Martin Watts – författare

For thousands of years British fields were ploughed not by horses but by oxen, usually working in teams of two or four, noted for their strength, docility and economy. This is a survey of their use in Britain, their impact upon the countryside, and the relics that can still be found: yokes, bows, shoes, housing and place-names. Martin Watts is curator of the Ryedale Folk Museum in North Yorkshire.

Windmills have been in existence for over 800 years and although only a fraction of those that once ground corn, pumped water and provided power for industry and agriculture, now survive. Among the most important features of these survivors are the variations in design that have come about through their different origins, the use of local materials in their construction, and the influence of millwrights and millers - those who built and worked them - in different parts of the country. Understanding these variations provides important clues to the need to protect and maintain windmills, the continued survival of which allows a fascinating insight into the historic use of renewable energy, the development of engineering, and the processing of grain, for flour and bread, as well as other essential products.

Watermills were once commonplace but, because of their domestic scale and their often picturesque waterside locations, many have now lost their waterwheels and machinery and the buildings have been converted to other uses. Water power has been used for over 2000 years, initially for grinding grain and pumping water, and later for driving processing machinery for a wide variety of industries, which had a far-reaching effect on the economic and social development of Britain from the middle of the eighteenth century. In this new book, watermill expert Martin Watts, author of the Shire book "Water and Wind Power", explains the history and development of watermills as working buildings and the importance of the wider appreciation of the built environment and the use of natural sources of power.

Excavations at Stoke Road, Bishop's Cleeve in 1997 revealed Romano-British agricultural enclosures, evidence of small-scale ironworking, possible structures and a small burial plQt, dating from the 3rd century AD to the last quarter of the 4th century AD. A small post-built structure, probably a temporary shelter or windbreak, was dated by a single sherd of grass-tempere~ pottery to the Saxon period between the 7th and 9th centuries AD. Medieval remains, dating ftom the 12th to 15th century, comprised a possible stock enclosure, garden plots and the rea~ of toft boundaries running perpendicular to the Stoke Road frontage. A small building, with an ~ntemal cobbled surface and an external stone-lined drain, and several waterlogged pits were r~ealed within one toft. The absence ofbiological remains from other medieval rural sites in Gloucestershire to date makes those from the waterlogged pits of particular note. Evidence of small-scale ironworking from the medieval period was also recovered.

Archaeological work in advance of pipeline construction culminated in excavation at four sites on the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border by the Carrant Brook and River Isbourne. Geophysical and cropmark evidence has been used to enhance interpretation of the excavated 'slices' across these sites, revealing a changing pattern of human activity and density of settlement from the Mesoltihic to the medieval period. Early features, including a possible Early Neolithic flat grave, suggest that activity in the area prior to the Middle Iron Age was largely ritual in nature. From the Middle Iron Age onwards substantial settlement enclosures were constructed and remained in use to the end of the 1st century AD, when an increased level of activity saw some enlarged and others abandoned and replaced. All four sites were typical of low status Iron Age and Roman rural settlement in southern England, and all were abandoned by the 4th century AD, but with some evidence for later Anglo-Saxon and medieval activity. These excavations add considerably to our understanding of life and death in the late prehistoric and Roman periods, and of the distribution of archaeological remains of all periods, in an area of known archaeological significance close to the confluence of two major rivers: the Severn and Avon.

Two reports are published in this volume: excavations in 2004 at Henbury School, Bristol (by Derek Evans, Neil Holbrook and E.R. McSloy) and excavations in 2005 at Hewlett Packard, Filton, South Gloucestershire (by Kate Cullen, Neil Holbrook, Martin Watts, Anwen Caffell and Malin Holst). Excavations in 2004 at Henbury School, Bristol, revealed the truncated remains of 21 inhumation burials, making a total of 28 burials recorded at the site since 1982. Of these, 24 burials formed a dispersed cemetery of crouched inhumations, the vast majority of which were aligned north/south and lay on their left sides, with equal numbers of males and females (where sex could be determined) and only one child. Poor bone survival rendered radiocarbon dating invalid, and the cemetery is dated by only one grave good: a finger ring from the mid to late Iron Age. However, the cemetery clearly pre-dated a later rectangular enclosure of very late Iron Age (early 1st-century AD) date. Crouched inhumations from the later Iron Age are known from the region but usually from pits or scattered, so the presence of this cemetery at Henbury is significant. Inhumation cemeteries of this date are rare in Western Britain, although they may have been quite widespread. Despite the dearth of surviving features within the subsequent enclosure, the scale of the ditches suggests it was a farmstead, and environmental evidence hints at both livestock rearing and cereal cultivation. Subsequent Roman activity was clearly intensive, and included a further four burials; although difficult to interpret, it adds to a substantial amount of evidence for Roman activity to the north-west of Bristol. Excavations in 2005 at Hewlett Packard, Filton, revealed the truncated remains of 51 inhumation burials within an isolated post-Roman cemetery. All of the burials were extended and east-west aligned, and were arranged in rows and groups. The tradition of east/west-aligned graves is a common late Roman and post-Roman practice, and these were not necessarily Christian. The largest group comprised 24 burials clustered around a central grave that contained an unusual skeleton and evidence for a distinctive burial rite. Overall there were slightly more females than males (where sex could be determined) and ten children. Adult stature could only be calculated in a few cases; males were generally taller that the early medieval average, females shorter. No grave goods were recovered, but four radiocarbon dates obtained from human bone suggest a period of use sometime between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. There was no evidence for contemporary settlement within the immediate vicinity. Other post-Roman cemeteries that are culturally distinct from Anglo-Saxon influenced burials are known from the region. The absence of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in South Gloucestershire suggests this area remained under British control in the 5th and 6th centuries. The abandonment of this cemetery may have been the result of changes in the religious landscape once the area finally came under Saxon control in the late 7th century.

