Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Stuart, Millie, Chloe, Geoff, Julie, Lindsey, Sofia, Emma, Jill, Paul, Malcolm, Louise and Keith 

What a change in the weather (!!!) – with rain showers and occasional thunder/lightening in the middle distance, we had to take shelter in our cars on a number of occasions. However, we managed to spend pretty much a full day excavating – often still enjoying bright sunshine! Due to heavy downpours overnight, Trenches 17 and 18 were waterlogged, so no work was done in these areas. However, there was plenty to do in Trenches 15 and 16…

The first project was to investigate a number of possible post holes identified the previous week during dry conditions, which now that the ground was damp, was perfect conditions for identification of possible post holes. However, Millie, Sofia and Emma soon determined that these features were not postholes, but whilst cleaning the surface they realise that the features previously identified were a “corner” of a rectilinear deposit of clay with linear “dark earth” suggesting possible beam slot foundations. Work will continue tomorrow to explore these features further to see if they are related to the nearby flue or are part of a separate feature…

Elsewhere in Trench 16, Lindsey continued with her detailed examination of the flue structure, and on the west side of the flue discovered a possible “cut” that appeared to be lined with vertically positioned mortar as seen in Figure 3. Again this feature will require further work to investigate thoroughly, but the archaeology of the flue is complex – and is taking time to carefully unpick and record in detail…

Meanwhile in Trench 15, Jill and Paul continued to remove “fills” from the northerly ditch of Ermin Street as seen in Figure 4. At the north end of Trech 15 Chloe, Geoff, Julie, Malcom and Louise continued to excavate and record the slot that was partially excavated the previous week. A number of new contexts were revealed beneath the layer of large sarsens and cobbles which were planned and recorded. This area of Trench 15 continued to reveal a high concentration of iron objects, pottery and animal bone…

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Joanne, Katharine, Sam, Zoe, Stuart, Millie, Doug, Chloe, James P, Martin, Peter Cl, Kate, Claire, Susanne, Eric, Geoff, Dee, Ben A and Keith 

Yet ANOTHER hot day on site – but once again, we hunkered down beneath gazebos/trees so work could continue! Next week is forecast to be decidedly damp by comparison, so we may need to find our waterproofs and wellies…

In Trench 17 Chloe, Dee, Doug, Joanne and Zoe spent the morning learning how to accurately draw scale stratigraphic sections of the deposits revealed during the course of the excavation. This process of recording will continue next week for three faces of this trench, and will be used together with the material culture, pottery and bone discovered to characterise occupation of this site during the Roman period.

In Trench 18 Susanne, Eric and Claire completed the recording of the 50% slot dug along this trench and opening new context records for the new features identified beneath. The wetter weather forecast for next week will help to soften the silty/clay material exposed which was heavy going during this week’s hot and dry conditions.

In Trench 15 Sam and Katharine discovered a new context of large sarsen rubble within the slot being excavated at the north end of the trench, which when recorded and removed revealed two distinct contexts beneath. Excavation of this slot will be extended to the east next week to identify the archaeological feature beneath these layers of flint/sarsen where the southerly remains of Building #3 (discovered in 2025) are expected to be found.

Elsewhere in Trench 15 Peter, Martin and Ben were excavating flint/cobble surfaces closer to the ditch of the Roman road/lane, where Peter discovered a Roman As coin. It is hoped that this coin can be accurately dated next week when Lindsey is back on site with us, but initial comparisons suggest a possible 2^nd Century AD date

In Trench 16, work continued to define the features of the masonry flue, and to clean the newly revealed surfaces around it. Despite the dry conditions a number of possible post holes/pits were identified that will be investigated further next week when the damper conditions are likely to allow clearer delineation of these features.

Stuart very kindly produced a 3D photogrammetry model using his Poly Cam app of Trench 16, which you can see in 3D on your phone/computer by following the link below:

https://poly.cam/capture/29f23077-2708-47df-8229-3d917ea9817c

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Joanne, Katharine, Sam, Zoe, John M, Lindsey, Beth, Gill, Alessa, Tim H, Stuart, Millie, Doug, Julian, Geoff, Paula and Keith 

It was another hot day on site – but once again, with use of gazebos to provide shade across the trenches and with activities such as sieving and reporting taking place in the shade of trees we managed to complete a full day of activity. We were also very lucky to be visited by Sarah Orr (Principle Archaeologist at West Berkshire Council) and Dr Phil Smither (Finds Liaison Officer) who spent the afternoon reviewing the archaeology revealed, inspecting finds discovered and meeting the volunteer archaeologists at work in the trenches.

