The excavations at Cranmere school, Esher and The Avenue, Egham both produced important evidence relating to the later Bronze Age. In each case ditches forming major land divisions from the Middle Bronze Age, with associated settlement, were discovered. Both have new settlement, including indications of roundhouses, associated with a field system, in the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age.
An exceptionally large ditch at Egham was previously the site of the discovery of a major hoard of bronze objects, and the Esher site has also produced a hoard of ingot fragments contained within an in situ, Late Bronze Age, pot.
At Egham, enclosure or field ditches of probable Late Iron Age date were deliberately backfilled as part of preparations for the building of the London-Silchester Roman road which cut across the site.
The work exposed a large roadside ditch along a distance of 45m and a cambered gravel surface to the 16.5m wide road. Both sites have probable sunken-featured buildings.
That at Esher is of Early Saxon date, and pottery hints that there was quite intensive and widespread occupation. Pottery of similar date is known from the site at Egham, although the building may be later Saxon. Evidence of early medieval occupation and a Tudor building was also revealed there.
- SpoilHeap Occasional Paper no 8
- ISBN 978-1-912331-08-6
- 99 pages, 57 illustrations
- Price £12 plus £3.50 postage and packaging
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