• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Stuart King

Craftsman, artist, woodturner, and photojournalist

  • Stuart
  • Blog
    • Wildwood Blog
    • Folk art
    • Woodturning
    • Woodworking
    • Local history
    • Marquetry
  • Demos
  • Photos on Flickr
You are here: Home / History / Moated mystery

Moated mystery

Wildwood -NW corner of  mystery Enclosure bank and ditch
Wildwood -NW corner of mystery Enclosure bank and ditch

Within the Wildwood is a small rhomboid shaped bank and ditch, in fact this was the first archaeological feature to be recognised way back in 1982 and reported by two local school boys.

Wildwood -Enclosure bank and ditch section
Wildwood -Enclosure bank and ditch section

The county archaeologist of the time inspected the site and suggested that it was probably a medieval farmstead, and indeed there is some broken clay peg tile on the surface.

Wildwood -Medieval prick spur-
Medieval prick spur- !3th century – fragment
Wildwood  13th century lion passant buckle plate
13th century lion passant buckle plate

 

More important are two classic medieval 13th cent finds, a ‘prick spur’ and a lion passant buckle plate. A number of trenches have been dug but nothing indicating a building has so far been found, but an amount of Roman pottery has been recovered close to the surface and so adding to the mystery of this enclosure.

Iron Slag
Iron Slag
Wildwood find- Julius Caesar Denarius 42BC
Wildwood find- Julius Caesar Denarius 42BC

Two Roman coins have been found very close to the surface just beyond the outer ditch, one of these being a Julius Caesar denarius minted in 42 BC, two years after his death.

Another as yet unexplained feature is what appears to be a dump of iron slag (waste product from the smelting process) in the South East corner. Is this roman or medieval? I have dug a trench across the area recovering a few pieces of rectangular (brick?) shaped chalk and some pot fragments that are waiting identification. Work on this is ongoing.

Share this with your network: Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on PinterestShare on Reddit

Stuart King

I was born in the Buckinghamshire village of Holmer Green in 1942, and played as a child in the local Beech woods. The countryside and the trades and traditions of those that shaped it over centuries have always fascinated me and influenced my work.

I have spent a lifetime researching, recording and collecting anything about the rural past and today am a well-known artist craftsman, demonstrator, international lecturer and photo-journalist.

Primary Sidebar

Automaton in wood by Stuart King

I built an Automaton

An automaton can amuse and entertain using the simplest of mechanical technology and can be made by anyone using basic woodworking skills.

Wild wood Archaeology

The Wildwood is still giving up its secrets, albeit slowly. Exploration started rather late due to a wet spring but continued well into the autumn with each carefully dug and recorded trench revealing a little more of life from prehistory to the medieval period.

Mystery of the Moor—4000 years of woodturning

A Bronze Age burial chamber was discovered on Dartmoor, with the remains of a woman, and four lathe-turned ear studs. So began an archaeological experiment.

  • The BBC TV news visits the Wildwood
  • The Romans were here!
  • Beech Nuts in the wild
  • The Speckled Wood Butterfly
  • Hidden Wildwood Camera
  • Mary Rose — making a sailor’s boxwood hair comb
  • Spirit of the Wildwood
  • Wildwood flowers
  • The Wildwood Blog
  • Tree Felling in the Wildwood

Footer

Search this website

Recent Posts

  • I built an Automaton
  • Wild wood Archaeology
  • Mystery of the Moor—4000 years of woodturning
  • The BBC TV news visits the Wildwood
  • The Romans were here!

Blog

  • Archaeology
  • Automata
  • Folk art
  • Lacemaking
  • Local history
  • Marquetry
  • Wildwood Blog
  • Woodturning
  • Woodworking

Contact Stuart

Email: stuart@stuartking.co.uk
Phone: 01494 712027

This website uses the Maker Pro Theme for WordPress | Privacy Policy