Berkshire Archaeology Newsletter 2017
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NEWSLETTER 2017 Shining a Light on the Prehistoric Landscape of Shinfeld P P3 Some Recent Finds Reported to East Berkshire’s Finds Liaison Offcer PP6 A History Lesson at the Former Elvian School, Reading P P7 Inside Reading Prison. Reproduced by kind permission of Artangel. Image © Marcus J Leith BERKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY Welcome to our new edition of Berkshire Archaeology News The last twelve months have to provide food relief within You will fnd details of a selection been a busy period for the the catchment through major of recent sites and fnds within the Berkshire Archaeology team, works in the Datchet area, following pages, but don’t forget with ever-increasing numbers planners and contractors for you can view our HERonline of planning applications, a wide Highways England on the through the Heritage Gateway range of enquiries to the Historic upgrading of the M4 to a www.heritagegateway.org.uk Environment Record (HER), and “smart” motorway, and with to fnd out more, or to discover many archaeological and research the High Speed 2 team to the archaeology on your doorstep. projects taking place within our mitigate any impacts from area needing our team’s specialist ancillary works associated with We have also launched our input and advice. the planned new railway. new webpage - go to www.berkshirearchaeology.org.uk A number of strategic sites for We have also been working with to see our brand new look, housing and other redevelopment Museum of London Archaeology and don’t forget to check back are under consideration, as the to advise on their production of regularly for updates on our work! economy of our area continues to a Terrestrial Minerals Resource We hope you enjoy our newsletter. grow; many of these affect heritage Assessment, which considers assets across the full range of the the archaeological potential of BERKSHIRE historic environment, such as the important sand, gravel and other ARCHAEOLOGY listed and scheduled site at the potential quarrying areas, to aid BERKSHIRE former Reading Prison, where planning and advice on recording RECORD OFFICE investigations are ongoing. and/or conserving the most 9 COLEY AVENUE We are also working with the signifcant archaeology. A report READING Environment Agency to advise and seminar are expected later RG1 6AF on the River Thames Scheme, this year, as well as a set of E. [email protected] enhanced records for the HER. T. 0118 937 5976 Berkshire Archaeology is an archaeological advice service for; 1 A Prehistoric Landscape Between Datchet and Slough In the last year large soil bunds have appeared just before Junction 5 for Langley as you drive along the M4 towards London. These mark the early stages of a 40ha gravel quarry on land north of the Motorway, close to Ditton Park. The Motorway was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s with only very limited rescue excavations undertaken by a valiant band of local societies and groups, volunteers and a small number of professional archaeologists. We therefore know little about the archaeology that was under the M4 at this point. However the stripping and archaeological investigation of this new gravel quarry is providing evidence of what might have been lost Roman timber-lined water hole under excavation when the Motorway was built. The © Wessex Archaeology investigations by Wessex Archaeology on behalf of CEMEX UK are revealing a buried landscape of prehistoric description for this very distinctive and Roman archaeology. A series type of pottery. A particularly exciting of Bronze Age and Roman ditched discovery was the remains of a feld systems are coming to light. person, buried in a fexed position, A timber-lined water hole, probably possibly tied or bound when buried. dug to provide water for livestock, No artefacts were recovered but was recorded in one feld. Surprisingly the burial is typical of the Early a human skull was found at its Bronze Age (2,000 – 1,600 BC). base; a curious discovery, perhaps The archaeological investigations deliberately deposited to mark the are due to continue for several end of the useful life of this water years as the quarry progresses. hole. Fields and associated water holes were ubiquitous in the later prehistoric period in this part of the Middle Thames and Colne Valleys and demonstrate how intensively this part of Berkshire was farmed in antiquity. Interestingly there has also been a high number of Neolithic (4,000 – 2,000 BC) pits recorded. These small, shallow pits were not associated with any monuments but were more likely all that remains of Early Bronze Age(?) small habitations. Some pits contained fexed inhumation burial ‘Grooved Ware’ pottery, an apt © Wessex Archaeology A near complete, but broken barrel urn © Wessex Archaeology 2 The Peculiar History of Shoppenhanger’s