SOAG Bulletin 59
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The SOAG Bulletin No.59 (2004) South Oxfordshire Archaeological Group Price: £3 President Cynthia Graham Kerr, The Thatched Cottage, Whitchurch Hill, Oxon, RG8 7NY Chairman Pat Preece, 99 Woodcote Way, Caversham, Reading, RG4 7HL Honorary Secretary Ian Clarke, Upperton Farm Cottage, Brightwell Baldwin, Oxon, OX49 5PB Honorary Treasurer John White, 22 Holmlea Road, Goring-on-Thames, Oxon, RG8 9EX Editor Janet Sharpe, 66 Radnor Road, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 0PH Cover illustration: Stripping the rods (see article by Pat Preece on page 23) Any statements made or opinions expressed in the SOAG Bulletin are those of the authors alone for which the South Oxfordshire Archaeological Society does not accept responsibility. Acknowledgements as stated in the articles ISSN 0953-2242 © The South Oxfordshire Archaeological Group and the authors 2005 Articles, accompanied by illustrations if appropriate, and book reviews are invited for publication in the next issue of the SOAG Bulletin. Authors are referred to the Notes for Contributors inside the back cover. Published by the South Oxfordshire Archaeological Group 2005 Printed in the United Kingdom by RDA-WINNERS, Woodcote, Reading. Tel: (01491) 681710 SOAG Bulletin No. 59 (2004) CONTENTS President's Report 2004 ...........................................................................2 2004 AGM Guest Lecture Denise Allen: Roman Glass ( report by Ian Clarke )...................................3 SOAG Summer Visits Visit to the Roman Glassmakers ( Mary Clucas )........................................4 Visit to Northleach Museum and Cogges Manor Farm ( John White )........5 SOAG Visits Cogges Manor Farm Museum ( Cynthia Graham Kerr ) ......5 SOAG Visit to Bisham and Marlow ( Edward Golton )..............................6 The Old Town of Marlow ( John Westwood ) .............................................7 Meetings and Conferences CBA South Midlands Group Spring Conference ( Mary Clucas ) ..............7 Oxfordshire Past 2004 ( Catherine Clarke ) ................................................8 Northmoor Trust Open Day ( Janet Sharpe )...............................................8 National Trust Monitoring Group AGM ( Cynthia Graham Kerr ).............9 Reports and Articles Gatehampton Farm: Interim Report 2004 ( Hazel Williams )....................10 The Gatehampton Baby ( Tannis Laidlaw )...............................................14 Celtic Heads Again ( Mary Kift ) ...............................................................16 Friarhampstead Revisited ( Ian Clarke )....................................................16 The Manor, Chalgrove ( Barbara East )....................................................20 An Unusual Brickwork Pattern ( Edward Golton )....................................21 Two Little Known Monuments ( Marian Fallowfield ).............................22 Osiers ( Pat Preece ) ..................................................................................23 Wheelwrights ( Pat Preece ) ......................................................................25 The Imperial Strikes Back ( John White )..................................................27 SOAG Bulletin No. 59 (2004) PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2004 Cynthia Graham Kerr his year saw further change and growth for SOAG, Gary Lock, director of the Marcham/Frilford T with the Gatehampton dig still our main work and excavations, spoke about the enigmatic amphitheatre or attraction but with other projects springing up as well, and ritual pool at this Romano-British religious site at the we have maintained our healthy membership numbers. January meeting, as a follow-up to our visit to the site last This is all helped by a Committee full of ideas – and year. In February Pat Preece gave us one of her famous prepared to try them when needed. Medieval woodland talks. The AGM Guest Lecture was by Denise Allen on ‘Roman Glass’ (see separate report). The Dig and Other Fieldwork We pleased our industrial archaeologists in April, when This year Hazel Williams became dig co-director with Gordon Stevenson spoke about old railways, and May myself. Much progress has been made at the dig (see brought a riveting talk by Hazel Williams on our own dig separate reports) and the number of diggers rose to 19 one at Gatehampton. July saw us at the Goring Thames Sailing week with an average of about a dozen quite usual. It is Club for a delightful summer party by the river (with pleasing to be able to help those SOAG members who are thanks to Mike Fulton for arranging this for us). The taking degrees, giving them the chance of digging practice autumn programme started with Peter Warry talking about as needed. We have worked 23 days at the dig this year, in Roman