In Trench 15, Sam and Katharine revealed a deposit of large flints in the northeast of the trench which were interpreted as being a deposit of demolition rubble. A coin of Tetricus I found near the bottom of this deposit suggests a possible terminus post quem date of AD270, but of course the deposit could have occurred during the 4^thcentury AD or later. The rubble is largely composes of sarsen (as opposed flint) with some stone being of considerable size as seen in Figure 2.

Work continued in Trench 17 to make the sides  of the trench vertical in preparation for sections to be drawn next week. It is likely that the midden deposits in this trench span the full period of occupation during the Roman period, and may reveal the evolving character of the settlement and its inhabitants…

Figure 3. Work continues in Trench 17…

In Trench 16 work continued to explore the construction cuts of the corn drier flue to expose is full extent. To the east the remainder of the cobbled surface was removed and the flint/sarsen rubble explored in more detail to determine if it was a dump of material or part of a structure. The surfaces revealed began to be cleaned to see if cuts/pits/post-holes could be observed, but this was difficult in the dry conditions and will be reassessed first thing tomorrow…

Meanwhile in Trench 18, Alessa and Tim continued to clean the clay/pebble surfaces revleaed the previous week, and extended the trench 1m to the south to assess if this surface (believed to be the Roman road) continued to the south of the trench. Surprisingly the road ditch has not yet been located despite this trench being positioned across low earth resistance linear features aligned with the Roman road.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Joanne, Katharine, Sam, Zoe, Simon, John M, Martin, Chloe, Lindsey, Tim L, Beth, Peter Cl, Louise and Keith 

As can be seen in Figure 1, the open area trenches are located within the middle of the pasture. As conditions today were very warm to say the least, but we were fortunate to have gazebos to provide much needed shade to allow excavation to continue, albeit at a more relaxed pace…

Once the gazebos were in position, excavation was able to proceed in relative comfort, with sieving taking place beneath nearby tree cover. Sam was able to bring his experience a professional field archaeologist to apply to his “bus-man’s holiday” at Wickham, with renewed focus on the exploratory slot being dug along the north of Trench 15 to better define in section some of the features seen in plan. Much progress was made in both the slot and the ditch along the Roman road, which will be recorded in future blogs.

Trench 16 was similarly equipped with a gazebo to provide shade, which allowed Lindsey, Peter and Tim to continue to explore the corn drier flue in detail from the projects started last week. The layers of archaeology around the flue are complex, but with patient removal/recording of each deposit the phasing of the features is slowly being revealed…

Trench 17 was left somewhat exposed to the sun, so Chloe and Zoe retreated to the shade of a nearby tree to bring the trench records up to date. Paula also took advantage of the tree cover to bring the records for Trench 15 up to date, whilst others helped out with the sieving.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Joanne, Martin, Julian, James P, Chloe, Doug, Nick, Rod, Lindsey, Geoff, Phyllida, Tim L, Merrill, Gordon, Jill, Beth, Jean, Alessa, Claire, Peter Cl and Keith 

In Trench 15 Beth and Jill continued to excavate at section across the northerly ditch of the Roman road, which revealed a number of fills not seen further to the southeast in 2025. At the northern end of Trench 15 Martin, Merrill, Rod, Gordon, Joanne and Peter continued to explore the multiple layers of cobble/flint. Whist there are ephemeral hints of (what is thought to be) the possible foundations at the SW corner of Building #3 starting to emerge, further careful excavation is needed to define these features before an clear interpretation can be reached. Meanwhile Keith completed the latest plan of this area assigning new context number of the features being identified by the excavators.

In Trench16, Lindsey continued to define the morphology of the corn drier flue and the beam slot, whilst James continued to examine the newly revealed chalk/flint/sarsen deposits to the east. More work is needed to explain the stratigraphy of this area of the site, but careful excavation and recording is slowly bringing the archaeological remains into focus…

Once again we were very lucky to be joined by Phyllida, who was able to capture both the archaeology and the archaeologists at work in Trench 16 in her wonderful drawings. These artistic interpretations of the site offer an interesting contrast to highly technical drawings being plans of the same trench being meticulously recorded by Tim L (who is also a keen amateur artist!) nearby…

In Trench 17 the “benching” was completed, so work continued to clean up the vertical walls of the trench ready for section drawings to be recorded in the coming week. Doug was able to achieve a flat surface of the southerly trench wall, that when damped down, revealed previously unseen subtle stratigraphy in the midden deposits that can be correlated with the material culture artefacts previously discovered.

In Trench 18 Alessa, Jean and Claire completed the recording of the three contexts revealed the previous day, and then started a 50% section across the context of large flints seen in the geophysics survey. This was revealed to be a shallow deposit of flints on top of a continuation of the orange clay/gravel surface to the north that has been initially interpreted as the surviving surface of the Roman road.  By the end of the day, this orange clay gravel surface was found to extend across the full length of Trench 18 suggesting that the  road opposite this industrial area to the north is much wider than seen to the NW and SW of the settlement. Work will continue next week to locate the southerly ditch of the Roman road…

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Joanne, Millie, Martin, Julian, Tony, Nigel S, Nigel B, Garry, Thalia, Susanne, Penny, James P, Roger and Keith 

Another showery day, but great weather for archaeology!  In Trench 15 Tony and Nigel S continued to excavate the roadside ditch of Ermin Street. The layer of large flints/CBM at the top of this fill turned out to the relatively shallow, revealing a lower fill of dark earth. These contexts were recorded, and work will continue tomorrow to expose the section of the roadside ditch. Within the initial ditch fill were a number of interesting pottery finds and glass fragments.

Martin continued to clean the surfaces exposed the previous day which started to clarify the possible morphology of possible foundations of a timber framed building within Trench 15 which began to be recorded. Once recording is complete the focus in Trench 15 will be to record the contexts relating to the roadside building, and how it interacted with the road and lane nearby. At the north of Trench 16 Joanne and Millie also spent the day recording the newly revealed surfaces and defining their relative stratigraphy. 

After recording the levels and photographing the contexts revealed in  Trench16 the previous day, James started to dig a slot across the dark circular feature suspected of being a possible second furnace pit. However, this initial interpretation soon proved to be unlikely as the dark circular context was only a few cm deep – however, work will continue tomorrow to better understand how the rubble/chalk deposits to the east of Trench 16 relate to the flue seen in the west of the trench.

The focus for Nigel B, Garry and Thalia in the morning was to dig 1m wide benching for Trench 17 as it was close to 1.0m in depth. Once this was completed work continued to explore the midden deposits with the help of Roger who was 100% sieving the material removed.

In Trench 18 Penny and Susanne cleaned the surfaces revealed the previous day and started recorded the new contexts. The orange/gravel context at the north of the trench was interpreted as being the surviving surface of the Roman road, and the darker surface to the south containing large sarsens/flints was interpreted as being the likely fill of the roadside ditch. The nature of the surface at the south of this trench is as yet unclear, but once recording is completed the next step is likely to be a 50% section of the roadside ditch to record the profile fills of the ditch south of the road.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Geoff, Jill, Rod, Malcolm, Joanne, Millie, Mike, Louise, Beth, Peter Ca, Peter Cl, Chloe, Lindsey and Keith 

Again we were dodging the showers in the morning, but overall the weather held and we were able to get in a full day of excavation. In Trench 15 Louse and Beth started to excavate a section across the Roman road ditch, whilst Joanne and Chloe continued with the slot across the north end of the trench. Jill, Millie and Rod meanwhile continued with cleaning the surface where it is expected that the surfaces of the lane ditch and Building #3 foundation will be revealed in due course. All three areas produced finds of pottery, animal bone and iron objects all suggested nearby domestic occupation – but as yet the delineating features remained elusive…

In Trench16 Lindsey continued to define the flue of the westerly corn drier/malting shed flue to determine its extant structure. Whilst Geoff cleaned the surface to the north of the trench around the pedestal of chalk/flint revealed a couple of weeks ago, and in the process discovered another area of scorched earth and burning to the east. Keith caught up with the planning and context sheet recording which will be finished tomorrow along with photography of these new context.

