Publications for sale

Front Cover: Living and Working in Roman and Later London - Excavations at 60–63 Fenchurch Streetby Vaughan Birbeck and Jörn Schuster
ISBN 978-1-874350-52-1
£10

Excavations in advance of redevelopment for a prestigious office building in the east of the City revealed 10 broad phases of activity, ranging between the pre-Roman and post-medieval periods, with a focus on the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

Roman Fenchurch Street follows the line of earlier ditches. For the first time, the entire width of the Roman road has been exposed, permitting adjustment of its course in the street plan of Londinium. Iron pipe collars demonstrate water management along the street and to the rear of the 2 plots identified on site. The 17 Roman buildings (later 1st–3rd century AD) show mixed domestic and commercial/industrial uses, including metalworking and butchery.

Although disturbed by modern buildings, later Roman finds recovered from medieval and post-medieval pits indicate continuity of activity, but there is a genuine lack of Saxon occupation. A peculiar deposition of animal bone in a medieval pit may provide evidence for ritual/magic practices.

Comparison with the adjacent site of Lloyd’s Register demonstrates the considerable differences that can occur in the occupation history of two adjacent sites. The volume includes reports on the finds and environmental assemblages.

Find out more about the excavations at Fenchurch Street, London.

Cover: Hill Hall: a singular house devised by a Tudor intellectualby Paul Drury and Richard Simpson
544p, 378 illus, hardback in 2 parts
ISBN-13: 978-0-85431-291-7
ISBN-10: 0-85431-291-9
£55

This is the complete history of a building that began as a hunting lodge, late in the eleventh century and that grew to be the principal house of the manor of Theydon Mount in Essex, a small country retreat within easy reach of London. In 1556, the house was acquired by Sir Thomas Smith (1512-77), a man of humble origins but precocious intellect who became Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge at the age of thirty and Chancellor of the University two years later. He then forsook academic for political life, becoming Master of Requests to the Lord Protector Somerset.

From 1557, Smith rebuilt the house in French-influenced classical style and decorated it with wall paintings of Cupid and Psyche and King Hezekiah, conveying complex messages of morality and affinity as part of a coherent programme of images in paint, glass and tiles.

Four centuries on, the house was first used as an open prison, then, in 1969, largely gutted by fire and finally, in 1980, taken into the care of the Department of the Environment. Archaeological excavation and detailed recording of the surviving fabric took place prior to the restoration of the house and its mural paintings, the results of which are now presented in this copiously illustrated account of one of the most important and influential houses to be built in Elizabethan England. 544p, 378 illus (2009)

For more information visit the Society of Antiquaries of London website (publications section).

Buy the book online from Oxbow Books.

Plans, sectional elevations and period plans of Hill Hall can be downloaded from the Archaeology Data Service.

Cambourne New Settlement front coverby James Wright, Matt Leivers, Rachael Seager Smith and Chris J. Stevens
ISBN 978-1-874350-49-1
£15.00 (includes CD of specialist material). View the complete book, or download a PDF below.

Visit the Cambourne project homepage.

Twelve excavations were carried out by Wessex Archaeology within the Cambourne Development Area. Situated on the clay uplands west of Cambridge, which have seen little previous archaeological investigation, the results presented here are important in demonstrating the ebb and flow of occupation according to population or agricultural pressure.

Short-lived Bronze Age occupation was followed in the Middle Iron Age by small farming communities with an economy based on stock-raising and some arable cultivation. The Late Iron Age seems to have seen a recession, perhaps partly due to increased waterlogging making farming less viable.

From the mid-1st century AD new settlements began to emerge, possibly partly stimulated by the presence of Ermine Street, and within a century the area was relatively densely occupied. Several farmsteads were remodelled in the later Romano-British period, though none seems to have been very prosperous.

Dispersed occupation may have continued into the early 5th century at least, followed by a hiatus until the 12th/13th century when the entire area was taken into arable cultivation, leaving the ubiquitous traces of medieval ridge and furrow agriculture.

Access the online appendices and project pages for this book.

Cover for An Iron Age Settlement outside Battlesbury Hillfort, Warminster and Sites along the Southern Range Roadby Chris Ellis and Andrew B. Powell
ISBN: 978-1-874350-47-7
£9.99. Read the book online, or download a PDF of the full text below.

Visit the Battlesbury Camp project homepage.

Construction of a tank road through part of Salisbury Plain, from Warminster to Tilshead, has revealed archaeological remains dating from the Neolithic up to modern use of the Plain for military training. Excavation adjacent to Battlesbury Camp hillfort has uncovered Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age settlement activity including ditches, roundhouses, four-post structures and numerous pits. Some of the pits contained human burials, and other deposits of artefacts and animal bones appear to have been formally placed.

Detailed environmental investigation has provided information about both the nature of the on-site activities and the character of the surrounding landscape.

Other sites investigated along the tank road included a round barrow and a multiple inhumation and cremation burial of Early Bronze Age date, a Middle Bronze Age enclosure, Late Bronze Age settlement sites, the ‘Old Ditch' Wessex Linear earthwork and evidence for Romano-British settlement and landuse.    

The Archaeology of the M6 Toll 2000-2003 front coverby Andrew B. Powell, Paul Booth, A.P. Fitzpatrick and A.D. Crockett
ISBN 978-1874350-1-6 £30

In late 2000, during one of the wettest winter on record, Oxford Wessex Archaeology were commissioned by the construction consortium CAMBBA, on behalf of Midland Expressway Limited, to carry out the archaeological works associated with the construction of the new 44km M6 Toll motorway.

The main phase of work was carried out during 2001, and by 2003 all investigations were complete, revealing 41 separate sites.

Remains includied Mesolithic flint scatters, isolated Neolithic pits and hollows, Bronze Age burnt mounds and Iron Age settlement enclosures. The Romano-British period was dominated by settlement and burials concentrated around Wall (Letocetum), Ryknield Street and Watling Street, whilst the Anglo-Saxons were notable by their absence from the results. Evidence for medieval settlement and agriculture was recorded at many sites, and in particular a Knights Templar fishpond complex at Wishaw. More recent standing structures were also recorded, including the northern dam for Hatherton Reservoir, Churchbridge Railway and Accommodation bridges and sections through the Cannock Extension and Wyrley and Essington Canals, vital elements of the post-medieval industrial heritage of the region.

The expansion of Stansted Airport provided an opportunity to investigate a large area of clay plateau, typical of the north-west Essex landscape. The area was a focus for hunter-gatherer activity as early as the Palaeolithic period, and was first settled by small farming communities in the Middle Bronze Age. From the Middle Iron Age onwards, increasing settlement and population density led to the enclosure of the landscape. Farming and settlement concentrated on the more fertile river valleys and the slopes of the heavily wooded plateau.

The Romano-British period saw a decline in the rural population, whilst increasing agricultural intensification led to the first systematic farming of the clay plateau. Woodland regeneration in the post-Romano-British period is clearly demonstrated in documentary sources. Indeed, much of the history of the Saxon and medieval settlement of the area concerns the relationship between agricultural expansion and the surrounding woodland, whilst deer parks such as Stansted Park allowed landowners to demonstrate their mastery of the landscape and its wildlife.

This book, along with its accompanying CD-ROM, presents the results of these excavations, allowing the reader to explore both broader historical themes and the minutiae of individual sites, features and finds. The results of earlier work in the area are integrated, providing a coherent historical narrative of human inhabitation.

by John W. Hawkes and P.J. Fasham
Published 1997: Report 5
ISBN: 1-874350-09-8
£Free +£2.50 P&P

The growth of Reading in the medieval period was due largely to the influence of the Abbey. The waterfront zone, between the Holy Brook and the Kennet, lay at the heart of the development. A series of excvations and observations during major redevelopment of the town centre produced substantial evidence for the construction, repeated refurbishment and use of waterfront structures spanning the medieval period. A period of near abandonment seems to have followed the Dissolution. The recovery of over 100 timbers has allowed for detailed dendrochronological study and the artefact assemblages chart the varied industrial and commercial functions of the waterfronts.

by P. Chowne, R.M.J. Cleal and A.P. Fitzpatrick with P. Andrews
Published 2001
ISBN: 1-874350-32-9  £FREE! (+ £2.50 P&P)

Extensive excavations on the fen margin at Billingborough revealed archaeological remains of considerable regional importance. A Middle Bronze Age enclosure is one of the most extensively excavated enclosures of its type in East Anglia. Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age salt-making debris represents one of the earliest and most substantial assemblages of such material in the area. The results have led to the creation of a pottery sequence for the Bronze Age and Iron Age periods in the region.

Stealing Away Time - front cover This colourful 16 page booklet tells the story of the River Jordan, which rises at the base of the Dorset chalk and meanders through the secluded village of Sutton Poyntz on its brief course to the sea. The
history of settlement in the valley, from at least the Mesolithic through to the present day, has revolved around the river. The earlier settlements, and a medieval chapel, have recently been brought to light by archaeological excavation on the site of a new water pumping station (published in full in By a Crystal Brook, also available from Wessex Archaeology.