Surrey Archaeological Collections
Surrey Archaeological Society, 2003. (updated 2023) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221. How to cite using this DOI
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- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
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SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
Chapter 2: Chertsey
ROB POULTON and PHIL JONES
Excavation in 1977 at 14-16 London Street, Chertsey provided evidence for the development of buildings on one, or perhaps two, burgage plots from the 12th century through to the 20th century. The earliest structure was represented by postholes and a sill beam trench for a building fronting on to London Street. This was established in the period 1100-1150, and replaced by a similar building in the late 12th or early 13th century. A number of backlands type features were associated with these earliest phases of the site, put such features were absent from the later phases, and were presumably confined to the further backlands, well away from the buildings on the street frontage. No evidence for settlement earlier than the 12th century was found. The evidence was consistent with the establishment of the town in the earlier 12th century, with London Street as one of its principal roads. The earliest recorded grant of a market to the monks of Chertsey Abbey is in 1133 and these findings point strongly to Chertsey being then established as a new town, a commercial venture which may not have been unrelated to the need to fund the extensive rebuilding of the abbey in the years after 1110.
An excavation at the Crown Hotel, on the opposite side of London Street, confirmed the early to mid-12th century beginnings of the town. It also showed that an artificial watercourse marked the limit of the town; this was linked to water features within the abbey precinct, but may also have been one element of a ditch around the new town.
A limited number of finds, more frequent at the Crown Hotel site, suggest Roman settlement nearby. This evidence and that of other finds from the area of the town and abbey points to the area of the Chertsey Beomonds manor house, between the abbey and the town, as the probable location for Roman buildings. The name âChertseyâ hints at early post-Roman settlement hereabouts, and the abbey itself was founded in the late 7th century. Evidence for this period was, however, virtually non-existent and it is clear that any Saxon settlement does not lie in the area so far sampled by excavation.
The finds from the excavations were, for the most part, unexceptional. The material of greatest interest was the pottery from the London Street site. This provided a good sequence of medieval pottery which provides an important link between the sequences in other Surrey towns and the large assemblages from Staines (old Middlesex).
