Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 67 (pt. II), 2012, 379–399 (Hampshire Studies 2012) AN EARLY 19TH-CENTURY TILE KILN, WITH EARLY POST-MEDIEVAL OCCUPATION AND MEDIEVAL ACTIVITY AT THE FORMER QUEEN’S HEAD PUBLIC HOUSE, MARROWBROOK LANE, FARNBOROUGH By ANDY TAYLOR with contributions by PAUL BLINKHORN, ROZ MCKENNA, DANIELLE MILBANK and GEOQUEST ASSOCIATES ABSTRACT (Hopkins 2009). In general, archaeologi- cal finds and deposits are rare in the area. An excavation, prior to re-development of the site, However, the significant exception is the identified medieval activity along with early post- presence of late medieval and post-medieval medieval features containing pottery production pottery production at several sites in Cove, waste and the remnants of a kiln. The site lies in a including a dump of pottery wasters indicating part of Hampshire which, along with adjacent areas a late 17th-century kiln at Romayne Close (SU of Surrey, is noted for the production of ‘Border Ware’ 863562) and more wasters again suggesting a pottery in post-medieval times. However, although 17th-century kiln at the Alma public house (SU pottery was undoubtedly produced at or near the site 859555). Physical remains of a kiln (probably in both the 16th and 18th/19th centuries, the kiln dating from the 19th or even 20th century) structure, archaeomagnetically dated to the early were excavated at Arrow Road (SU 857547). 19th century, was almost certainly primarily for the Nineteenth-century maps show several kilns all production of brick or tile. very close to the site, including two on adjacent plots of land. One of these, immediately north of the site, was excavated in 1981, when the INTRODUCTION floor of the kiln and large quantities of pottery were recorded (AHBR reference 28629), while Archaeological excavation was carried out a 1973 excavation at the other, immediately to between 20th July and 5th August 2009 by the west, revealed a ditch containing kiln waste Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd at (AHBR ref. 28630). Not much further afield, the former Queen’s Head public house, Mar- there have been excavations of a medieval rowbrook Lane, Farnborough, Hampshire (SU kiln at Ship Lane (SU 876563), a 17th-century 86195554) (Fig. 1). The site is in the hamlet kiln at Chingford Avenue (SU 876562) and of Cove, recorded in Domesday Book but now a remarkable group of pottery that can only absorbed into Farnborough, and at the time of have come from a 17th-century production the work was open scrubland following the dem- site at Sandy Lane (SU846569)(Haslam 1975), olition of the former public house. It is bounded while 19th-century maps show brickworks by Marrowbrook Lane to the south, with housing and potteries (active or recently disused) all to the east and west and a builders’ merchant to around. The proliferation of known kiln sites, the north. The underlying geology consists of and the almost certain identification of sites of Barton Sands (BGS 1976), which was observed others from their waste, may, however, have led across the excavation area and the site lies at a to a tendency for every stray find of medieval height of c.68m above Ordnance Datum. or later pottery from Cove to be interpreted as another kiln site, which need not always be the Archaeological background case. Pottery production sites are an important area for archaeological study, not only for the The archaeological potential of the site nature of trade and economic patterns but also was highlighted in a desk-based assessment as an important tool for the dating of other 379 hants 2012b.indb 379 20/08/2012 10:12:59 380 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Hants Fld Club template N Basingstoke Farnborough Andover No.7 Winchester Southampton Ringwood Portsmouth 55500 No. 12 SITE Kiln 3 4 9 2 8 5 e n 1 a L 7 Site of k 6 o ro The Queens Head b No. 57 w o rr a 2 M 55400 No. 24 No. 23 Tow er H ill SU86200 0 50m QHF 09/11c Fig. 1 Queen’s Head, Farnborough: location of site, showing excavation area and evaluation trenches (numbered) Figure 1. Location of excavation area and previous evaluation trenches. hants 2012b.indb 380 20/08/2012 10:13:06 TAYLOR: AN EARLY 19TH-CENTURY TILE KILN, 381 sites. The ‘Border Ware’ industry of north-east truncated by root action, leaving only a stain of Hampshire/north-west Surrey was one of the where the walls had sat and the scorching from most important early post-medieval pottery within the flues. The pit itself (147 and 200) industries in the south of England, providing (Fig. 3) measured between 0.40m and 0.50m London with much of its pottery from the later deep with near-vertical sides onto an uneven 16th to early 18th centuries, as well as supplying base. A central depression was evident in cut other major towns such as Reading and Oxford 147. At the mouth of each flue a large amount (Pearce 1988). of scorching was evident on the clayey sand Test pitting carried out on the site, following natural geology. The pit contained 25 pieces demolition of the public house, by the North of late 18th-century pottery and 13 pieces of East Hampshire Historical and Archaeologi- brick and tile. This pit was presumably set in cal Society, recovered a moderate volume of front of the flues in order to allow access to the late medieval/early post-medieval pottery. latter to stoke the kiln with fuel. The cuts for Ten test pits were dug around the northern the flues (146 and 149) measured 0.90m wide and western boundaries of the site but went and from the top of the surviving courses of no deeper than the topsoil and did not reveal brickwork were 0.31m deep (Figs 8 & 9). The any cut features or structural evidence (D. interior surface of the brickwork of the flues Woollhead pers. comm.). Evaluation trenching showed evidence of scorching, which in some (Taylor 2009) revealed a number of deposits cases had led to vitrification. Scorching was including rubbish pits and boundary features also evident on the surface of the back wall of which produced a moderately large volume the structure (204, 284) from heat rising up of early post-medieval pottery including kiln the inside of the kiln. Between the two flues waste. a fill (282) of orange silty clayey sand directly Following these initial phases of work, a overlay natural geology. This contained four recording action was designed to answer a pieces of brick showing evidence of scorching, series of research questions about the site, in most likely collapsed from upper courses of essence to understand the nature and date of brickwork. On the base of each flue was a layer its use(s). of dark grey/black baked sand (280 and 281), presumably the original natural level scorched from the firing of the kiln. Samples from this THE EXCAVATION context (280) and from the bricks of this flue were taken for archaeomagnetic dating, which The excavation took place in areas of the site produced a date of the last firing of the kiln that were to be affected by the development of between AD1820–50 (see below). Brick with only the gardens of the proposed housing samples from the flue walls were also taken and the areas truncated by the former public with some other pieces of tile that were used house and its cellars not investigated (Fig. 1). to fill in holes within the structure of the wall A kiln, eleven linear features, eleven pits and itself (Milbank, below). three postholes were identified and dated to between the late 14th and early 19th century Ditches and gullies (Fig. 2) (Fig. 2). Potentially the earliest of the boundary The kiln features on the site, ditch 1009 (Figs 5 & 6) curved on the same alignment as later taken by Cut 1002 (Fig. 3) was the pit cut for the setting 1008, which cut it. It was also cut by ditch 1010 of a brick-built kiln and its flues, in the north- but its relationship with ditches 135 and 136 eastern corner of the site, cut into ditch was uncertain. It measured 0.97m wide and 1001 (Fig. 3). The structure comprised two between 0.14m and 0.27m deep. No dating flues leading up to a back wall. These were a evidence was recovered from 1009 but it may maximum of four courses high. The centre of be medieval (and this would account for the the structure showed evidence of having been medieval pottery in 1009). Pit 101 contained hants 2012b.indb 381 20/08/2012 10:13:09 382 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Hants Fld Club template N kiln (Fig. 3 for detail) 126 1002 139 127 1 133 131 1000 5 1004 140 130 138 10/141 123 1005 132 1001 145 105 128 102 122 129 110/111 113 101 1003 103 117 55450 1006 104 1007 115 109 116 100 108 1008 143 144 1011 134-137 124 125 1010 Modern 1012 2 1009 SU86200 0 50m Fig. 2 Overall plan of excavation area showing all features only 14th-century pottery and could be con- more than 0.69m wide and between 0.17m and temporary with this ditch. 0.92m deep. Ditch 1007 contained 37 pieces There then followed a sequence of of pottery, of which 32 were medieval but the boundary cutting and recutting in the late latest (much larger) sherds were of mid 16th- 16th or early 17th century.