Manor, Maidenhead Walter George Thornton Smith, collector, antique dealer, connoisseur of European furniture, and sometime chairman of the board of Fortnum and Masons, died on Sunday 24 February1963 at the age of 87. One of his last wishes was that his house, Shoppenhanger’s Manor on the outskirts of Maidenhead, should be used as a retirement home, perhaps for civil servants. His Thornton Smith’s Shoppenhanger’s manor house house was no ordinary suburban © Picture by Baylis Media Ltd (Maidenhead Advertiser) home but a replica of a medieval manor house, built under his instruction in the second decade The enclosure was defned by Unfortunately his last wish for his of the 20th century. It was built two large ditches, full of Roman house to become a retirement as a pastiche of a 16th-century pottery and tile. This Roman home did not come to pass. After merchant’s house, using reclaimed material was almost certainly a brief spell as a flm set for The items from elsewhere, including derived from a Roman building, Persuaders and at least two low carved timber and panelling from perhaps even a Roman villa, close budget horror flms in the 1960s, Billingbear Park, a ceiling from to the site of the manor house. the house was bought by and a medieval inn at Banbury and There is no doubt that Thornton incorporated into the adjacent painted glass from Selby Abbey. The Smith would have been delighted Hotel becoming a successful interior was also richly furnished to know that his grand house restaurant and wedding venue and included C’hand Hi Chinese was built on a Roman foundation, until its demolition in 2006. wallpaper, a magnifcent collection even if there is some doubt as to of Chelsea, Bow and Derby the medieval origins of the site. china and 16th-century Brussels tapestries. Thornton Smith built his edifce on the foundations of what he considered to be the original medieval Shoppenhanger’s manor house. The original building is shown on the 1844 Parish of Bray Tithe map but it is not clear from cartographic and documentary sources if this was the site of a medieval manor house. While Thornton Smith’s faux manor house has since been demolished, archaeological investigations at the site in 2016 by Cotswold Archaeology have surprisingly shown that 1st century AD pottery from Shoppenhanger’s Manor the house sat within a Roman, © Cotswold Archaeology rather than medieval, enclosure. 3 Shining a Light on the Prehistoric Landscape of Shinfeld, Near Reading Excavations by Oxford Archaeology in 2016 as part of a new housing development in Shinfeld, south of Reading, have revealed a changing pattern of prehistoric and later land-use stretching back to the late Neolithic period (3,000 – 2,000 BC). Located on a slight plateau above the foodplain of the River Lodden, the remains of an early Bronze Age (2,000 – 1,500 BC) round barrow have proved to be quite intriguing. The Early Bronze Age round barrow The barrow ditch encircled a at Shinfeld, Reading central pit that had been dug into © Oxford Archaeology a silted-up tree hole. Within the pit was a complete, up-turned early Bronze Age collared urn, so-called because of its distinctive Further dating and analysis ‘collar’ that would have provided will help to establish the a means of carrying the vessel relationship between the as well as a form of decoration. cremation burial and the charred A second un-urned cremation remains within the ditch. burial was also identifed just to the north, possible representing a This ceremonial landscape, which later burial. Although excavation also included scattered pits and of the surrounding barrow ditch postholes, seems to have been produced few fnds (worked transformed during the mid to fints and sherds of early late Bronze Age (1,500 – 800 BC) prehistoric pottery), a notable into an agricultural landscape of element was the presence of drove ways, feld systems and enclosures. Although no evidence burnt material, possibly the The Bronze Age remains of tree branches, for dwellings was found, the presence of four-post structures, collared urn which had been deliberately from Shinfeld placed in the flls of the ditch. waterholes and pits, along with notable concentrations of fnds © Oxford Archaeology It seems that the tree (or its from several pits, suggests remains) became the focal point that the settlement lay within of the barrow and the cremation or very close to the site. burial. The charred remains from the barrow ditch may have derived from the cremation pyre or the burning of the central tree. 4 From milestones to memorials – monuments on the Historic Environment Record Over 110 monument records of the three Reading men who have been added to the died in Spain - George Middleton, Berkshire Archaeology Historic William Ball and Archibald Environment Record (HER) Francis, and the badges of the database in the last year, bringing international brigades they fought the total to more than 7,000.