t h a m e s v a l l e y aarchaeologicalrchaeological · 2013. 6. 13. · tel. (0118) 926 0552; fax...
TRANSCRIPT
T H A M E S V A L L E Y
S E R V I C E S
ARCHAEOLOGICALARCHAEOLOGICAL
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire
Archaeological Watching Brief (Phase 1)
by Andy Taylor
Site Code: WHM12/79
(SU 6120 8797)
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire
An Archaeological Watching Brief (Phase 1)
For Willowside Homes
by Steve Ford and Andy Taylor
Thames Valley Archaeological Services
Ltd
Site Code WHM 12/79
November 2012
i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 47–49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR
Tel. (0118) 926 0552; Fax (0118) 926 0553; email [email protected]; website: www.tvas.co.uk
Summary
Site name: The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire Grid reference: SU 6120 8797 Site activity: Watching Brief Date and duration of project: 26th September–10th October 2012
Project manager: Steve Ford Site supervisor: Andrew Mundin Site code: WHM 12/79 Area of site: c.0.2ha Summary of results: Several features were encountered during groundworks. These features were mostly of post-medieval or modern date. Two ditches were observed, one of which was undated and the other tentatively dated to the medieval period. Residual and stray finds of Roman, medieval and post-medieval pottery were recovered. Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with Oxfordshire County Museums Service in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. All TVAS unpublished fieldwork reports are available on our website: www.tvas.co.uk/reports/reports.asp. Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford 13.11.12
1
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire An Archaeological Watching Brief (Phase 1)
by Andy Taylor
Report 12/79
Introduction
This report documents the results of an archaeological watching brief carried out at The Wall House,
Mongewell, Oxfordshire, OX10 8DA (SU 6120 8797) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr Andrew
Hyman, of Willowside Homes Ltd, Abbots Lodge, Goring Heath, Oxfordshire, RG8 7RZ.
Planning permission (P10/W1752) has been gained from South Oxfordshire District Council to build new
houses at The Wall House, and on land to the east. This reports deals only with the pre-demolition work to the
east of the existing building (Phase 1). The consent is subject to two conditions (10 and 11), requiring the
implementation of an archaeological watching brief to be maintained during the period of ground works.
This is in accordance with Planning for the Historic Environment (PPS5, 2010), and the District Council’s
policies on archaeology. It is acknowledged that PPS5 has now been superseded by the National Planning Policy
Framework (NPPF 2012). The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Richard
Oram, Planning Archaeologist for Oxfordshire County Archaeological Services and based on a brief prepared by
him (Oram 2012). The fieldwork was undertaken by Andrew Mundin, with assistance from Chris Crabb, David
Platt and Susan Porter between the 26th September and 10th October 2012. The site code is WHM 12/79.
The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at
Oxfordshire County Museums Service in due course.
Location, topography and geology
Mongewell lies to the south east of Wallingford on the opposite bank of the River Thames in the parish of
Crowmarsh (Fig. 1). The village is a small hamlet that includes Carmel College (now disused), the ruinous
church of St John the Baptist, and a small collection of houses to the west. The site is adjacent to The Wall
House, so named as it is located on Mongewell Park’s northern brick boundary wall (Fig. 2). The site was
previously an overgrown garden. The only building formerly on the site was a swimming pool pump house
which has recently been demolished. The underlying geology is 1st (Flood Plain) Terrace Gravels (BGS 1980)
within the valley base, though possibility with colluvium (hill wash) from the Lower Chalk entering the
2
stratigraphy from the east. The site lies at a height of c.50m above Ordnance Datum, the valley rising steeply to
its east; the Thames is located about 300m to the west.
Archaeological background
The archaeological potential of the site area has been highlighted in a brief for the project prepared by Mr.
