The Archaeology of a Middle Saxon Estate Centre at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire

Oxford Archaeology Monograph number 4 

How did Middle Saxon kings govern their estates, and how did the mechanism of early forms of regional administration work? A spectacular site on the outskirts of Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire has demonstrated that archaeology can add significantly to the debate. Between 1993 and 2003, Oxford Archaeology undertook a major programme of survey and excavation on the outskirts of the town, uncovering extensive remains dating from the Middle Bronze Age to the late medieval period. This volume deals with the Anglo-Saxon and medieval remains, and concentrates on a large 8th-century complex of enclosures and buildings, along with other structures including a large malting oven. It is argued that this represents the infrastructure of a purpose-built tribute centre for a royal estate. The character of the material evidence indicates that wide variety of produce came into complex and was then redistributed rather than consumed on site. The centre administered judicial as well as economic affairs. Evidence of the human remains from an execution site was found - some of it possibly linked to the sudden demise of the tribute centre at the beginning of the 9th century. In addition, the evidence of a well-preserved Reduced Ware pottery manufactory is an indicator of the later role of the area as an industrial estate of the medieval borough of Higham Ferrers.

by Alan Hardy, Bethan Mair Charles and Robert J Williams   ISBN 978-0-904220-43-8   £19.99

The construction of the A1 (M) Darrington to Dishforth DBFO road scheme has provided an important opportunity to investigate landscape development over time in parts of West and North Yorkshire. Over sixty archaeological sites were investigated in advance of and alongside the massive engineering works in one of the largest programmes of archaeological fieldwork seen in the UK. The results of the work will greatly enhance understanding of the archaeology of the magnesian limestone areas of West and North Yorkshire. The most significant results are presented here in this booklet funded by the Highways Agency as part of its commitment to the historic environment and dissemination of work undertaken on its behalf.

by Fraser Brown, Christine Howard-Davis, Mark Brennand, Angela Boyle, Thomas Evans, Sonia O’Connor, Anthony Spence, Richard Heawood and Alan Lupton   £24.95

Archaeology along the A421 Great Barford Bypass  

Bedfordshire Archaeology Monograph number 8

Excavations at nine sites along the route of the Great Barford Bypass provided a rare opportunity to investigate an extensive area of the South Midlands claylands, a landscape that has hitherto seen little archaeological work.

by Jane Timby, Richard Brown, Alan Hardy, Stephen Leech, Cynthia Poole and Leo Webley

ISBN: 978-0-9531531-5-2    £14.95

Later Prehistoric Settlement in the Eastern Chilterns

Bedfordshire Archaeology Monograph number 7

The excavations at Fairfield Park revealed a later Bronze Age hilltop enclosure and an extensive early Iron Age settlement. As one of the first large-scale excavations of an early Iron Age settlement in eastern England, the site makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the later prehistory of the region. In particular, the evidence sheds much light on issues of the organisation of settlement space and practices of ritual deposition. The settlement dates to around the 5th-4th centuries BC, and incorporated enclosures, roundhouses and numerous storage pits. The large artefact assemblages included high status metalwork, pottery with unique forms of decoration, and a set of 49 bone weaving tools from a single pit. Human remains and animal burials had been placed in several other pits.

by Leo Webley, Jane Timby and Martin Wilson  ISBN: 978-0-9531531-3-8    £14.95

The Archaeology of the Upper and Middle Thames Valley

In common with other volumes in the Thames Through Time series, this account of the Thames Valley in the millennium and a half before the Roman conquest seeks to examine change in human society from a thematic point of view. The geographical and chronological framework for this volume is established in Chapters 1 and 2, but thereafter we have tried to get away from the traditional, somewhat artificial pigeon-holes of ‘periods’ ‘ages’ ‘eras’ and 'phases’ to look much harder at how change in human society actually works.

 ISBN 978-0-9549627-8-4   Price £34.99

Archaeological Investigations at Buckingham Palace by Time Team with Oxford Archaeology

by Jonathan Hiller and Richard Brown With contributions by John Cotter, Emma Tetlow, Dawn Irving, Hugo Lamdin-Whymark, John Gater, Julian Munby, Cynthia Poole and Ian Scott

Available to download as pdf documents

The report

The Cover 

Excavations at Claydon Pike and other sites within the Cotswold Water Park

The Cotswold Water Park Project is a landscape study centred upon parts of the Upper Thames Valley within what is now the Cotswold Water Park. The report is based upon four key excavated rural settlements, the most extensive being that at Claydon Pike, which dated primarily from the middle Iron Age to the late Roman period. A number of middle Saxon burials were also found. The other Water Park settlements dated to the late Iron Age-Roman period and the 2nd to 3rd century AD. The report has incorporated the results of these excavations into a wider synthesis of landscape development in the region, including aspects of material culture, environment and the economy. 

Miles, D, Palmer, S, Smith, A and Jones, G P    ISBN    978-0-947816-74-2    £34.99

The Archaeology of the gravel terraces of the upper and middle Thames
The Thames Valley offers one of the richest resources of archaeological data in the country. This volume provides a detailed overview of the late Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods in the Upper and Middle Thames Valley, from the source of the river in Gloucestershire to the start of the tidal zone at Teddington Lock.

Paul Booth, Anne Dodd Mark Robinson and Alex Smith     ISBN: 978-0-9549627-5-3    £34.99