Sussex Archaeological Collections 143

Research excavations were conducted of colluvium in the dry valley of Ashcombe Bottom to the west of Lewes. Colluvial deposits in the centre of the valley were only 1.5 m thick but contained a buried soil on which was a series of parallel ard marks, which were confirmed by soil micromorphological analysis and indicated prehistoric tillage. The colluvium contained a number of sherds of Beaker pottery and at least twenty-six Beaker vessels were represented, indicating a settlement site rather than a funerary monument. Environmental analysis of the sediment provides a broad history of the landscape from the Neolithic period to Middle Bronze Age and spans the construction and disuse of the causewayed enclosure at Offham, and the activity associated with the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age flint scatters recorded in the Houndean--Ashcombe area. The excavation results provide settlement and environmental data which contribute to understanding of the Early Bronze Age prehistoric occupation and use of the Sussex Downs. Includes separately authored contributions on

Report on a programme of archaeological investigations undertaken in 2001 in advance of car park development in the North-West Zone of Gatwick Airport. The investigations culminated in the excavation of a partially enclosed Late Bronze Age settlement lying on the edge of the River Mole floodplain. Pollen, plant and insect remains indicated that the settlement occupied an area of previously cleared forest and woodland. An open landscape of grassland floodplain with scattered clumps of trees provided browsing and grazing for domestic animals. It is suggested that tillage occurred on the higher ground beyond the floodplain. The settlement developed and the landscape was cleared for pasture. The floodplain became drier, possibly because of modification and management of the watercourses and the increasing intensity in land-use. The excavation has demonstrated the archaeological and palaeo-environmental potential of the Mole Valley as it cuts through the Weald. Includes separately authored contributions on

Excavations at Norton in Bishopstone, East Sussex, revealed a pit complex, a working hollow, a grave, a stove filled with burnt stones, a midden and a horizontal terrace of Middle Iron Age date. The evidence suggests, in addition, that a non post-built house may have been located within the area of the excavation. Traces of Late Iron Age activity were also found. Among the finds made were two chronologically sequential groups of saucepan pottery, a potin coin (from a Middle Iron Age context), a sherd of Campanian amphora, and an assemblage of non-local stone. The understanding of Iron Age Norton that these discoveries make possible clarifies the county's relationship to the period outside Sussex, and to other periods within it. Includes separately authored contributions on

From a re-examination of the possible courses of the London to Brighton Roman road through the South Downs it is concluded that it passed to Copperas Gap, on the Portslade/Aldrington coast. Other proposed Roman roads of the Portslade/Aldrington area are also found to have probably ended there. The existence of a Roman port at Copperas Gap is therefore suggested, and some evidence in support of this is presented, from the pattern of Roman remains about the Gap, and the apparent significance of the locality in Saxon times. The region's Roman roads generally are discussed in the light of the port's supposed existence. The question of whether the area might be important for the Saxon conquest of Sussex is raised. Copperas Gap was also found to be the probable site of the recent lost maritime centre of West Aldrington, and a brief account of this is given, including the observation that it could be the place from which Charles II sailed in his escape to France in 1651.

In advance of its recent redevelopment, The Marlipins -- New Shoreham's sole remaining known medieval vernacular building and a local museum since the 1920s -- was subjected to a programme of archaeological survey and recording which has shed new light on its constructional history. Emphasis is placed on integrating new details relating to the earliest (twelfth-century) phase of the building, including the tree-ring dates returned by the heavy timber joists spanning the ground floor, which must now have a strong claim to be the earliest in-situ survivals of domestic structural timber-work in Sussex, and the buried foundations for a previously unknown north wall incorporating a rectangular stone-lined pit -- interpreted as the subterranean remnant of a first-floor garderobe. In addition to refining the chronology of its constituent phases, the opportunity has been taken to reassess the likely function of the building as originally intended. A wider archaeological context for the historic range was provided by the results of an adjoining excavation which uncovered the footings for a medieval timber building or buildings, a group of medieval and post-medieval pits and foundations for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century workshops and sheds. Finds from this sequence included the first closely-dated assemblages of post-medieval pottery and glass to have been recovered from the town. Includes an online supplement and separately authored contributions on

The article seeks to establish the origins of two early-eighteenth-century buildings in the village of Charlton, West Sussex. These are the `Great Room' or `Dome' (the first Fox Hall), which no longer stands, and the Duke of Richmond's hunting-lodge (the second Fox Hall), which survives. The paper is a development on a short article published in Country Life on 17 January 2002, which sought to place the hunting-lodge in context and to attribute it to the architect Roger Morris. The article presented here additionally surveys all known details of the Great Room, or first Fox Hall, an early exercise by the great scholar-patron Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington. It also investigates the question of its location. Both buildings are looked at within the context of the early history of hunting, of the patronage of the first two Dukes of Richmond, and of the Palladian movement in architecture. Use is made of the unpublished notes prepared by the late Charlotte Haslam for the Landmark Trust, together with a fresh look at maps in the West Sussex Record Office, some of which have been redated. The article thus draws together previous discussion about the two buildings, combining with new information to give a picture of how the two buildings related to each other.