Berkshire Archaeology Newsletter 2019

NEWSLETTER 2019 Welcome to Berkshire Archaeology’s newsletter for BERKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY 2019 which gives news of Welcome to our new edititon of Berkshire Archaeology News recent archaeological work and discoveries within the five Unitary Authorities in east Berkshire. One particularly interesting project is the restoration and refurbishment of Nos 47, 48 and 49 High Street, Eton, which has revealed a building of 15th- century date at its core. Recording and investigation by Stonebow Heritage Ltd is revealing the fascinating history of these important Grade II* listed buildings. Read more about it on page 6. Detail of the roof of 47-49 High Street, Eton © Stonebow Heritage Ltd This year we have welcomed Both are heavily stylised but the Helena can be contacted by email Helena Costas to our team as image was as much to do with [email protected] she fulfils the role of Finds Liaison propaganda as accurate depiction. Officer for all of Berkshire, The gold ‘touchpiece’ dates to BERKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY including West Berkshire. The the reign of Queen Anne (1702 – BERKSHIRE RECORD OFFICE post is part-funded by The British 1714). It was used in the ceremony 9 COLEY AVENUE Museum and Graham and Joanna of ‘Touching for the King’s Evil’, a READING Barker. Although only in post for disease of the lymph glands, also RG1 6AF a few months, she has been busy known as scrofula, which was E. [email protected] recording the discovery of objects popularly believed to be cured if T. 0118 937 5976 reported to her through the the monarch touched the sufferer. Portable Antiquities Scheme, most Each sufferer was given a token Late Iron Age silver coin frequently by metal detectorists. or ‘touchpiece’, pierced so that Late Roman silver coin On this cover are three recent it could be worn on a ribbon Gold ‘touchpiece’ of discoveries, two of silver, one of round the neck. One of Queen Queen Anne (1702-1714) gold, from the Royal Borough of Anne’s last ‘touchings’ was of reproduced by kind permission Windsor and Maidenhead. It is Samuel Johnson, the great literary of the Portable Antiquities Scheme interesting to note the changing figure of the 18th-century. depiction of the face between the Iron Age and Roman coins. 1 One of England’s earliest houses is revealed at Datchet Quarry We have reported previously on the exciting discovery of a previously unknown Early Neolithic (4,000 – 3,500 BC) causewayed enclosure at Datchet, near Windsor, and the on-going archaeological work by Wessex Archaeology on behalf of CEMEX UK continues to astonish and surprise. Most recently, a Neolithic house has been revealed within the causewayed enclosure, just off centre. At this stage, it is unknown if the house pre-dates or is contemporary with the monument, but it is a further example of Neolithic architecture that has come to light in the discoveries collectively emphasise The remains of an Early Neolithic Middle Thames and Colne Valleys the density of Neolithic settlement house at Datchet Quarry west of London in recent years. and activity in this part of Wessex. © Wessex Archaeology What is most striking is the large The Datchet house is rectangular scale of these buildings, which in plan and large in scale, being raises questions over their purpose around 15 metres long and 6 and function. Were they simply metres wide. The house was domestic dwellings or special equally divided into two large meeting and gathering places? At rooms, although there may have Datchet the juxtaposition of such A reconstruction of an Early been other internal divisions that a building alongside a causewayed Neolithic house image by Karen we now have no evidence for. enclosure will add important Nichols - © Wessex Archaeology The trenched foundations would new information to the debate. have held timbers to support a superstructure and roof, presumably of timber and thatch. This reconstruction demonstrates the size and scale of the building. It was a remarkable feat of design and engineering for a building constructed nearly 6,000 years ago. It is a remarkable and rare survival but it is not unique in this part of Berkshire. Just a few years ago, the remains of five such buildings were found by Wessex Archaeology at Kingsmead Quarry, Horton, just a few miles to the south-east. These 2 The Horlicks Factory – a landmark building in Slough The Horlicks Factory at Slough is a landmark building in the town and a sign to train passengers from Wales and the west of England that London Paddington is not too far away. The factory was built in 1908 to the design of the company engineer A G Christiansen and was based on the company factory in Rascine, Wisconsin, USA. Horlicks was established in the USA around 1882 by the English immigrants James Horlick and his brother William. The Horlicks recipe combined dried malt and wheat flour with milk to produce a dried powder which could be made into a hot