tiles: he is actively carrying out research and was spite of some heavy rain. We are fortunate enough to be most interested to see the tiles we had found at saved many wettings by the kindness of Robin Cloke, who Gatehampton.. In October Tim Allen gave us a lively up- has allowed us to use about one-third of his greenhouse date of the archaeological work at Little Wittenham, and in tunnel to accommodate all our tools and finds, as well as November Rosemary Beardsley gave a talk on the Goring ourselves! Altogether 42 members of SOAG have worked and Whitchurch enclosures. Our final talk of the year was at the dig this year. presented by Gary Lock (again), who this time spoke Nor have we neglected to support Tim Allen at the about the hillforts of the Ridgeway. Oxford Archaeology excavations at Wittenham Clumps. Several summer visits were arranged for us by Edward Three of us (myself, Chrissy Morling and Phillippa Wray) Golton. We went to the ‘Roman’ glassworks of Mark managed about half a dozen visits each to work, and at Taylor and David Hill, near Andover, on 12 June (this was least 11 SOAG members attended the Open Day seminar a follow-up to the AGM lecture), to Cogges Farm Museum on 19 June and 18 attended the main site Open Day on 22 near Witney with an optional visit to Northleach Museum August, which attracted over 1000 visitors. As last year, on 14 July, and enjoyed a guided tour of Marlow old town the weather was hot and tiring and we enjoyed a session in with an optional visit to Bisham Ice House on 15 August the cool of the barn where we could peacefully wash pots (see separate reports). and mark them. The end of the digging season was marked by a ‘Dig We are encouraging members to look at the wider Open Afternoon’ on Sunday 24 October, kindly organized archaeological landscape, to ensure that fieldwork in South by Hazel Williams who provided guided tours of the site Oxfordshire will continue after the dig is eventually and a splendid display of finds. This was a highly completed. successful and well attended event, and our congratulations and thanks go to Hazel and the diggers for Meetings and Visits their hard work and the excellent presentation of the site. Edward Golton once again arranged a varied programme Once again we held a special ‘Diggers’ Lunch’ for of interesting and well-known speakers for the monthly everyone who had worked so hard on the site this summer lecture meetings. and to give a special thanks to Honorary Member Robin We are very pleased that this year has seen a sustained Cloke for continuing to allow us to work on his land. improvement in the average attendance – indeed our success is such that on occasion we have exceeded the Thank You comfortable and safe capacity of the hall. The Free Church I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Hall at Goring has served us well over the years, but with Committee, and indeed all SOAG members, for their SOAG growing it is now time to move on. The Committee continuing support. Running a group is sometimes weary has been investigating alternatives and we will be moving hard work and very time consuming, and my grateful to a larger and more comfortable venue some time in thanks are due to all those who spend long hours writing 2005. and organizing – and so we keep going! 2 SOAG Bulletin No. 59 (2004) 2004 AGM GUEST LECTURE: ROMAN GLASS Report by Ian Clarke e were delighted to welcome Dr Denise Allen to disc using large tweezers gives a result which precisely W present the AGM Guest Lecture on Roman Glass. matches all the features on original vessels. Glass-making has been traced back to the late 3rd The technique of ‘casting’ is labour intensive, slow and millennium BC in Sumer in the south of modern Iraq and therefore expensive. The invention of glass-blowing, from there it spread westwards into Syria, Palestine and probably in Syria in the middle of the 1st century BC, Egypt. Significant expansion took place in the Hellenistic revolutionised the industry. Glass-blowing enabled mass period centred around the Syro-Palestine area and this was production of light and strong vessels of almost unlimited the foundation for a rapid growth of glass-making in the variety of shape, colour and decoration, allowing glass to early Roman Empire in the late 1st century. Skilled glass- compete directly in form and function with pottery but making techniques and mass produced wares spread bringing with it a new aesthetic of lightness of form, throughout the Empire in the following centuries. brilliance and transparency to display contents. Denise Allen explained the principle methods of glass- Along with the free-blowing of glass came mould- making, illustrated by a sequence of beautiful slides blowing. Elaborate three, four and even five part ceramic showing both original and reproduction examples of glass or