Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire

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1 Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire An Archaeological Watching Brief For JCA International by James McNicoll-Norbury Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code WFF 08/26 August 2008

2 Summary Site name: Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire Grid reference: SU Site activity: Watching Brief Date and duration of project: 5th March 2008 Project manager: Steve Ford Site supervisor: Steve Ford Site code: WFF 08/26 Area of site: 0.22ha Summary of results: No archaeological finds or deposits were identified Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Reading Museum in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford Jennifer Lowe i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR Tel. (0118) ; Fax (0118) ; tvas@tvas.co.uk; website :

3 Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire An Archaeological Watching Brief by James McNicoll-Norbury Report 08/26 Introduction This report documents the results of an archaeological watching brief carried out at Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire (SU ) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Mr. John Cross on behalf of JCA International, Unit E1, Bunkers Hill Farm, Reading Road, Hook, Hampshire, RG27 9DA Planning permission (app no F/2007/0472) has been granted by Wokingham Council for the construction of a new house adjacent to the existing house and following demolition of outbuildings. The consent is subject to a condition relating to archaeology which requires the site to be investigated during groundworks. This is in accordance with the Department of the Environment s Planning Policy Guidance, Archaeology and Planning (PPG ), and the County s policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mary O Donoghue, Archaeology Officer for Berkshire Archaeology. The fieldwork was undertaken by Steve Ford on 5 th March 2008 and the site code is WFF08/26. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Reading Museum in due course. Location, topography and geology The site is located off Fleet Hill, approximately 270m to the east of Park Lane (Fig. 2). The site is centred on SU and is situated at c 54m above Ordnance Datum over Bagshot Beds (sands and gravels) which was observed across the site (BGS 1946). The total site area is approximately 0.22 ha and is currently occupied by the existing Wheatlands House and various out buildings. Archaeological background The archaeological potential of the site has been highlighted in a brief for the project prepared by David Thomason formerly of Berkshire Archaeology. In summary, the site lies 100m to the south of the Devil s Highway (Silchester to London Roman Road) (Margary 1973) and 170m west of a series of Roman buildings (aisled villas) visible on aerial photographs and now a scheduled monument (Hampton and Palmer 1977). 1

4 Information within the Berkshire historic environment record note also that Iron Age and Roman deposits have been revealed in small scale excavations carried out in 1975 to the north of the proposed site. Objectives and methodology The purpose of the watching brief was to excavate and record any archaeological deposits affected by groundworks. This was to involve examination of all areas of deep foundation trenching, ground reduction and any service runs. Results An area slightly larger than the footprint of the new house was stripped of overburden. This mostly comprised turf with some subsoil c m thick, except for the extreme eastern end of the site where the plot was terraced in slightly to account for sloping ground. In this latter area the natural geology was exposed but no archaeological finds nor deposits were revealed. On the southern side a modern topsoil mound was terraced into to a depth of 0.46m. The remaining groundworks comprised the excavation of foundation trenches for the new house (Fig. 3). These trenches were mostly 0.7m wide and up 0.78m deep. Typically the stratigraphy consisted of 0.15m turf/topsoil overlaying 0.30m brown sand subsoil which in turn overlay the natural geology of yellow sand (Fig. 4). Apart from two modern pits in the north eastern part of the site, a modern soakaway on the north western part, and two small service trenches, no archaeological finds or deposits were observed. Finds No finds of archaeological interest were recovered during fieldwork. Conclusion Despite the site lying close to the Devil s Highway Roman road, a series of Roman buildings to the east and other Iron Age/Roman remains to the north, no deposits or finds of Roman date or any other archaeological period were identified during the watching brief. 2

5 References BGS, 1946, British Geological Survey, 1:63,360, Sheet 268, Drift Edition, Keyworth Hampton J, N and Palmer, R 1977, The implications of aerial photography for archaeology, Archaeol J, 134, Margary, I D, 1973, Roman Roads in Britain (3rd Edition), London PPG 16, 1990, Archaeology and Planning, Dept of the Environment Planning Policy Guidance 16, HMSO 3

6 65000 SITE SITE SU WFF 08/26 Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire, 2008 Archaeological watching brief Figure 1. Location of site in relation to Finchampstead and Berkshire. Reproduced from Ordnance Survey Explorer 159 at 1: Ordnance Survey Licence

7 N Roman road SITE SU Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire, 2008 Archaeological watching brief WFF 08/26 Figure 2. Detailed location of site within Wheatlands Manor.. Reproduced from Ordnance Survey digital mapping under licence. Crown copyright reserved. Scale: 1:1250

8 N Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire, Removed outbuilding modern pits Extent of topsoilstripped area modern soakaway Wheatlands House services SU m Figure 3. Location of areas obsered during watching brief. WFF 08/26

9 Wheatlands House, Fleet Hill, Finchampstead, Berkshire, 2008 NW SE 60.6m AOD Turf Brown sand (subsoil) Yellow sand (natural geology) base of footing trench 0 1m Figure 4. Representative section of footing trenches WFF 08/26