade II* and is situated to the east of the site (Remnants of the 12-th century apse were discovered when the present church was built, but nothing now remains of the original structure, except part of the arch to the apse reused original material; VCH 1911, 328). It is interesting that the church is sited so far east of the present settlement, as the church would normally have been the focus of medieval settlement. Other Grade II listed building entries are The Cricketers Arms [4] an early 19th-century flint and brick public house with tile roof to the north of the site, Thirground Cottage [5] a flint and thatch late 18th-century building to the east of the site and Lower Green Farmhouse [6] an early 19th-century house to the north-east of the site. Tangley Park and park features [7, 14] are listed on the AHBR as shown on historic maps: as enclosed meadows on Taylor’s map of 1759 and as avenues on Milne’s map of 1791. The listing notation, incongruously, is for a post-1810 park. Taylor’s map shows nothing of this sort, see below (and Fig. 3). Unfortunately Milne’s map could not be located for this survey. The first map reviewed here that showed a park is that of 1911 (below). The park is associated with Tangley House which suffered fire damage in February 2000 and was surveyed in 2003 by Wessex Archaeology before being demolished for safety reasons (Pl. 1). The house [8] had been built in 1911 in Queen Anne style with Arts and Crafts influences, and was constructed in one phase, though designed to appear to have developed over a longer period of time. Undated There are several entries which fall under this heading. Linear features [9], located north of the site, aligned NE– SW are visible on air photographs and are thought to represent hedge or woodland banks. Other entries visible 3 on air photographs include a circular form [10] thought to be an enclosure to the north of the site and a linear feature [11] to the north-east. A sinkhole [12] was investigated in Tangley House Park and found to be natural rather than the result of flint mining. Slight traces of two lynchets (former field boundaries) [13] were observed to the east of the site and may be associated with the earthworks [2] close to Manor Farm. Listed as undated on the AHBR, Tangley Park [14], has been considered above (and see below). Cartographic and documentary sources The settlement of Tangley has medieval origins and was first documented as ‘Tangelea’ in AD 1175 (Mills 1991, 339). The placename is derived from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) tang and leah, probably meaning ‘[woodland] clearing at the tongue [of land]’, which certainly fits its topography. Tangley formed part of the manor of Faccombe in Pastrow Hundred and thus does not appear separately in Domesday Book. It was detached from Faccombe in the 13th century. The common fields were enclosed by authority of an Act of Parliament in 1827 (VCH 1911) but otherwise its history has been unremarkable. A range of Ordnance Survey and other historical maps of the area were consulted at Hampshire Record Office in order to ascertain what activity had been taking place throughout the site’s later history and whether this may have affected any archaeological deposits within the proposal area (see Appendix 2). The earliest map is Saxton’s map of Hampshire, 1575 (Fig. 2). At this time the settlement at Tangley is no more than a hamlet, comparable to Hurstbourne Tarrant.

Load more