In Trench 18 Malcolm, Peter and Mike continue to remove the overburden, and ended the day by cleaning three distinct contexts identified. In the north of the trench is a yellow/brown pebble clay that is possibly the surviving gravel agger of the Roman road. To the south of this an area of large subangular flints now interpreted as the possible fill of the roadside ditch – and the surface to the south is still being revealed. Once these contexts have been cleaned, they will be photographed, planned and recorded. It is hoped that having established the width of the Roman road, that the fill of the ditch will give insights into the occupation (if any) on the south side of the road in this area by comparing with the fill of the ditch on the north side of the road near Building #3.

Tickets are now on sale at https://www.ticketsource.com/berkshire-archaeological-society/t-aazavaq for the site tour and lecture on Weds 10^th June 2026 at 6pm to raise funds for much needed repairs to St Swithun’s Church. Last year’s lecture was a sell-out, so secure your seats asap to avoid disappointment…!

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Julian, Geoff, Merrill, Gordon, Gill, Jill, Margaret, Debbie C, Peter Ca, Peter Cl, Fiona, Chloe, Doug, Ben C, Matthew, Phyllida, Lindsey and Keith 

Once again the weather today was a bit “hit and miss”, but we managed to achieve a full day of excavation with only short bursts of heavy rain forcing us to retreat to the cars for a few minutes. In Trench 15 work continued apace to extend the archaeological horizon revealed earlier in the week. A sondage excavated by Peter showed another cobbled surface some 25cm below the current surface shown in Figure 1 and just above natural. At present there is no clear evidence of the building discovered in 2025 a few metres to the north of Trench 15 but it is possible that the remains of its beam slot foundations will be revealed in the coming days… The spoil removed from each context was carefully sifted by Margaret and Debbie as seen in Figure 2, who found pottery, iron objects and glass fragments dating to the Roman period.  

Today’s focus in Trench16 was cleaning and recording, with Gill and Lindsey completing the section drawings across the furnace pit and flue, and defining the masonry of the flue. Meanwhile Geoff cleaned a spread of rubble to the east that also included a chalk deposit suggesting a second flue. This interpretation was further hardened by Ben and Matthew who focused on planning a possible second furnace pit.

We were very lucky to have Phyllida Shelley with us on site today, an artist based in Cookham who has spent a number of years capturing different aspects of archaeology (and archaeologists) in her highly creative work. Figure 5 shows Phyllida capturing the subtle colours of the flue section being cleaned and recorded by Gill and Lindsey.

In Trench 17 Fiona and Chloe revealed new features at the bottom of the roadside midden deposit including additional large discarded pots. Around the pottery were large amounts of bone and slag, which together will help to characterise nearby occupation of this site. The large pottery fragments will be left in situ for the time being, but will be lifted at the end of the project to be identified by our pottery specialist and hopefully dated to indicate the time frame of these midden deposits.

Having removed the turf for Trench 18, Gordon, Peter Ca and Julian continued to remove the overburden. However the first hints of deposits of large flints were soon discovered in the area indicated by the earth resistance geophysics surface, with a cobbled surface to the south and more friable soil where the roadside ditch is expected to lie. These positive indications will be examined further next week as the overburden is removed.

Whilst the excavation was taking place in Wickham the team of volunteers in Marcham led by Simon continued to clean and sort the finds from this year’s excavation. Much tea and many biscuits were consumed, and lots of progress made – and we are looking forward to examining the assemblage of finds from this year’s excavation in more detail during the post-ex phase of the project over the coming months…

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Julian, Geoff, Paula, Michael, Merrill, Gordon, Tony, Tim H, Simon, Eric, Nigel S, Gill, Lindsey and Keith 

The weather today was a bit “hit and miss” with alternating bright sunshine/heavy rain showers, however today’s team of volunteers made excellent progress. In Trench 15 Paula, Nigel S, Michael and Simon continued to make progress in cleaning the surface revealed the previous week and identifying the different contexts that define the lane branching north from Ermin Street, the ditch along the road (and lane) and the occupation area in the northeast of the trench. By the afternoon Michael had already started planning and recording, and tomorrow the other two areas should also be ready to record their newly revealed contexts. 

In Trench16 Lindsey and Gill continued the section recording started the day before by Jill, whilst Merrill, Gordon, Geoff and Eric continued to remove the layer of cobbles on top of the large flints thought to define the eastern masonry wall of the corn drier/malting shed. However, what was revealed was a second circular deposit of burnt material the same size as the furnace pit already revealed 2m to the west – and further deposit of chalk similar to that seen between the flint walls of the flue 2m to the west. This could suggest that a number of corn driers/malting sheds were built on this site over an extended period of time with the same morphology? Once this new surface has been recorded, further work will be required to unpick these possibly separate structures and identify their chronologies…

A small ammounrt of recording was done in Trench 17 first thing in the morning to bring trench records up to date, then the team refocussed on opening a new trench (Trench 18) across what we expect to be the ditch along the southwest facing side of Ermin Street and a linear high resistance feature seen on last season’s earth resistance geophysics survey aligned with the Roman road. Turves were removed and by the end of the day the tops of large flints had started to appear where the high earth resistance linear feature was thought to be located. So far, so good – but more work will be needed to define the features in this trench that aims to assess the extent that occupation on the south side of the Roman road was different to that seen on the north side of the road.

After yesterday’s’ exciting coin find, the top discoveries today were pottery. In trench 16 Gordon discovered this large fragment of decorated pottery with relief decoration with a red slip, possibly manufactured in Oxfordshire. It is hoped that the  distinctive pattern and fabric will enable our pottery specialists to identify a date as well as the place of manufacture. In Trench 15, Simon discovered a piece of mortaria (only the 5^th fragment of mortaria found on this site to date) that also has a similar red slip and pale orange fabric – and may also have been manufactured in Oxfordshire.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Julian, Geoff, Doug, Chloe, Debbie S, Paula, Michael, Millie, Merrill, Gordon, Nick, Jill and Keith 

In Trench 15 Paula, Debbie, Millie and Michael continued excavating the two slots across the surface that were started the previous week, and by the end of the day were starting to see clear delineations in the surfaces revealed. These surfaces were allocated context numbers, recorded on context sheets, planned and photographed. There is still quite a bit of work still to be done to identify and correlate the features seen in this trench, but one again considerable progress was made…

Building on the back of the “heavy lifting” in Trench 16 the previous week, Merrill, Gordon and Geoff set about cleaning the surfaces revealed, focusing on the flint walls of the eastern side of the corn drier/malting shed. Finds discovered within the remaining parts of the surface above these features were carefully collected should they be needed for terminus ante quem dating evidence. Jill spent the day carefully recording the section across the collapsed flue and updating the records of these contexts.

Just at the day’s excavation was drawing to a close Julian discovered a silver denarius serratus close to the corn drier/malting shed in Trench 16. This coin appears to date from around 82BC when it was minted by or in honour of the Praetor Antonius Balbus in Rome. The obverse shows the head of Jupiter (and the “SC” mint mark), and the reverse shows the goddess Victory driving a quadriga while holding a palm leaf. The coin is well worn, suggesting a long “use life” prior to being deposited, but whether we will be able to determine how this Late Roman Republican coin came to be deposited in Wickham remains to be seen. However, this is the earliest find discovered on this site to date, and for this area of West Berkshire is an unusual artefact to be discovered in an archaeological context.

In both Trench 15 and 16 much of the work today was spent recording, planning, sectioning and photographing the newly revealed features – and also completing/correcting/augmenting the records previously made to ensure the data collected is as complete and correct as possible. This consolidation of trench records will continue to be a key focus for both trenches for the next couple of days.

Meanwhile in Trench 17 Doug, Chloe, Nick and Julian continued to excavated the roadside midden deposit revealing bone, pottery and industrial waste. This evidence will be rich source of data to characterise the lives of the inhabitants of this settlement, as well as those travelling along Ermin Street, during the Roman period.