Bocketts Farm and Thorncroft area, Leatherhead

Report on detailed fieldwalking of 96ha (237 acres) by S P Dyer and Judie English for the SyAS Surrey Historic Landscapes Project Team. A thin scatter of worked flint was found throughout the area; mostly Neolithic with some Mesolithic and some BA. Sherds of Neolithic and BA pottery were also found. Aerial photographic evidence shows that the higher ground around Bocketts Farm is covered by a Celtic field system, perhaps to be associated with the known occupation site at Hawks Hill, but no Iron Age pottery has yet been found. The proximity of a Roman period farmstead is suggested by a scatter of RB pottery, roof tile and other finds including daub, slag and three coins. The evidence suggests a 2nd to 4th century date range. Earthworks and aerial photographs in the area centred TQ 162 548 show perhaps two systems of land division, one being small sub-rectangular fields and the other long narrow fields which it is thought probably obliterated them in places. The types of vegetation are also being recorded and can be linked to changes in land use, in particular, in the 19th century, increase and then decrease in areas used for arable and for woodland. (249; 252 with plan).
Year: 
1990
ID: 
1695
NGR: 
TQ158547
Borough: