The Changing Landscape

Excavation revealed changing land use

By the Late Bronze Age there was a change in farming practices. Many of the fields were abandoned because they could no longer be farmed effectively. This may have been because the land had been over-farmed or because the area become much wetter, forcing people to live further away in higher, drier locations.

There is little evidence on the site of later periods. In the Iron Age (700BC-AD43) and Romano-British period (AD43-410), only small parts of the farmland remained. No trace of settlement survives. They have been washed away over time by a stream. In the channel left by the stream, archaeologists found a small Romano-British glass bead. Close by, in one of the surviving ditches, were the remains of a bow brooch of the same date.

The channel was canalised in the Post-medieval period (1500-1799). The remaining brick-built structure may have once been a bridge or a sluice.

Excavations at Kingsmead Quarry, Horton, Berkshire were commissioned by CEMEX UK Operations Ltd.

Glass bead

Bow Brooch

Sluice