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Archaeology in Marlowwww.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk

Volume 17 Issue No: 1 February 2018

AiM’s Forthcoming Events

NEWSLETTER

Thursday 15th February at 8pm

Paul Green, of the Risborough Countryside Group, will be showing a film entitled‘Risborough - Origins of Our Settlement’, in the Garden Room, Liston Hall, Chapel Street,Marlow SL7 1DD

This brand new historic film covers Princes Risborough and the surrounding countryside ofthe Saunderton Gap including the Romano-British Bloomery at Bradenham. The film Illus-trates the archaeological discoveries, including exciting recent sites, which reveal the story of4000 years of occupation from the Neolithic, until the end of the Roman period. With enlight-ening contributions from Brett Thorn from Buckinghamshire County Museum, and Chris Ellisfrom Cotswold Archaeology, the film explores the rich local heritage and enables a fresh un-derstanding of our past that, until now, has not been easily seen.

Members of AIM/MAS £3, visitors £4.50There is Free Parking in the adjacent car park after 7pm

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AiM’s Events at a Glance

Thursday 22nd March at 8pmDr Jennifer Foster, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Reading, will be giving a talkentitled ‘Adventures in Experimental Archaeology’, in the Garden Room, Liston Hall, ChapelStreet, Marlow SL7 1DD.

Experimental archaeology looks at all aspects and periods of archaeology, from artefacts tobuildings and landscape. We ask questions of the archaeological data which are difficult to in-terpret from the excavated evidence alone, such as: how long would it take to chop downtrees with a stone axe? What was this building used for? Jennifer will be looking particularly atsome experiments carried out with students at the University of Reading based on excavationsof prehistoric sites. Jennifer will bring some of the artefacts created by the experiments withher to the talk.

Members of AIM/MAS £3, visitors £4.50

Thursday 17th May at 8pm‘King Alfred’ - A talk by Dr Katie Tucker, Visiting Fellow in Osteoarchaeology (MHARP)Department of Archaeology University of Winchester in the Main Hall, Liston Hall, ChapelStreet, Marlow SL7 1DD.This is a Joint talk with MAS, organised by AIM

Members of AIM/MAS £3, visitors £4.50

*Liston Hall’s full address is:Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD.

Free parking is available in the adjacentcar park after 7 pm.

We would like to wish a warmwelcome to Jill Liddiard, the

latest member to join AiM.

Hunt’s of Marlow

For First ClassDIY, Hardware andGarden Supplies

35 Station Road, MarlowTel 01628 488228

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Our annual Christmas Quiz and So-cial event was held on 14 Decem-ber. Five teams took part in a not-too-serious quiz that appropriatelystarted with a round on the subjectof Christmas. Other subjects in-cluded quotations, animals andbirds and the British Isles. The lastround covered archaeology and his-tory.

The contest was very close and thewinner had to be decided by a tie-break question – Who’s last wordswere “Either that wallpaper goes or I do”? A member of the winning team from Marlow Archae-ology answered correctly almost instantly – “Oscar Wilde”.

As well as the quiz, those attending enjoyed mulled wine and various seasonal refreshments. Theevening finished with the usual raffle with most of the prizes generously donated by AIM’s spon-sors (see article on page 4).

Martin Fowkes

Saddle SafariCYCLE SALES & SERVICE

9 Dean Street, Marlow,Bucks, SL7 3AA.Tel. 01628 477020

www.saddlesafari.co.uk

Christmas Quiz and Social Event

Re-CycleOn Friday the 2nd, Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th of March, Saddle Safari will be collectingunwanted bikes at their store for ‘Re-Cycle’ to dispatch to rural communities in Africa.Re-Cycle is a charity which aims to send its 100,000th bike to Africa this year.See www.re-cycle.org (tel no 01206 617685).Bikes donated should be 20” diameter wheeled, or greater, without full suspension and with littlerust, please.See Saddle Safari’s advert, below, for their details.

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Good Recording Practice

A revised guide to good recording practice has recently been issued by English Heritage.It’s full title is “Understanding the Archaeology of Landscapes - A Guide to Good RecordingPractice (Second Edition)”, and it is an updated version of guidance originally produced in2007.

The guide is for all who are involved in archaeology, whether on a professional or amateurlevel. The updates are mainly concerned with changes brought about by recent advancesin technology, plus the addition of some new case studies. The main sections cover survey-ing, photography and drawing.

As the guide has been promoted by the CBA and is freely available as a download, it makessense for AIM to refer to the guide where it can be applied to our projects. Therefore thefieldwork co-ordinators Andy Ford and myself, and John Laker, have downloaded copiesfor future reference and guidance.

Martin Fowkes

A Happy & Successful Year to All OurSponsors!

Another year commences and we are again in debt to our wonderful sponsors, who adver-tise in our newsletters and who help finance our projects and other purchases.

During 2017 we updated our Information Boards to a very high standard and purchased anew lap-top computer to replace its aging and failing predecessor.

So, many thanks to Bridge Dental Services, Hunts Hardware, Saddle Safari, Burgers, plusthe Wednesday Marlow Market and Tony’s Grill, both in Dean Street.

Marlow Market & Tony’s Grill Bar

Dean Street Car Park, Marlow

A small friendly market offering large quantities of English and Foreign fruits andvegetables, along with fresh eggs, with discounts for bulk orders. Every Wednesday,8.00am - 3.00pm

Fresh fish from Grimsby. Every Wednesday, 8.00am - 12.00 noon The best kebabs, burgers and chicken in the UK. Every evening, 5pm - 12 midnight

(2 am Fridays and Saturdays)

All enquiries - Peter Smith 07789-713099

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December Newsletter’s Quiz Question was:

1. What was the name of the post-war company who moved to Marlow in 1953 andusing their expertise in designing, building and operating plastics moulding machinessuccessfully launched a range of innovative ‘costume jewellery’ a short while after?

2. What organic raw material was used to create pearlised products?

The answers are:1. The company’s name was Chelton (Electrostatics) Ltd., who operated then, at theold county cinema in Spittal Square. The moulding machines produced a novel designof bead that could be pushed together to form a string. Beads were made on eightmachines, running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. A range of sizes and colourswere made, all interchangeable.

2. The very popular pearl effect beads were coated with a transparent lacquer whichheld a suspension of fish scales which had been pounded to minute size.

“Poppits” as the beads were called, sold in many countries and major stores. Theywere assembled into necklace lengths by outworkers, a help to the local economy.

Mike Hyde gave the correct answers to the December Quizand has received two tickets for any AIM talk

December’s Quiz Question and Answers

Daniel Defoe’s (here he is again) 1725 account of his “Tour of Great Britain” re-marks on the enormous quantities of wood used in making rims and spokes for

cart wheels, in this area. At this time metal shod wheels were forbidden by law inmany areas including London. It was not too long before iron hoops were sensibly

and economically fitted to wheels.

Where in Marlow, within a few minutes’ walk from the centre of town, can youstill find a wheelplate where the Wheelwright or Smith shod and reshod

wooden wheels?

Prize for the AIM member with the first correct answers:Two tickets to any AIM talk. Email or phone your answer to Ann Pitwell

February’s Quiz Question

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Warren Wood UpdateLast year we carried out some field-walking and surveying in the woodland surrounding our site. This

is to help us gain more understanding of the site by considering it within the context of its surroundings.

It’s possible that there was other nearby activity contemporary with the activity at our site and we may

be able to find earthworks or other signs of this activity.

We plan to do some more of this surveying over the next couple of months so that we can complete

the survey of Warren Wood. If time allows, we may then start surveying the adjacent Horton Wood. This

is not a detailed survey, but we will note the location of anything interesting we find and consider fur-

ther investigation in the future. Father Christmas brought me a GPS receiver so I shall be keen to use

that to plot anything we find. We will need to check any findings with the landowner, as he may have

useful information about them.

We have already found a number of interesting features. As well as the expected saw pits and extrac-

tion pits for gravel and sand, we have found a linear bank attached to our outer enclosure, two banks

enclosing circular areas and an irregular-shaped mound. There are also some interesting groups of large

flint rubble.

We plan to carry out these walks on the Tuesday mornings of February 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th and

March 6th, 13th and 20th. Please let me know if you would like to join us – using my contact details on

page 8.

We will hold our annual fieldwork and research planning meeting at 11am on 4 March in Marlow. All

are welcome to attend, but please inform Andy Ford (details on page 8) if you would like to attend.

In early Spring, we will visit the site with Phil Andrews, our professional adviser from Wessex Archae-

ology, to discuss our strategy for 2018. We will then be able to let you know the dates for our activity on

site this year, and hope many of you will join us.

Martin Fowkes (Field Work Co-ordinator)

You may have already seen other organisations such as BAS, SOAG, OA, CBA, CiFA, commenting withconcern regarding the weakness of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill relating to archaeology. If you want toknow more, go to the CBA website new.archaeologyuk.org and enter “withdrawal bill” into the searchbox. The second item in the search results takes you to a page that also contains a link to the Rescueletter. Although the Rescue letter that is mentioned in the joint briefing has been closed for new signa-tures, it is still also useful to read to understand the concerns they have. It seems that although Amend-ment 67 was defeated, it is the start of a process. You may wish to email or write a letter to your MPabout this, to register your views.

