Surrey Archaeological Society

Community archaeology project, Dig Preston 2011, undertaken as a collaboration by Preston Community Archaeology Project Group, Raven Housing Trust and SCAU. This located and uncovered sections of the manor house of Preston Hawe that stood on the site between the 12th and 15th centuries, and was previously investigated by Brian Hope-Taylor in the 1950s, and evidence of a chapel that served it.

Evaluation by R King of FA revealed no evidence for deposits pre-dating the late post-medieval period. A tile-rich layer encountered in one trench might represent the backfilling of a post-medieval pond suggested to have been located in the area.

Soil stripping, mapping and sampling of four large areas by A Thorne of ASE. Area one revealed a series of linear features and scattered pits and postholes, probably of Roman date and representing agricultural activity. Substantial evidence of post-medieval and modern field systems was also present in both above and below-ground forms. Areas two and three were badly truncated and damaged, but revealed similar evidence for agricultural land management and activity in the Late Iron Age/Early Roman periods. Area four revealed only a single post-medieval linear feature.

Watching brief by A Margatts of ASE carried out during cable trenching works. A single feature, possibly a palaeochannel, was revealed, but little else of note was recorded in what was a limited investigation.

Evaluation by D Hopkinson of ASE. No finds or features of archaeological significance were revealed on a site that appeared to have been horizontally truncated, probably during the construction of the school.

Survey and photographic record of a timber-framed barn within the curtilage of the Grade II listed Oaklands Park Farm.

Evaluation of the area of the proposed boarding house and music school building by N Randall of SCAU revealed sections of intersecting ditches and a small number of pits and postholes. Those features that it was possible to date were of probable 3rd century Roman, and earlier (possibly Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age) origin. Further work is proposed.

Watching brief by N Randall of SCAU revealed a shallow segment of a ditch that could not be dated, but the stratigraphic location suggests it was of some antiquity, and also evidence of the sewage treatment works formerly present on the site.

Watching brief by N Randall of SCAU during ground reduction within an area to the north-west of the Scheduled castle. The excavations for the ground reduction were wholly within made ground comprising building debris probably related to the castle. A magnetometer survey undertaken at the site by D Calow and A Smith of SyAS provided inconclusive results.

Evaluation by S Watson of PCA prior to use of the site as a possible extension to the existing burial ground. A likely Roman ditch and several undated, but possibly associated, postholes were revealed. Late medieval/early post-medieval pottery and ceramic building material were recovered from the subsoil, and a redeposited layer within one of the trenches is presumed to be associated with quarrying activity that map evidence illustrates took place just to the north of the trench.