Two reports are published in this volume: excavations in 2003 at Blenheim Farm, Moreton-in-Marsh (by Jonathan Hart and Mary Alexander) and excavations in 2004 at 21 Church Road, Bishop's Cleeve (by Kate Cullen and Annette Hancocks). Significant remains recorded at Moreton-in-Marsh include a Middle Bronze Age settlement of four post-built circular structures partly enclosed by a segmented ditch, and a series of medieval fields and paddocks with a possible sheepcote structure. A Middle Palaeolithic handaxe was also recovered. The Iron Age and medieval remains recorded at Bishop's Cleeve add to our understanding of past settlement in and around the village, where extensive development has resulted in a number of significant excavations in recent years.

This volume contains the results of four archaeological projects undertaken within the historic suburbs of Bristol. Excavations at nos 26–28 and at nos 55–60 St Thomas Street were both within the 12th-century planned suburb of Redcliffe, just to the southeast of the medieval city. Investigations at Harbourside and at Cabot House, Deanery Road, were undertaken in the medieval district of Billeswick, to the southwest of the city centre and in the vicinity of Bristol Cathedral, formerly the church of the 12th-century St Augustine’s Abbey. However, it is the general lack of evidence for significant development at these sites throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods and up to the beginning of the 18th century that provides a common theme.The scarcity of evidence for medieval and post-medieval development at the Billeswick sites, Cabot House and Harbourside, is unsurprising as both were in the ownership of the abbey or cathedral throughout this period, and were clearly of value as undeveloped land, either as parkland (as at Cabot House) or meadow (i.e. Canon’s Marsh at Harbourside). The dearth of evidence from the St Thomas Street sites in Redcliffe was more unexpected, though this appears to corroborate documentary evidence suggesting that this part of the suburb remained something of a backwater into late post-medieval times. At nos 55–60, there was little evidence for anything more substantial than simple boundaries and timber structures, perhaps used for drying cloth, until the beginning of the 18th century. At nos 26–28 there was no evidence for tenements until late into the post-medieval period and the site may well have been part of a medieval grange. The development of the first substantial buildings at both St Thomas Street sites, of new streets and terraces at Cabot House, and of the ropewalks and later industrial development of Canon’s Marsh at Harbourside, all reflect the rapid expansion and building boom Bristol enjoyed in the 18th century, largely a result of the city’s involvement in the Atlantic trade.

This volume contains the results of two archaeological projects undertaken within the Frome Valley, Gloucestershire. The first describes a Beaker pit and evidence for a Romano-British settlement at Foxes Field, Ebley Road, Stonehouse; the second details the remains of medieval enclosures and a fishpond at Rectory Meadows, Kings Stanley. There is little to connect the two sites, other than them being less than a mile apart, with the site at Foxes Field principally comprising an early Roman-British rural settlement and late Romano-British burial ground; and the site at Rectory Meadows featuring medieval paddocks and a late medieval pond. In fact, with Foxes Field also producing evidence for prehistoric occupation and for a post-medieval path and plough furrows, the two sites largely complement each other in terms of period representation. However, common to both sites is evidence, of just a few fragments of flue tiles, roof tiles and building rubble, to suggest that late Roman villas once stood nearby to both locations. It is the recurring presence of Romano-British remains from archaeological investigations in the Frome valley, often with such evidence for high-status buildings, which demonstrates just how populated this area was during the Roman period in Britain. The burials from Foxes Field, and in particular the close bond that can be implied between the man and woman found in the remarkable ‘double’ grave, serve to remind us that these discoveries are not just ‘relics of a bygone age’, but were once homes to real people who lived, loved and died beside the river Frome.

The development of Cabot Circus shopping centre presented a rare opportunity for the archaeological investigation of a large part of the Broadmead suburb of Bristol. The former presence of a Dominican Friary and later Friends’ Meeting House were already well known, and surviving buildings from both remain within a large open piazza in the west of the new development. Further elements of the friary complex, including remains of the church and two cloisters, were revealed in various archaeological interventions within the area of the former precinct, enabling a reconstruction of the precinct and its environs to be made. The project has also shed light on other aspects of the suburb’s past that were previously less well known. Borehole investigations have allowed the prehistoric environment of the River Frome valley to be characterised, with episodes of small-scale tree clearance from the surrounding slopes during the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age, and the floodplain remaining as mud flats until the development of the Broadmead suburb in the 12th century and the arrival of the Dominicans in the 13th century. River access and the presence of flowing water were important assets for the industrial medieval and later suburb, which was home to tanning, leatherworking, ironworking and cloth industries. The Dissolution saw the demolition of parts of the friary, and by the later 17th century the surviving claustral buildings were occupied by trade guilds and the Quakers had built their first Meeting House.The 18th and 19th centuries were times of enormous expansion for Bristol, when large-scale development occurred, expanding the suburb to the north and east of the former friary. These new developments included industrial premises, saw mills, cabinet works and malthouses, alongside terraces and courts of domestic dwellings. The recovery of a significant assemblage of tobacco pipe bowls and kiln wasters has enabled the development of new typology for Bristol, which should prove invaluable in dating future assemblages recovered from the city.