EU (Withdrawal) Bill relating to Archaeology

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Other Events of interestOther Organisations’Events and Resources

Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society(CVAHS)Friday 16th February 8pm 2018“The Home Front in Buckinghamshire in WWI”A talk by Anne Marshall, CVAHSHow civilians in Buckinghamshire helped to win thewar, featuring the stories of named individualsLowndes Room, Chesham Town Hall, CheshamVisitors £4 www.cvahs.org.uk

Berkshire Archaeological SocietySaturday 17th February 2.00 pm for 2.30 pm“Update from Horton Quarry”A talk by Alistair BarclayThe RISC Centre, London Street,Reading, RG1 4PS. 01189 586692

Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society – ActiveArchaeology GroupTuesday 20th February 7.30pm“Finding Archaeology through the Landscape andMaps”A practical session led by Sandy Kidd of Historic Eng-landBucks County Museum,Church Street, Aylesbury, HP20 2QP£1 donation for refreshmentshttp://www.bucksas.org.uk/aag.html

SOAG (South Oxfordshire Archaeological Group)Thursday 22nd February 7.30 for 7.45 pm“Excavations at St Aldate's, Oxford”Lecture by Carl Champness (Oxford Archaeology)Goring Heath Goring Heath Parish Hall, WhitchurchHill, RG8 7NYFree, donations accepted. events@soagarch.org.uk

Hedgerley Historical SocietySaturday 24th February 8pm“Global Conquest: How Railways took over theworld” A talk by Christian WolmarHedgerley Memorial Hall, Kiln Lane, Hedgerley, SL23UZ. Tickets £5, includes refreshments01753 647187 / jdlovelock@btinternet.com

Other Events of interestThis is the information available to us at the time of publication, but weadvise you to check as this may have changed since then.

Buckinghamshire Archaeological SocietySaturday 10th March 2.30pm“The History of Thame” A talk by Peter GullandBucks County Museum,Church Street, Aylesbury, HP20 2QPhttp://www.bucksas.org.uk/lectures.html

Marlow Museum - Sundays 2pm – 4pmCurrent Exhibitions:“Marlow Then and Now” and“Marlow Remembers WW1” display is currently onthe Battle of PasschendaelePeacock Room, Court Garden Leisure CentreHigginson Park, Pound Lane, Marlow SL7 2AEhttp://www.marlowmuseum.uk/

WOODLAND ARCHAEOLOGY - Training Workshopswith John MorrisFriday 23 March 2018 10:00 to 16:00Venue: Pigotts Wood, North Dean, Bucks, HP14 4NF(about 4 miles north of High Wycombe, on the roadto Speen from Hughenden Valley). Grid ref SU853990This popular one day course will include an illus-trated talk, old maps, a guided woodland visit to seethe many features found in Pigotts Wood, and achance to explore the wood in groups.Please bring:- Strong footwear and warm/wetweather clothing & Packed lunch (tea & coffee pro-vided)Price: £35 per person (£50 for businesses)Booking is essential - Phone: 01844 355503 orEmail: woodlands@chilternsaonb.org

The following is one of the events marking the 170thAnniversary of the Buckinghamshire ArchaeologicalSociety

Buckinghamshire Archaeological SocietySaturday 28th April 2.30pm‘Buckinghamshire’s Saxon Prince: the burial atTaplow.’ - Speaker Leslie WebsterTrinity United Reform Church,London Road, High Wycombe HP11 1BJ.Free entry. Supported by the High Wycombe Society.

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AiM Committee MeetingsFuture AiM Committee Meetings

7.30pm Tuesday the 27th of February at 3 Penington Rd, Beaconsfield, HP9 1ET7.30pm Wednesday the 11th of April at 9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT

All members are welcome to attend all AiM meetings.

Please telephone a committee member in advance to confirm date and venue.

AiM Committee Members

Vice-Chairman Martin Fowkes88 Blind Lane, Bourne End, SL8 5LD01628 530832 - m88fowkes@gmail.com

Treasurer Ann Pitwell9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT01628 481792 - annpitwell@thamesinternet.com

Secretary John Laker9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT01628 481792 - johnlaker@thamesinternet.com

Membership Secretary Nicky Penderedc/o 9 Spinfield Lane, Marlow, SL7 2JT

Newsletter Compiler Jessica Smalljfs25@kent.ac.uk

Joint Field Work Co-ordinators01628 481141 - andyford.marlow@btinternet.com Andy Ford01628 530832 - m88fowkes@gmail.com Martin Fowkes

Committee Members01494 675195 - jabirkett@btinternet.com Tony Birkett01494 533669 - nicktillyer@yahoo.co.uk Beverley Howard

AiM

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