Hurst Park, East Molesey

Evaluation by B Langton of the Cotswold Archaeological Trust for Wates Built Homes Ltd recorded a scatter of mainly Neolithic flints and a number of features of Bronze Age date on this former racecourse adjacent to the Thames. More detailed excavation of the site was subsequently undertaken by P Andrews for Wessex Archaeology, which identified multi-period activity on an area of higher land. Features included: two pits containing late Neolithic pottery; an Early Bronze Age ring ditch containing a central cremation in a collared urn and one possible satellite burial - possibly originally a bell barrow; a Late Bronze Age enclosure associated with postholes and pits, many packed with burnt flint - clearly the site of a settlement; seven cremations, three inurned, of late Iron Age or early Roman date, and a probable corn drier from the same period; six Early Saxon sunken-featured buildings, four of two post construction, one of four post construction and one with irregularly placed posts, and several plot or field boundary ditches from the same period; three probable field ditches of medieval or later date. The line of the parish boundary between East and West Molesey was also tested (SU 142 690) and found to be marked by a ditch containing post-medieval material. (292; see report by P Andrews & A Crockett, Three excavations along the Thames and its tributaries, 1994, Wessex Archaeol rep 10 (1996))
Year: 
1994-5
ID: 
1387
NGR: 
TQ145689
Borough: 
Organisation: