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7/29/2019 Kingsmead, Horton - Exhibition Banners

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Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest archaeological

practices in the UK, employing 200 archaeologists across four

regional offices in Salisbury, Rochester, Sheffield and Edinburgh.

We work with councils, developers, landowners and heritage

organisations to ensure that archaeological remains are recorded

and preserved before work begins on new development schemes.

Wessex Archaeology is funded by its commercial work and by

grant giving bodies.

Wessex Archaeology was established in 1979, and as a charity,

educating people about archaeology through lectures, events

and public outreach is central to our company ethos. We also

carry out building surveys, underwater archaeology, coastal

studies, heritage management, illustration and 3D computer

modelling, human remains analysis, finds and environmental

analysis and publication.

making sense of heritage

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Wessex Archaeology For moreinformation


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Excavations at Kingsmead Quarry have revealed a vast and

complex archaeological landscape. Since 2003 Wessex Archaeology

has painstakingly uncovered the hidden and forgotten history of

Horton, Berkshire.

In partnership with CEMEX UK, the excavations have revealed

a wealth of information about how people lived during the last

12,000 years, going back to the end of the last Ice Age. It covers a

time when people still hunted, to the arrival of farming, the first

appearance of metals and the influence of the Roman Empire.

The archaeological works have been project managed by

The Guildhouse Consultancy, and monitored by Berkshire

Archaeology on behalf of the local planning authority

(Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead).

Extracting the PastKingsmead Quarry, Horton

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For moreinformation


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Amongst the oldest finds found on the excavation was

a 300,000 year old hand axe found by a quarry worker.

Excavations also revealed a number of O ld Stone Age

(Palaeolithic) flint tools from around 12,000 10,000 BC.

Such tools were brought to the site by people hunting

and gathering along the Rivers Thames and Colne.

Some of these flints were recovered from a cluster of hollows

left by fallen trees, whilst an interesting flint scatter found in

2011 suggests that flint was knapped to make tools on the

site. At this time the sea level was far lower and Britain was

part of the European mainland.

Hunters of the river plain12,000 4000 BC

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Hortons pioneer farmers4000 3600 BC


The excavations have revealed significant evidence for

occupation at the start of the Neolithic period. Finding

one building of this date is rare so far we have uncovered

the ground plans of four rectangular structures. Two were

post-built with possible walls of wattle and daub, and two

were made of split log walls. They were likely to have had

pitched roofs covered with thatch or turf. Finds of pottery,

bone objects, flint and stone tools indicate that these were

houses people lived in. Remains of plants show that wild foods

such as hazelnuts were gathered and that cereals were grown.

The houses could represent a small farming settlement,

hamlet or family group that shifted location, perhaps as people

died or the building became too decayed to live in. We do not

know if the houses were being used at the same time.

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The early farmers were also monument builders, which

took the form of earthen mounds or ditched enclosures.

These were often places of ritual ceremony in which

offerings and human burials were placed.

A large monument was also revealed on the site.

A U-shaped enclosure was surrounded by a later oval

barrow. In the inner ditch quantities of animal bone were

found, the probable remains of a feast. The outer ditch

contained interesting artefacts such as several birch bark

bowls, and pottery with fingernail impressed decoration.

A number of antlers were found which may have been

used to dig the ditches.

Ritual ceremony and offerings3600 3000 BC

The barrow monument was made by digging an oval ditch and using the soilto construct an earth mound. Barrows are normally associated with burials.

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The excavations have revealed a rare and important Beaker

burial. Such burials are found across Europe from around

2500 BC and coincide with the first use of copper and gold.

People were buried with a distinctive pot or Beaker, often

with fine objects of metal or stone. The person buried at

Horton is thought to have been a woman over 35 years old.

She was buried with beads made from gold, amber and

lignite (similar to jet). Few Beaker burials from Britain

contain gold ornaments, and most are associated with

men. This makes this burial particularly rare.

She was probably an important person within her

community, giving her access to prestigious, rare and

exotic items. She could have been a leader, a person

with power and authority.

A woman of importance2300 BC

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Around 3500 years ago, the landscape changed dramatically.

Trees were cleared and boundary ditches dug to create large

fields, enclosures, trackways and animal paddocks. The land

was divided into two individual farmsteads.

Both settlements had roundhouses, fencelines, pits and

waterholes, and were involved in rearing animals. Several

cattle burials indicate the importance of livestock to the

community at this time. The remains of barley and emmer

wheat that had been threshed and winnowed show us what

was grown in the fields.

Bronze, fields and farmsteads1500 700 BC

Two important bronze objects were found: a delicate quoit-headed pin

and an elegant decorative Picardy pin, these may represent offerings.

Both pins may have been used to fasten cloaks.

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At the end of the Late Bronze Age (700 BC) the earlier

field systems were abandoned. The land may have been

over-farmed or simply became too wet, forcing people

onto drier ground. We can also tell that the land was

not used as intensively into the Iron Age.

We have found the remains of some roundhouses which

would have had thatched roofs, two grain stores and lots

of pits. These were for quarrying clay for pottery making

and were then used for burying rubbish. One area of pits

may have been used for the production of clay loomweights.

Roundhouses and rubbish pits700 BC AD 43

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After the Roman conquest in AD 43 a large farmstead was

established. Formed by several paddocks and enclosures, it

probably produced cereals and meat, to be traded at the nearby

Roman town ofPontibus (Staines). Pottery found indicates that

the farm was used for several hundred years.

Finds also include farming tools such as axes and adze heads

(used for shaping wood), a hipposandal ( type of horseshoe),

a rare bronze cauldron and personal items such as brooches, rings,

an ear scoop and four leather shoes. Preserved seeds and grains

indicate that hay and cereals were produced on the farm alongside

the rearing of cattle. Decorated samian ware pottery from France

suggests a wide network of trade and exchange.

What the Romans did for HortonAD 43 410

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Little evidence was found for the Anglo-Saxon period

(AD 410 1066). This may suggest that people were already

settled in the hamlets and villages such as Wraysbury and

Horton. Around 800 years ago Horton Manor became the

focal point of the medieval landscape. The Domesday Book

of 1086 records the manor as having enough land to support

10 households and was owned by Walter son of Other.

There is evidence for small field systems, as well as ditches,

pits and a small oven or kiln. Isolated features such as wells and

animal burials were also found, as well as a large oval enclosure

possibly associated with the Manor. Later the land changed

again to be replaced with large fields for modern farming.

After the RomansAD 410 present

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wessexarchaeology

Wessex Archaeology offers a unique capability to the aggregates

industry, providing a comprehensive range of consultancy and

archaeological services for all types of scheme. As well as working

at many quarries across the country, we are the UKs leading

provider of archaeological services to the marine aggregates

industry. We also have long partnerships with many of the

leading aggregates companies, as well as with the British Marine

Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA).

The large scale of extraction and its impact on the historical

environment requires early involvement of heritage specialists in

the planning and mitigation process. Wessex Archaeology provides

a full range of terrestrial and marine services including consultancy,

desk-based research, geophysical surveys, mitigation, publication

and outreach.

Working with the aggregates industryTerrestrial and marine


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Several of the artefacts found are rare and unusual, whilst

some are unique in the country. The Middle Bronze Age pins

are extremely rare finds with only a few of each type found in

Britain and on the Continent, whilst an Iron Age cauldron is

without parallel. The distinctive Neolithic pottery found in the

oval barrow is also very rare in southern England, and the

beads associated with the Beaker burial are unique in the UK.

We have found evidence that communities retained and looked

after these items, sometimes handing them down through

several generations before depositing them in unusual places.

It is likely that these essentially agricultural communities

were aware of, and possibly open to, influences from much

further afield.


wessexarchaeology

Unusual artefacts


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Some of the rarer finds appear to have travelled great distances

before they found their way to Horton, indicating a range of trade

and exchange networks were in place over thousands of years.

The two Middle Bronze Age pins appear to have made from

metal from the Continent. The Picardy pin may have come

from northern France.

Trade indicates a degree of economic prosperity, with a number

of prestigious and luxury objects coming to the site. The Beaker

gold beads may have come from Cornwall, the lignite beads

from East Anglia, the amber probably from the Baltic, Neolithic

stone axe from Cumbria and the Roman samian bowl from

southern France.

It is interesting to consider what was being exchanged

to allow such high status and prestigious finds to come

to the site. This may have been a surplus of some kind

ideal for trade, such as cattle or cereal.


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Trade and exchange networks


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The location of Horton has proved ideal for settlement and farming

for the last 6000 years. The natural resources of the gravel and clay

have been exploited since the first farmers of the Neolithic.

The archaeological remains have been preserved in the natural

brickearth, a type of clay buried beneath the modern ground surface,

but above the gravel. Machines are used to carefully remove the

topsoil and subsoil to reveal archaeological features which are seen

as dark marks in the ground. They represent features such as ditches,

gullies, postholes, pits for the disposal of rubbish and waterholes,

the latter providing the settlements with water. Archaeologists

hand-excavate these features, and the artefacts recovered help

us understand the ancient activities which have taken place.

CEMEX UK is pleased to fund this extensive 15 year programme of

archaeological work from excavation through to assessment and

analysis, ending in publication and deposition of the archive.


Aggregates and archaeology

wessexarchaeology


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Gravel extraction has been a common theme throughout the

history of Kingsmead. For the last 6000 years people have utilised,

exploited and extracted the natural resources of the landscape.

Quartzite pebbles were used as hammers, as rubbing stones for

grinding corn and as hearthstones. Flint was also collected from

the gravel for making everyday tools for cutting, skinning and

hunting. Gravel was also used to construct the enclosing banks

for fields and farmsteads, and from Roman times onwards for

roads and tracks.

Aggregate, sand and gravel was used in early concrete by the

Romans as an essential building material. Today aggregate is

still a vital part of concrete, an essential material of our

built environment.


A ggregatesrchaeology and a

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CEMEX UK


CEMEX supplies vital building materials, cement, aggregates,

concrete and building products, to the construction industry. Our

materials are used in homes, roads, hospitals, schools and

in the built environment, helping to build a Greater Britain.

At Kingsmead Quarry, sand and gravel is quarried and used in local

construction projects and major ones such as M25 widening scheme

and T5 at Heathrow Airport.

We have a responsibility for the impact of our business on the

environment and communities and to preserve the land for

future generations.

While meeting the needs of communities for construction, we safe

guard our heritage, through archaeological investigations, restore

the land that has been quarried back to nature and care for the

environment through more sustainable products and operations.

all around

us

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