B E R K S H I R E ARCHAEOLOGY

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Archaeology in – a brief appraisal

Background The parish of Old Windsor forms an elongated strip of land stretching from the in the north-east to Virginia Water in the south-west. The parish therefore lies on the Thames floodplain and gravel terraces in the north, London Clay across its centre and the sands, gravels and clays of the Bracklesham Beds in the south-west.

The land is flat within the Thames floodplain, becoming more undulating to the south- west within Windsor Great Park and towards Sunningdale. The River Thames is the dominant watercourse, with only minor streams flowing either into Virginia Water or into the Thames. Ham Island, which lies within a large meander of the River Thames, is separated from Old Windsor by the New Cut, created in 1822 to aid navigation of the River Thames.

Land use within the parish is dominated by the woodland and parkland of Windsor Great Park which covers two-thirds of the parish. The settlement of Old Windsor separates open, agricultural land to the south-west and north-east.

Settlement focuses on the village of Old Windsor, which is almost entirely residential. There are farmsteads within the agricultural land and residential properties front the River Thames on the south edge of Ham Island.

Archaeology The southern two-thirds of the parish lie almost entirely within the Grade I Registered Park and Garden of Great Windsor Park, which contains a number of important monuments and earthworks, some of which are Scheduled Monuments and listed buildings. A small limb in the west of the parish lies within an undesignated part of Windsor Great Park.

Outside of Windsor Great Park, the archaeology of the parish is dominated by the Scheduled Monument of the early medieval and medieval palace of Kingsbury, a site of national importance. This covers most of the land to the north of the village and includes two large areas on Ham Island. While the importance of the Scheduled area is specific to its Roman and early medieval archaeology, all of the areas north of Old Windsor, including Ham Island have a high potential for prehistoric archaeology, as evidenced within the wider Thames Valley and specifically within the parish by

Berkshire Archaeology An Archaeological Service for: Royal Borough of Windsor & , Reading Borough Council, Slough Borough Council, Wokingham Borough Council & Bracknell Forest Council excavations within Ham Island Water Treatment Works (WTW), a number of crop marks, find spots and a typical array of finds dredged from the Thames.

The Historic Environment Record notes few sites and finds spots within the built up area of Old Windsor. Few records are recorded on the HER for the strip of farmland on London Clay between the village and Windsor Great Park but these do include the Scheduled Tileplace moated site, a number of earthworks, including ridge and furrow, and a possible crop mark enclosure at Clayhall Farm.

Investigations Archaeological interventions recorded on the HER are focussed largely on work undertaken within the Scheduled Kingsbury early medieval palace site. Other interventions relate to infrastructure, primarily works associated with the Ham Island WTW and other improvements. A small number of interventions have taken place within the village of Old Windsor with modest success. There has been little development to the south-west of the village and only small scale interventions have taken place here, while not one single intervention is recorded on the HER within Windsor Great Park within the parish. No part of the parish was subject to field walking for the East Berkshire Archaeological Survey

Potential The area of Kingsbury Scheduled Monument is of the highest archaeological potential and any development will be subject to Scheduled Monument Consent, with the aim of preservation in situ of any archaeological features or deposits. The potential of those areas outside of the Scheduled area but within the floodplain and gravel terraces of the River Thames (which includes all of the area within the built up area of Old Windsor), is also high for prehistoric and later remains. South of the built up area of the village, the archaeological potential is unclear, given the geology and former and current land use. However this will have afforded some protection to fragile remains and there will be the potential for the survival of as yet unidentified earthworks within the forested areas of Windsor Great Park.

Approaches to development proposals All developments within the Kingsbury Scheduled Monument will require Consent from English Heritage and will merit at least archaeological observation and recording, for even the smallest impacts, although more controlled forms of intervention will be required where appropriate. The setting of the site is also legally protected by this designation. Hope-Taylor’s excavations in the 1950s remain unpublished and high priority should be given to lobbying for an appropriate mechanism for analysis and publication of these nationally important excavations.

Outside of the Scheduled area, any development of any scale on Ham Island, in adjacent open areas north of Old Windsor adjacent to the Thames and in built up areas close to the limit of the Scheduled area, is likely to merit mitigation and, for proposals of scale, pre-determination investigation (due to the potential for significant remains, meriting preservation) is likely to be required.

While large scale developments are probably unlikely at present, further improvements/works to the Ham Island WTW and flood alleviation schemes or similar may be anticipated. There have been a number of applications for replacement dwellings for properties on Ham Island. Recommendations for mitigation for these applications are usually made, although there may be a need for selectivity based on scale, impact and foundation design.

Berkshire Archaeology An Archaeological Service for: Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, Reading Borough Council, Slough Borough Council, Wokingham Borough Council & Bracknell Forest Council

It is notable that there have been no large excavation excavations on the south bank of the River Thames between Runnymede and Bray and our knowledge of prehistoric settlement and land use is dominated by the results of work on the north side of the River Thames.

Within the built up area of Old Windsor, larger scale developments (e.g. several houses or more) would usually justify exploratory work to assess potential - this will more often than not be post-consent, unless of significant scale.

Outside of the Thames floodplain and gravel terraces, opportunities for investigation are likely to be rare and limited in scale and will need to be considered on a case-by- case basis depending on scale and proximity to known monuments. The near total absence of interventions within Windsor Great Park means that its archaeological potential for periods other than medieval/early post-medieval is almost entirely unknown.

Berkshire Archaeology October 2014

To add?

 Explanation of HER and access  HER refs for sites specifically mentioned  Facts and figures for HER sites/designations etc  NPPF/NPPG/emerging GPAs

Berkshire Archaeology An Archaeological Service for: Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, Reading Borough Council, Slough Borough Council, Wokingham Borough Council & Bracknell Forest Council