drink. It was hugely successful and the drink was used by Amundsen and Scott during their during the Second World War North and South Pole expeditions. The Horlicks Factory in Slough for the benefit of the Company’s © Berkshire Archaeology With its crenellated clock tower employees and a war memorial, commemorating the fallen of the and tall chimney, the factory The Horlicks War memorial two World Wars stands outside is a substantial, purpose-built, © Peter Underwood, reproduced the entrance to the factory. brick factory building facing on by kind permission of the to the railway. The large red Buckinghamshire Remembers’ The war memorial, now Grade letters, spelling Horlicks, on the website roof of the factory are a Slough II listed, depicts a tall grieving landmark. The proximity to the female figure and was sculpted railway enabled the Horlicks by Sir William Reid Dick, who Factory to bring malted barley, was responsible for many war wheat flour and fresh milk from memorials in England and their suppliers as raw materials abroad. The Horlicks memorial for blending and drying on is particularly notable as it site before being delivered to commemorates two members customers by train or road. of the Horlick family as being amongst the fallen. As is invariably the case, the factory complex has undergone The Horlicks Factory is a building additions, extensions and of considerable local interest modifications over time, although and part of Slough’s industrial the main factory façade remains heritage. The new owners, largely intact. Two largely Berkeley Homes, intend to retain subterranean air raid shelters were a substantial portion of the main built to the rear of the building building, which is locally listed. 3 Wargrave’s earliest parishioners revealed at St Mary’s Church The very fine, Grade II* listed, St archaeological investigations by John Moore Heritage Services Mary’s Church at Wargrave lies within the historic settlement of in early 2018 in advance of the to the west of the High Street Wargrave. However in 2015 the construction of the new annexe. and provides an oasis of calm Trustees of the Church drew and tranquillity away from the up plans to build a new annexe Being within the Church’s village centre. Wargrave was first on the north side of St Mary’s graveyard, a complex sequence of documented in the 11th-century Church to improve facilities for inhumation burials was identified and the early settlement was the congregation and parishioners within the footprint of the new probably centred on the area of Wargrave. Given the historic annexe. The earliest burials were around the Church. The current and archaeological importance un-coffined and almost certainly Church dates from the 13th- of the Church, exploratory date to the medieval period. century when the settlement archaeological investigations Unfortunately the absence of was awarded a market charter were undertaken to inform any associated objects does not and the focus of the settlement decisions about the new annexe. enable dating of these burials was centred on the main road beyond the early 12th- to late from Reading to Henley. As a result, detailed archaeological 15th-centuries. Later burials There have been very few investigations were undertaken were made in coffins with coffin fittings enabling these burials to be dated up to the 19th-century. The burials were almost entirely of adults, suggesting that the burial of the young may have been elsewhere within the graveyard. Research on the human remains recovered from the site is on- going and the results will shed light on the lives and deaths of the people and community of Wargrave which have been lost over the ages. Also notable was the recovery from the excavation of pottery sherds of prehistoric date. Although no deposits of these periods were identified, these finds do indicate that the site of the Church has been used for habitation long before the founding Two of Wargrave’s earliest of the medieval settlement. parishioners – medieval burials at St Mary’s Church © John Moore Heritage Services St Mary’s Church, Wargrave in spring © Berkshire Archaeology 4 An important Saxon discovery near Bisham In March 2018 Arwen Wood of Buckinghamshire’s Portable Antiquities Scheme office was informed about the discovery of two copper alloy vessels, found by a metal detectorist near Bisham. With the help of volunteers, including the Sussex Finds Liaison Officer Edwin Wood, a small emergency excavation was carried out. Assistance was provided by Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, who kindly loaned excavation equipment. vessel was excavated two iron The objects have been donated to spearheads were found tucked Buckinghamshire County Museum. behind, and, as it was lifted, a Due to the condition of the human toe bone was revealed, objects it was important to The two copper alloy vessels had confirming that the objects were stabilise and conserve them quickly.

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