Richard Oram of Oxfordshire County Archaeological Service (Oram 2012). In summary, this potential is
because the site lies within an area of considerable archaeological interest on the floor of the Thames Valley. For
example, to the south, fieldwork around North Stoke has revealed extensive lithic scatters representing
Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement with extensive Iron Age and Roman settlement on the hilltops
to the south east (Ford 1987; Ford and Hazell 1989). Just to the north east lies the major Iron Age boundary work
(Grim’s Ditch) and excavation of a section of it in advance of construction of the Wallingford Bypass revealed
Late Bronze Age occupation and a medieval stone structure as well as the Iron Age monument. A rich late
Bronze Age riverside site was recorded on the west bank of the Thames also (Cromarty et al. 2006) and both
Saxon and Neolithic occupation recorded 250m west of the site. Just to the south west, where Carmel College
now stands, is the site of the deserted late Saxon/medieval village of Mongewell which was mentioned in
Domesday Book (Williams and Martin 2002). It was assessed at 10 hides with 9 ploughs. The population was
one knight along with 5 slaves, 6 villans and 11 bordars. Also of note are two mills, 5 acres of meadow and
woodland. It was worth £14. It is thought that the village was deserted between AD1350-1450 AD. The historic
core of the hamlet is located on the site of Carmel College when an original Georgian mansion was replaced with
the current building in 1890. The parish church of St John the Baptist has 12th-century origins but was
remodelled extensively during the late 18th century. It is now ruinous but is listed (Grade II).
Objectives and methodology
The purpose of the watching brief was to excavate and record any archaeological deposits affected by the works.
This was to involve examination of all areas of intrusive groundworks and include observation of surface
stripping, geo-technical investigations, the excavation of foundations and service trenches, landscaping works
and all other invasive work. Archaeological deposits that were exposed by the groundworks were to be recorded
but not further excavated unless under immediate threat of destruction.
3
Results
This involved examination of areas of intrusive groundworks and included an area of ground reduction (Plot 1).
All deposits were uncovered by a small 360º mechanical excavator.
New boundary wall trench (Figs. 3 and 5)
This long trench was fully observed to its base of excavation. A disturbed stratigraphy was noted towards the
existing park wall in the vicinity of the former pool pump house but at 14m along the trench from the north, a
less disturbed stratigraphy was present. This comprised a layer of topsoil (50) 0.4m deep along the remaining
length of the trench to its limit at 26m from the north. Under this was a subsoil (51), which was 0.17m thick at
the north end thinning to the south. Beneath this subsoil and cut into the natural geology was a linear feature (1),
at 20.5m along the trench from its northern end. This feature, interpreted as a ditch, contained two fills (52 and
53) (Fig. 5). The upper fill was a friable dark grey silty clay with occasional flecks of charcoal. No finds were
recovered from this fill. The basal fill of the feature (53) was a dark brown grey clayey silt, with occasional
charcoal flecks and gravel pieces. A single tiny sherd of medieval pottery was recovered from layer 53.
Plot 1 (Fig 4)
The extent of plot 1 was stripped of overburden to a depth of 0.24m but did not expose the natural gravel
geology. The remaining overburden consisted of a mid grey silty clay mixed with gravel and chalk (55) to the
east and an orange silty clay (58) below this on the western side of the site. On the eastern side a chalk dump
(57) was evident below the overburden. Two late post-medieval features (2 and 3) cut through this made ground
layer, both containing modern pieces of brick and tile. A test pit was dug through 55 to a depth of 0.79m, in
order to determine the nature of the site’s stratigraphy. This consisted of 0.34m of clay with gravel and chalk mix
(55) overlying 0.31m of chalky hill wash (58). This overlay gravel natural geology
Further post medieval features were also observed cut through the chalk dump. Pit 3 was not excavated but
was seen to contain post-medieval brick and tile pieces. Pit/gully terminus 4 measured 0.45m wide and 0.20m
deep and contained a piece of 19th-20th Century pottery. Pit/ditch Terminus 5 measured 0.70m wide and 0.20m
deep and contained a piece of post-medieval pottery and four pieces of tile. Features 6 and 7 were inter-cutting
pits with pit 7, containing a piece of 20th Century pottery, being cut by pit 6. This was also the case with gully
terminus 8, which contained two sherds of 20th Century pottery and was cut by gully terminus 9. Part of a
probable backfilled well (10) was also noted in this area.
4
The footings in this area, which measured 0.90m wide and were dug to a depth of 1.15m, were next
observed where a ditch (11) cut through the hill wash layer was observed. This was aligned approximately NW-
SE and measured 1.20m wide and 0.70m deep. Its mid grey brown, sandy silt fill (65) did not produce any
datable finds but a 10 Litre soil sample contained 60 pieces of burnt flint and wood charcoal.
Plot 2
The footings of this area were of the same dimensions as observed in Plot 1. The stratigraphy in this area
consisted of 0.25m of topsoil overlying 0.35m of yellowy grey made ground containing brick and tile fragments.
This overlay a mid yellow grey sandy silt overlying natural chalk. No archaeological deposits were observed in
this area.
Finds
Pottery by Paul Blinkhorn The pottery assemblage comprised 33 sherds with a total weight of 293g. It was recorded utilizing the coding
system and chronology of the Oxfordshire County type-series (Mellor 1984; 1994), as follows:
WA38: Wallingford ware, AD1050 – 1250. 2 sherds, 20g OXBF: North-East Wiltshire Ware, AD1050 – 1400. 1 sherd, 9g OXAM: Brill/Boarstall ware, AD1200 – 1600. 3 sherds, 12g OXST: Rhenish Stoneware, AD1480 – 1700. 1 sherd, 1g OXDR: Red Earthenwares, 1550 onwards. 2 sherds, 11g WHEW: Mass-produced earthenwares, 19th - 20th century 24 sherds, 240g
In addition, two sherds (12g) of residual late Roman (3rd–4th century) pottery were also noted. The pottery
occurrence by number and weight of sherds per context by fabric type is shown in Appendix 2. The range of
fabric types is typical of sites in the region. Most of the pottery recorded as WHEW are fragments of 19th–20th
century flower pots. Most of the medieval material was redeposited in later features, but the range of pottery
indicates that there was activity at the site from the 11th–14th centuries.
Environmental sample by Jo Pine
A 10 Litre soil sample was taken from ditch 11 and wet sieved using a nest of sieves down to 0.25mm. A large
amount of charcoal was recovered much of which was over 2mm thick, thus making species identification
possible if further study was necessary. However, no seeds or seed casings were recovered.
5
Conclusion
The watching brief identified a modest amount of certain and possible archaeological deposits on the site. The
majority of these consisted of pits of post-medieval/modern date but two ditches were also observed. One of the
latter was undated but the other tentatively dated to the medieval period on the basis of a single sherd of pottery.
Roman and medieval pottery was also recovered from the site as stray or residual finds.
References BGS, 1980, British Geological Survey, 1:50 000, Sheet 254, Solid and Drift Edition, Keyworth Cromarty, A M, Barclay, A, Lambrick, G and Robinson, M, 2006, Late Bronze Age ritual and habitation on a
Thames eyot at Whitecross Farm, Wallingford: the archaeology of the Wallingford bypass 1986–92, Thames Valley Landscapes Monogr 22, Oxford
Ford, S, 1987, ‘Flint scatters and Prehistoric settlement patterns in South Oxfordshire and East Berkshire’, in A G Brown and M R Edmonds (eds), Lithic Analysis and Later British Prehistory, BAR 162, Oxford, 101–35
Ford, S and Hazell, A, 1989, ‘Prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement patterns at North Stoke, Oxfordshire’, Oxoniensia 54, 7–23
Mellor, M, 1984, A summary of the key assemblages. A study of pottery, clay pipes, glass and other finds from fourteen pits, dating from the 16th to the 19th century in T G Hassall et al, Excavations at St Ebbe's Oxoniensia 49, 181-219
Mellor, M, 1994, Oxford Pottery: A Synthesis of middle and late Saxon, medieval and early post-medieval pottery in the Oxford Region Oxoniensia 59, 17-217
Oram, R, 2012, The Wall House, Mongewell, Crowmarsh Gifford, Design brief for archaeological watching brief, Oxfordshire County Archaeological Service, Oxford
Williams, A and Martin, G.H, 2002, Domesday Book, a complete translation, London
APPENDIX 1: Catalogue of features excavated
Cut Fill(s) Type Date
1 52, 53 Ditch Medieval(?)
