| Title: |
Archaeological Field Evaluation The Old Foundry 47 Friday Street Henley-on-Thames Oxfordshire RG9 1AN |
| Series: |
Border Archaeology unpublished report series
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| Downloads: |
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borderar1-503275_185041.pdf (4 MB)
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| Licence Type: |
ADS Terms of Use and Access
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| DOI |
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| Publication Type: |
Report (in Series)
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| Abstract: |
Four trenches were excavated using a mechanical excavator with a 1.2m wide toothless ditching bucket operating under archaeological supervision. Where surfacing materials allowed, the trenches were widened to ensure 1.6m widths. Excavation continued to the natural gravels as no archaeological features were encountered. The AFE revealed evidence for the significant accumulation of Medieval and/or Post-medieval garden soils, particularly towards the rear of the plot. This correlates with documentary evidence of town centre burgage plots and suggests that – for a substantial length of time – the land at 47 Friday Street was solely domestic. Evidence of the use of the site for industrial and quasi-industrial purposes is limited. However, it is clear that considerable demolition took place towards the front of the plot in the early modern and/or modern periods and this very effectively erased the physical remnants of the site’s existence as a tannery and forge.
The dating of pottery recovered from the buried garden soil in Trench 003 returned a mid 16th Century date and it is plausible this represents a TPQ for the cessation of garden soil build-up across the site. The homogeneity of the Medieval/Post-medieval garden soils may be due to prior continual reworking over time and this would go some way to explain the small concentrated area of finds in Trench 001, where there were no apparent context distinctions. However, a counterpoint to this suggestion is the relative lack of animal bone and the stark absence of pottery, although larger pieces of waste and inorganic waste may have been disposed of elsewhere.
The reutilised possible boiler located at the NE end of Trench 002 may be the only remainder from the former industrial occupation of the site. The absence of tannery and metalworking structural archaeology is unfortunate but not remarkable, as it is possible that all industrial remains were swept into pits (such as that seen in Trench 002) during the large-scale demolition and clearance of the site; although it should be noted that no slag or metalworking debris such as hammerscale was noted in the soils to support this theory.
The results of the AFE suggest a site that was largely domestically occupied, with the front of the plot later converted for industrial use while the rear of the plot remained untouched. Following the industrial usage, the front of the plot appears to have been extensively cleared and domestic habitation returned. |
| Author: |
L Clark
A Bunce
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| Publisher: |
Border Archaeology Ltd
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| Year of Publication: |
2021
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| Locations: |
| District: |
South Oxfordshire |
| Parish: |
Henley-on-Thames |
| Country: |
England |
| County: |
Oxfordshire |
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Grid Reference: 476227, 182563 (Easting, Northing)
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| OASIS Id: |
borderar1-503275 |
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| Note: |
This report was uploaded to the OASIS system by the named Publisher. The report has been transferred into the ADS Library for public access and to facilitate future research.
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| Created Date: |
20 May 2022 |
