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Archaeology in Marlowwww.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk

Volume 16 Issue No: 4 August 2017

AiM’s Forthcoming Events

NEWSLETTER

Thursday 28th SeptemberAndrew Allum of South Oxfordshire Archaeological Society (SOAG) will be giving a talk enti-tled ‘Highwood: the mound and other mysteries’.

In 2015 members of South Oxfordshire Archaeology Group started to excavate a Roman siteIn Harpsden, near Henley-on-Thames. The site had been the subject of an earlier excavationvery nearby between 1977 and 1983 when Henley-on-Thames Archaeological & Histori-cal Group excavated a mound on the site. When the later excavation started the record ofthe earlier excavation was interrogated and in turn that led to researching the history of thewood. The excavation started in 2015 is continuing. It is uncovering Iron Age and Roman re-mains from between 0 and 400 AD. However, the site remains enigmatic. The talk will seek toexplain the work carried out so far and suggest possible interpretations.

8pm in the Garden Room, Liston Hall, Chapel Street, Marlow SL7 1DD

Members of AIM £3, visitors £4.50

Walls foundin 2016

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AiM’s Events at a Glance

Thursday 28th September

Andrew Allum of South Oxfordshire Archaeo-logical Society (SOAG) will be giving a talk en-titled ‘Highwood: the mound and other mys-teries’. SOAG have been investigating a Ro-man site near Henley for some years and havelearnt much about this important site.8pm in the Garden Room of Liston Hall -Members of AIM £3, visitors £4.50

Thursday 12th October

Dr Kris Lockyear of University College Londonwill be presenting a talk on the Roman Townof St Albans, entitled ‘Verulamium Revealed’.This is a joint talk organised by MAS.8pm in the Main Hall, Members of AIM/MAS£3, visitors £4.50.

Thursday 23rd of November

Barbara Askew will be giving us a talk on ‘TheVikings’.This is another joint event organised by AIM.8pm in the Main Hall, Members of AIM/MAS£3, visitors £4.50.

Thursday 14th of December

Our traditional Christmas Quiz, with food,drink and amazing raffle.8pm in the Garden Room of Liston Hall

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*Liston Hall’s full address is:Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD.

Free parking is available in the adjacentcar park after 7 pm.

We would like to wish a warmwelcome to Molly Clarke,

the latest memberto join AiM.

Hunt’s of Marlow

For First ClassDIY, Hardware andGarden Supplies

35 Station Road, MarlowTel 01628 488228

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On Thursday the 22rd June 2017, we held ourAGM in the Garden Room of Liston Hall. AIMChairman, John Laker, welcomed everyone tothe AGM. The members present appointedMartin Fowkes as Chairman and Beverley How-ard as Minute Taker for the meeting.

Martin welcomed members to the AGM andmentioned that our finances remain veryhealthy and that we had had another success-ful year of talks, including joint talks arrangedwith MAS. Martin said that the supportingdocuments had been sent out to members ear-lier and members should refer to this docu-mentation.

Apologies were read out, the minutes of thelast AGM were accepted, as were the Treas-urer’s Report and the Audited Accounts for2016/17.

Martin then proposed that the voting for nomi-nees for the committee was taken en bloc andthe following members were elected unani-mously

Vice-Chairman - Martin Fowkes,Treasurer - Ann Pitwell,Secretary - John LakerMembership Secretary - Nicky Pendered,

Committee Members - Tony Birkett and Bev-erley Howard

Apart from the position of Chairman, we havevacancies for another four committee mem-bers. Anyone wishing to volunteer can be co-opted to the committee. Should you be inter-ested, please contact Martin, or John (detailson the back page of this newsletter).

Geoff Knight of Knight & Co was thanked forauditing our accounts and was unanimouslyappointed to audit the Accounts again nextyear.

Barbara Wallis enquired about the Cellars Pro-ject. Peter Borrows (MAS Chairman) said thatdue to current priorities, this had been de-layed.

Brian Vallis asked a question regarding thehonorary membership motion passed at ourlast AGM and Martin confirmed that Richardand Jan Mash (the owners of Warren Wood)had been offered, and accepted, honorarymembership. The committee would considerany further offers.

The meeting closed at 8.15 p.m. and was fol-lowed by the Warren Wood Update talk (seepage 5)

Saddle SafariCYCLE SALES & SERVICE

9 Dean Street, Marlow,Bucks, SL7 3AA.Tel. 01628 477020

www.saddlesafari.co.uk

AiM AGM

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Over the last six months an AIM sub-committee has been working hard to determine the titles,texts, photos and graphics to be used to produce 12 new panels to be affixed to our informationboards. Once these were decided upon, AIM member, Charlie Graham-Rogers, spent many hourstransforming the documentation into high quality artwork. This artwork was then forwarded toExhibition Display Solutions in Marlow Bottom who printed the 12 panels for us.

We decided to unveil these new panels following AIM’s AGM on the 22nd of June. We invitedCharlie along to unveil the new panels. To a round of applause, Charlie revealed these excellentnew panels (see photograph).

So many thanks to my fellow sub-committee members, Martin Fowkes, Andy Ford and especiallyCharlie, for all their hard work in producing panels of such a high standard that should last formany years to come.

John Laker

Marlow Market

Dean Street Car Park, Marlow - Every Wednesday, 8.00am - 3.00pm.

A small friendly market offering top quality cut flowers, a full floristry service,a large selection of herbaceous plants and all seasonal plants.

Large quantities of English and Foreign fruits and vegetables, with discounts for bulk orders.

Fresh eggs, pet foods, peanuts and wild bird foods.

Fresh fish from Grimsby (until 12.00)

AiM’s New Information Boards

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Following the AGM on 22 June, MartinFowkes and John Laker gave a talk on theAIM excavations at Warren Wood.

John explained that the initial survey hadtaken place as part of the ROMADAM pro-ject, when AIM received a Local HeritageInitiative grant to investigate four sites, ofwhich Warren Wood was one. This projectproduced plans of the two enclosures andan information board which was placed onthe public footpath which passes the site.

Following the completion of the ROMADAMproject, excavation work began in 2010 totry and find out when the earthworks werebuilt and what purpose they served. Fourtest pits were excavated in both the innerand outer enclosures, with those in the in-ner enclosure yielding the most informa-tion. Three of these contained a substantialamount of flint rubble, and medieval rooftile and pottery. Trench 6 also containedsome pottery from the late Bronze Age orearly Iron Age, which enabled experts topartially reconstruct a fairly large vessel.

In 2012 work started on a trench across thebank and ditch of the outer enclosure tosee if dating evidence could be uncovered.

The few pottery finds were inconclusive,but an animal bone suggested a medievaldate of construction was the most likely.Work resumed in the inner enclosure in2014 with the aims of understanding theactivities within it and determining a con-struction date. Further small trenches weredug, including one across the bank andditch.

The new trenches produced a lot more me-dieval tile and pottery as well as a signifi-cant amount of flint rubble in two of them.And, yet again, one trench yielded prehis-toric pottery very similar to that found pre-viously in Trench 6. However, this potterywas not associated with any discernible fea-ture.

The trench across the bank and ditch hasproduced very little dating evidence but apiece of roof tile unearthed just a week ear-lier, suggests the earthwork is of a similardate to the tile and pottery found through-out the site - probably 12th century.

Members of Berkshire Archaeology Societycarried out a resistivity survey to see if itwould suggest a location for a flint wall re-ported by Arthur Boarder in 1978. The re-sults were not conclusive but suggested onepossible area to investigate, which becameTrench 13. Flint rubble has been foundwhich may be remains of that wall, but thisis not certain.

The Total Station was used to take meas-urements of the bank and ditch at severallocations and these will be used to produceprofile drawings of this feature.

Images of some of the finds were shown

Warren Wood Update Talk22nd of June

MartinFowkes

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and Martin explained that the medievalpottery was of several different types andquality. The quantity found implies thatpeople were living on the site for some con-siderable time. The amount of worked flintfound shows that people were also activeon the site in a much earlier period, al-though no structures from this period havebeen discovered. A selection of excavatedartefacts was available for examination atthe end of the talk.

Interpreting the content excavated hasbeen difficult. The amount of flint and rooftile clearly show that a building or buildingsexisted but their structure and size is un-known. It is likely that the flint was justused for the lower part of any walls, or as awall footing as there is not enough of it forsubstantial walls. John has analysed the dis-tribution of the tile and pottery which doessuggest roughly where the buildings weresituated but cannot locate them precisely.

There is a similar woodland site at Braden-ham, near West Wycombe, with remains offlint-walled buildings and roof tile and pot-tery of a similar date. Martin and Andy Fordhave visited the site and also looked at thepottery but it is slightly different.

Earlier this year, when the vegetation was

low, fieldwork was carried out in the wood-land surrounding the site to see if any otherfeatures exist. This survey discovered manyquarry pits and saw pits and more enig-matic banks and other features. Two circu-lar features are particularly interesting andmay be investigated further in the future.