2 54 Pit Post-Medieval
3 56 Pit Post-Medieval
4 59 Pit/Gully Terminus Modern
5 60 Pit/Ditch Terminus Post-Medieval
6 61 Pit Modern
7 62 Pit Modern
8 63 Pit Modern
9 64 Pit Modern
10 Possible Well Post-Medieval
11 65 Ditch Undated
APPENDIX 2: Pottery occurrence by number and weight (in g) of sherds per context by fabric type
Roman WA38 OXBF OXAM OXST OXDR WHEW
Cut Deposit No Wt No Wt No Wt No Wt No Wt No Wt No Wt - 50 - - - - 1 9 - - - - - - - - - 55 1 11 1 14 - - 2 10 - - 1 8 13 164 1 53 - - - - - - 1 2 - - - - - - 2 54 1 1 1 6 - - - - 1 1 - - 7 57 4 59 - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 2 5 60 - - - - - - - - - - 1 3 - - 7 62 - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 4 8 63 - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 13 Total 2 12 2 20 1 9 3 12 1 1 2 11 24 240
87000
88000
89000
SU61000 62000
SITE
WHM 12/79
Reproduced from Ordnance Survey Explorer 171 at 1:12500Ordnance Survey Licence 100025880
SITE
Bicester
Henley-on
Banbury
OXFORD
-Thames
Witney
Wantage
Thame
Abingdon
Didcot Wallingford
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
Figure 1. Location of site within Mongewell and Oxfordshire.
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
Figure 2. Detailed location of site.
SU61100 61200
Reproduced from Ordnance Survey digital mapping under licence. Crown copyright reserved. Scale: 1:1250
87900
88000
SITE
N
WHM 12/79
WHM 12/79
Figure 3. Location of observed areas.
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
0 50m
N
The Wall House
Constitution Hill
No. 2
Mongewell Park Lake
swimming pool
ba
pits 8,9 pit 3
100m
450mm
450mm
a
d
c
b
d
well? 10
a
a
b
d
c
b
cpit 2
a
d
c
b
pit 6,7
pit 4, 5
1
Plot 1 reduced strip
only 0.1m removed
TP1
top of made ground 55
park wall removed
top of 57
new boundary wall trench
Plot 2
observed88000
87900
SU61100 61200
(see Fig. 4)
knocked down and to become Phase 2
cd
WHM 12/79
Figure 4. Detail of features in Plot 1.
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
0 5m
N
ba
pits 8,9
a
d
b
a
a
b
d
c
b
c
a
d
c
b
TP1
2
6
7
45
3
10
existing park wall
boundary wall demolished(to foundation level only)
8
9
top ofmade ground 55
top oforange fill 57
new footing trenches
Ditch (cut 11)cuts 58 (chalky dump)
88000
88010
SU61210 16220
not bottomed
not further investigated in footing trench, Chris!!!
upper features
lower features
Key
WHM 12/79
Figure 5. Sections.
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
0 1m
1
2
54
NNW SSE
SE NW
Topsoil - 50
Subsoil -51
52
53natural geology
6 7
54
NE SW
SW NESW NE
8
6463
59 60
61 62
50.24maOD
49.29m
49.19m
49.24m
9
65
10
11
57
58disturbed fill of boundary wall
3
56
disturbed
NWSE49.2m
49.19m
SWNE
65
11
55
49.19m
58
oblique section
oblique section
Plate 1. General site shot, looking north.
Plate 2. Ditch slot 1, looking north west, Scales: 1m.
Plates 1 and 2.
WHM 12/79
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
Plate 3. Deep pit (cut 2), looking east, Scale 1m.
Plate 4. Ditch (cut 11), looking south east, Scales: 1m.
Plates 3 and 4.
WHM 12/79
The Wall House, Mongewell, Oxfordshire, 2012Archaeological watching brief
TIME CHART
Calendar Years
Modern AD 1901
Victorian AD 1837
Post Medieval AD 1500
Medieval AD 1066
Saxon AD 410
Roman AD 43BC/AD
Iron Age 750 BC
Bronze Age: Late 1300 BC
Bronze Age: Middle 1700 BC
Bronze Age: Early 2100 BC
Neolithic: Late 3300 BC
Neolithic: Early 4300 BC
Mesolithic: Late 6000 BC
Mesolithic: Early 10000 BC
Palaeolithic: Upper 30000 BC
Palaeolithic: Middle 70000 BC
Palaeolithic: Lower 2,000,000 BC
Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd,47-49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading,
Berkshire, RG1 5NR
Tel: 0118 9260552Fax: 0118 9260553
Email: [email protected]: www.tvas.co.uk