Surrey Archaeological Collections 101

In 1914 Leopold Salomons purchased 230 acres on Box Hill from the Hope Settled Estates and gave it to the National Trust to secure public access to recreational open space. There were formidable complexities in the negotiations for this gift to the nation, which Salomons overcame with the support of Sir Robert Hunter, Lord Farrer and Lawrence Chubb. The sale notices on the slopes of Box Hill were the culmination of twenty years of threatened ‘enclosure’, which Robert Louis Stevenson had noted with dismay in 1894 in Samoa. Deepdene was the principal seat of the encumbered Hope Settled Estates, whose life tenant, Lord Francis Hope, was twice bankrupt in 1894 and 1902. The private tradition of Hope liberality enabled a fragile public access to parts of Box Hill, which became a case study of exemption from Undeveloped Land Duty during the People’s Budget. But by 1913 this ‘unspoiled land’ was the proposed site of building leases. This article uses estate, personal and amenity archival material held by the Surrey History Centre, University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections and National Trust. In the context of the political and social history of the Land Question in England, it evaluates the relationship between the preservation of open country and the prerogatives of private landownership on the most popular hill in Surrey, as the National Trust began to protect places of natural beauty in perpetuity. Locally rooted voluntary social action in the form of the Salomons Trust Deed, in effect practical liberalism, saved the summit and provided a keystone for the acquisition of the remainder of Box Hill after the Great War.

Archaeological excavations at the site known as The Fletcherites, on the campus of Charterhouse School, Godalming, took place in September and October 2014. The site is in an area that is likely to have been attractive for prehistoric activity; situated on a high promontory overlooking the river Wey and its tributaries c 330m to the south. Evidence for Middle Iron Age activity was attested by the presence of two circular pits initially utilised for storage and reused for the deposition of hearth waste. Later features include a linear gully and a crushed tile and brick path, which are evidence of post-medieval garden activity. A dog burial recorded on site remains undated but is assumed to be a post-medieval or modern feature.

Anne Forster died on 18 January 1592 (New Style) and was buried in the chancel of St George’s church, Crowhurst, beneath an elaborately decorated iron plate. Following her burial a number of different firebacks were cast, each bearing the identical memorial inscription panel that identifies her grave. These have been found at various locations, and this paper considers the surviving examples, the likely motive behind their manufacture, and the possible connections with Anne Forster and her family that occasioned their distribution.

Mounds on Reigate Heath scheduled as prehistoric burial mounds, and one other potential barrow, have been subjected to analytical survey and their landscape context examined. Most of the mounds were used for planting groups of pine trees in the early 19th century and several are considered to have been enhanced at that time. Assuming that all the mounds are prehistoric in origin they form a linear cemetery occupying a spur between the multiple sources of two streams; this type of location is increasingly recognised in the Rother valley in West Sussex and the Upper Wey valley in south-west Surrey.

Excavation by the late Dennis Turner prior to a development close to the parish church in Carshalton recovered worked flint, including an important collection of microliths from the Mesolithic period, and pottery dating from Early Neolithic through to the medieval period. Owing to extensive disturbance few features were located and this paper primarily comprises a report of the finds assemblage.