There is plenty more work for the WarrenWood team to do. This year the trenchacross the inner enclosure bank and ditchwill be completed and small additionaltrenches will be dug to see if the potentialflint walls in Trench 13 can be followed. Iffeasible, small trenches may be dug acrossthe two circular features recently discov-ered and later in the year the woodlandsurvey can be completed. And then ofcourse, a report needs to be written.

Looking further ahead, the Chiltern Conser-vation Board is planning on carrying out LI-DAR surveys of the Chilterns and when theimages are available, they may show yetmore features worthy of investigation. Ifyou would like to join in with the investiga-tions, please contact us. You can find con-tact information on page 12 in this newslet-ter.

Martin Fowkes and John Laker

Warren Wood Update Talk22nd of June (cont)

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The June Quiz Question was:

Who designed Quarry Wood hall (Cardboard Castle was anodd description) and in what year was it built?

Answer

Famous for its ‘Edwardian’ gothic splendour, it wasdesigned by Arthur Beardsley and built in 1901

Congratulation to AIM Member Brian Vallis who was first to give thecorrect answer and has won two tickets to future AIM talks

June’s Quiz Question

Who was the European Sculptor who, in the early 1900s,had a house built at Marlow Common and established

a small pottery, which produced high qualityhand-made tiles and panels?

Prize for the AIM member with the first correct answers - Twotickets to any AIM talk.

Email or phone your answer to Ann Pitwell

(see back page for contact details).

August’s Quiz Question

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‘Festival of Archaeology’ Visit to Oxford

15th July 2017

On Saturday the 15th of July a group of AIM

members met up in the café of the Ash-

molean Museum in Oxford. We all rushed off

to the lecture theatre to see a talk entitled

‘Anglo-Saxon Riddles and the Man-Made

World’.

Prof Andy Orchard gave an enthusiastic talk

on the many riddles coming from this era.

Most were very complicated and some were

rude. These riddles were written by learned

people in both Latin and Old English. What

people did before television!

We then visited the gallery which houses the

Watlington Hoard (see photo) and the Alfred

Jewel. In the gallery was an area where one

could handle replicas of the Hoard and

where experts could answer one’s queries.

Members may remember that AIM member

James Mather discovered this Hoard and

gave us a talk about it back in June last year.

After a spot of lunch some of our group went

to see the talk on the Watlington Hoard. As

the rest of us left to go to the Oxford Natural

History Museum and the adjoining Pitt Rivers

Museum, we discovered on the forecourt of

the Ashmolean Museum a man giving a fasci-

nating demonstration of how ‘hammered

coins’ are made (see an example of a 19mm

diameter coin in the photo below).

Both the Museums we then visited are inter-

esting for different reasons. The Natural His-

tory Museum has many interesting exhibits,

including a selection of dinosaur skeletons,

all well lit and displayed. The Pitt Rivers Mu-

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‘Festival of Archaeology’ Visit to Oxford

15th July 2017 (cont)

seum has almost one of every collectable

item you could think from around the world

in its many display cabinets, from Red Indian

head-dresses to enamelled flint-lock mus-

kets.

Ann Pitwell and I then took a walk to Pizza

Express in the Cornmarket to see the 16th

century wall decorations on two of their

walls. These are well preserved and the staff

were most helpful, even supplying us with

professional information sheets.

The day was interesting and illuminating.The Ashmolean is well worth a visit if youare anywhere near Oxford.

John Laker

Association for Industrial Archaeology

Conference

The CBA South Midlands is hosting this year's Association for Industrial Archae-ology conference

The day long conference is entitled 'The contribution of contract archaeology toIndustrial Archaeology' and is on Friday 25th August 2017 at Moulton College,Gate 4, Pitsford Road, Moulton, Northamptonshire, NN3 7QL

Tickets cost £47. Overnight accommodation for Thursday 24th August can be pro-vided at an extra £35

For further information and booking details please contact David Ingham:

Phone 07717 866767;

E-mail dp.ingham@albion-arch.com

The deadline for booking is 12th August!

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Warren Wood Update

The mostly fine summer weather has allowed us to continue with our Sunday excavations,working on trenches 12 and 13.

Following advice from Phil Andrews of Wessex Archaeology, we have finished excavatingtrench 12 by removing more material from the inner enclosure ditch. Phil’s auger samplingsuggested there was another 40cms to be removed in the centre of the ditch, and he wasproved correct. The proof came in the discovery of a small sherd of pottery and a piece of rooftile close to the bottom of the fill. These finds are almost certainly medieval and add weight tothe theory that the whole earthwork is of medieval date.

We have continued working on the extensions to trench 13 (see photo). These extensionsshould allow us to see if the potential flint walls within the trench extend in the directions in-dicated by their alignment. We are starting to find some large flint pieces but it is too early totell if we have found definite evidence of the walls.

Further visits are scheduled for 13th and 27th August and 10th and 24th of September. Please letme know if you would like to join us - using my contact details on page 12

Martin Fowkes (Field Work Co-ordinator)

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Other Events of interestOther Organisations’Events and Resources

Marlow SocietyMonday 21 August 8 pm‘Repairing Marlow Bridge’ A Talk by MartinBlunkellGarden Room, Liston Hall Marlow SL7 1DD£1.50 members, £3 non-members 01628 476610

Marlow SocietySunday 27th August 2.00 pm‘Forgotten Marlow’ A guided walkMeet at Marlow Museum, Court Garden,Higginson Park, Pound Lane, Marlow SL7 2AENo need to book £2.50 per person, Children freetmslocalhistorygroup@marlowsociety.org.uk01628 476610

Bucks County Museum‘All That Glitters Is Not Gold’8 July – 9 September 10am - 5pm Tuesday toSaturday9 Church Street, Aylesbury, HP20 2QPCelebrating 20 Years of the Treasure Act andthe work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme.See some of the treasures that have been un-earthed by metal detectorists and acquired bythe Museum under the Treasure Act. Also on dis-play treasured archaeological items on loan fromlocal finders and detectorists. This is also the firstchance to see part of the remarkable Anglo-Saxon Lenborough Hoard recently acquired bythe Museum.

Berkshire Archaeological SocietySaturday 16th September 2.00 pm for 2.30 pm‘Long Wittenham and the Context of Power’Adam McBrideThe RISC Centre, London Street. Reading, RG14PS. 01189 586692

Other Events of interestThis is the information available to us at the time of publication, but weadvise you to check as this may have changed since then.

Berkshire Archaeological Research GroupThursday 28th September 7.30pmDe Vire Room, The Cornerstone, Norreys Ave,Wokingham. “Excavations at Elizabeth House(St John's College) Oxford”Dr Steve Ford from TVAS, followed by‘Lambourn's evolution: AD 300 – AD 2017’A talk by BARG member Bob Brewer,mail@barg-online.org

Buckinghamshire Local History Network AnnualConference & Fair 2017 ‘Buckinghamshire Landand People’ Saturday 30 September 10am(doors open 9 am) – 4.15 pmThe Oculus in Aylesbury – the Aylesbury ValeD i s t r i c t C o u n c i l O f f i c e s h t t p : / /www.bucksas.org.uk/blhnconference.html

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Marlow MuseumSaturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays 1pm to5pm and Wednesdays 2pm to 5pm.Current Exhibition: ‘The Story of Marlow Bot-tom, from Tin Town to Des Res’This exhibition finishes at the end of August.The residents of Marlow Bottom tell their storyof this Chilterns valley.Leaflet available to purchase

Marlow Remembers WW1A display in the museum as a part of the 100years commemoration of World War 1 and theimpact of the war on the people of Marlow. TheMarlow Remembers WW1 association changesthe display every 3 months.Peacock Room, Court Garden Leisure Centre,Higginson Park, Pound Lane, Marlow SL7 2AE.http://www.marlowmuseum.uk/

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AiM Committee MeetingsFuture AiM Committee Meetings

7.30pm Tuesday 23rd of August at 3 Pennington Road, Beaconsfield, HP9 1ET7.30pm Tuesday 26rd of September at 88 Blind Lane, Bourne End, SL8 5LD

All members are welcome to attend all AiM meetings.

Please telephone a committee member in advance to confirm date and venue.

AiM Committee Members

Vice-Chairman Martin Fowkes88 Blind Lane, Bourne End, SL8 5LD01628 530832 - m88fowkes@gmail.com

Treasurer Ann Pitwell9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT01628 481792 - annpitwell@thamesinternet.com

Secretary John Laker9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT01628 481792 - johnlaker@thamesinternet.com

Membership Secretary Nicky Penderedc/o 9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT

Newsletter Compiler Jessica Smalljfs25@kent.ac.uk

Joint Field Work Co-ordinators01628 481141 - andyford.marlow@btinternet.com Andy Ford01628 530832 - m88fowkes@gmail.com Martin Fowkes

Committee Members01494 675195 - jabirkett@btinternet.com Tony Birkett01494 533669 - nicktillyer@yahoo.co.uk Beverley Howard

AiM

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP RATES £10.00 Individual (over 18)

£12.00 Household Membership (one adult and any children under 18 living at thesame address)

£15.00 Household Membership (two adults and any children under 18 living at thesame address)

£6.00 Student (over 16 in full time education, or pre-university gap year)

Corporate Membership is available on application